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33719	Drugged travelers awaken in ice-filled bathtubs only to discover one of their kidneys has been harvested by organ thieves.	The legend of unwary travellers drugged and used as unwilling kidney donors by bands of organ thieves.	false	Horrors, Grave Robbery, organ theft	Late January 1997 saw the e-mailed warning “Travellers Beware! !” take the Internet by storm. The story went that a well-financed, highly organized gang operating in various major U.S. cities was drugging business travelers and making off with their kidneys to sell on the organ transplant black market. Very scary stuff indeed. Added to the bottom of what appeared to be the original e-mail were further testimonials from others claiming it was also happening in their part of the country. Breathtakingly frightening, eh? And not a word of truth to it. The majority of people who had this pass through their hands failed to realize this was but an urban legend, an apocryphal tale told and re-told. Moreover, it was an urban legend that had been around at least since 1991. As part of the effort to dispel belief in this nonsense, the National Kidney Foundation has asked any individual who claims to have had his or her kidneys illegally removed to step forward and contact them. So far no one’s showed up. Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand mentions in The Baby Train that he first heard this horrific story in early 1991. Very shortly thereafter he was swamped by it coming in from every direction, told as happening in various large cities. In this earlier incarnation, friends discover the victim either in his blood-soaked hotel bed, on the floor, or propped up against the side of a building. It’s only at the hospital that the grim “truth” of the missing organ becomes known. By 1995-96 a couple of interesting little twists were added to the basic story — the victim was now being left in a bathtub full of ice, the “friends” seemingly disappeared, and the “If you want to live, call 911” message became firmly woven into the fabric of this tale. The traveler was now clearly on his own, his fate solely in his own hands. (A much scarier story that way, don’t you think?) Yet another noteworthy change saw the businessman version of the legend seemingly localize to Las Vegas. No longer told as happening in Your Town, USA, this flavor of the myth appeared to have taken up permanent residence in Sin City, the place where Bad Things Happen To The Unwary (especially “the unwary” who were seen as having deservedly brought it upon themselves, married men intent upon getting up to some play-for-pay hanky-panky). In this “Las Vegas” version, the man was drugged in his hotel room by the very woman he’d brought up there with him, the ubiquitous Vegas hooker. (A “college student” version appeared on the Internet in May 1996. By the fall of that year it had became tangled around both the University of Texas at Austin’s newspaper, the Daily Texan and someone who worked there as an administrative assistant who came to be misidentified as the editor of that paper in this much-forwarded e-mail. See our Organ Nicked: Vegetable page for more about this version and how it came to be associated with Kimm Antell. Or click through the denial from the Daily Texan about its ever having run this story.) 1997 saw the “New Orleans” version kick-start what had previously been stuck in Las Vegas and re-attribute it to a handful of large cities, New Orleans and Houston among them. Changes to the storyline made the victim more sympathetic by casting him as a weary business traveler who’d paused for a well-earned drink at the end of the day only to be slipped a mickey in the hotel bar. No longer furtively bringing a hooker back to his room for extramarital hijinks but instead sitting peaceably in a public place, his fate becomes that much more terrifying in that by implication we can now see this happening to us. There is no 100% reliable way to pinpoint where an urban legend comes from, what (if any) “true life” event kicks it off. Birth records aren’t kept for urban legends, and the pursuit of the debunker boils down to working backwards in an attempt to trace the oft-times tenuous, oft-times non-existent, thread from where it now is back to where it once was. All of this is by way of introduction to my theory on the origins of this legend. The plot of the 2 April 1991 episode of the TV show Law and Order (titled “Sonata for Solo Organ”) featured the theft of a kidney. Law and Order is a story-driven hour-long drama that prides itself in taking its script ideas from real-life contemporary news. In this case, the writer said he’d heard this tale from a friend, and the friend had assured him it came from the pages of a newspaper. Yet no one could find that article. And then I found the following. These horrific claims made by a Turkish man who’d been brought to Britain to sell a kidney were excerpted from a 8 December 1989 Reuters wire report: Kurdish Moslem Ahmet Koc, 34, said through an interpreter he had been lured to Britain last year with the promise of a job by Turkish businessmen who told him he would need a medical check.He went to a hospital which he thought was a hotel and allowed himself to be given an injection which he believed was a blood test. When he came round he was told his appendix had been taken out. It was only three days later that he was told his kidney had been removed and transplanted into another patient in the hospital but that he would be paid a lot of money for it. Well, there’s news and there’s news. Far from being a victim, Koc was one of a willing consignment of four Turks who sold a kidney that day. The removals/transplants took place in Britain in 1988, and in January 1989 Koc went on record in Turkey with his tale of organ abduction, likely in an effort to get the organ brokers who’d handled his case into trouble with Turkish authorities. (Which he succeeded in doing — one of the two brothers who’d arranged the sale was charged in January 1989 and sentenced to two years in jail in May of that year as a result of Koc’s testimony. Koc received a two-year suspended sentence for his part in the illegal sale.) Yet it was not until December 1989 that Koc’s concocted story about being an unwitting victim became all the rage in the British press for it was then he was called upon by a General Medical Council’s disciplinary hearing to testify in England against the doctors involved. His testimony — which included his horrific tale about waking up dazed and confused in a hospital he thought was a hotel — was widely reported at that time. Justice was eventually served, and Koc’s advertisement in a Turkish newspaper offering to sell one of his kidneys came to light. Even so, his story made quite the splash at the time it hit the papers. Consider how you would react to the following, from the 9 December 1989 Daily Telegraph: Mr. Koc said he was taken to the hospital by two brothers, Ata Nur and Tunc Kunter, who have been described to the hearing as kidney brokers. He said he did not see any doctors or nurses when he arrived because he was taken straight into a lift and shown to a luxurious room with a couch, television, wardrobe and bed. “They drove me to a building which I thought was a hotel. I now know it as the Humana. I had a meal and they (the Kunters) left and I woke up in the morning.” A woman “wearing something white like a nurse” came in and after asking him to sign a document returned with a syringe in her hand. “I was told they were going to take some more blood from me,” he said. The next thing he knew was when he awoke in a room with bottles on the wall fixed with cables and he had a very wide bandage around his waist, which was painful. The residue of this December 1989 media splash might well have been what the Law and Order writer’s friend remembered. It might also have been what kicked off the story of the unwary traveler, the one about a fella who was lured back to his hotel room and the next day woke up with one less kidney than when he’d started out. Certainly this media circus would have at least set in place the major themes of the legend: the unknowing victim, the hotel room, the waking up in confusion and pain the next day. It takes but little re-working of the details to turn it into a quite recognizable early form of this legend. As mentioned earlier, the legend has changed from its early days and now includes such up-to-date frills as instructions to call 911 and e-mail exhortations to immediately pass this warning along. It’s the panic nature of scarelore that speeds it along at such a breathtaking rate — though a story about a dog and peanut butter might shock one into wondering what this world is coming to, it just doesn’t bring with it the same compelling incentive to protect those you care about by getting this information to them right away. As such, dog-and-peanut-butter stories get told (or e-mailed) when one has the time . . . whereas when it’s scarelore one makes the time. This panic-stricken reaction takes its toll, and the 1997 New Orleans romp through cyberspace well demonstrates it. The New Orleans Police Department received more than a hundred calls about this legend. To combat the misinformation they put up a web page specifically denying this rumor, and fielding calls about the “crisis” became yet another drain upon their manpower. It’s not just the New Orleans Police Department that was driven crazy by the 1997 outbreak. In 11 February 1997 Houston Chronicle article, John Makeig wrote: This message, signed by an Austin man identified as an “operations engineering manager,” evidently has been sent via faxes and Internet messages to numerous corporations and organizations nationwide. But, said police and firefighters in Houston and New Orleans, it is utter nonsense. The Austin man, whose name and phone numbers are affixed to the bottom of the “Travelers Beware!” message, would certainly agree. Call his number nowadays and you’ll get this recorded message: “If you’re calling about the story on the Internet, I did not place it.” The best explanation we can offer as to why this bit of scarelore has gained, and kept, its popularity, has to do with the growing familiarity of the general population with organ transplants. As these procedures have become more a part of the world we live in, so has awareness of the problems associated to them. The stark reality is that there are more people in need of transplantable organs than there are organs to go around. Knowing that, it’s reasonable to believe wild stories of kidneys being hijacked from the unwary. Standing in the shoes of someone desperate for this procedure, wouldn’t you be willing to pay just about anything to secure what you needed to keep on living? And if you were willing to pay whatever it cost, wouldn’t it be reasonable to believe that an entire class of criminals exists just to service this lucrative business? As many urban legends do, this one plays upon our fears. Fear of travelling to distant cities and thus being out of our element. Fear of being ill and desperate. And, most of all, fear of becoming the victim of random crime. We picture that man waking up in a bathtub filled with ice, and we see ourselves in his place. It’s not a nice picture. Update: In 1995, India’s parliament passed a bill limiting organ donations to close relatives and imposing prison terms of up to seven years for selling an organ. But in Uttar Pradesh and a string of other states where the law has not been ratified by state legislatures, middlemen continue to track poor people in need of quick money and coax them to operating tables. In such instances, these paid donors receive about $1,000, more than a year’s salary for a rural Indian laborer. Those receiving the stolen kidneys typically pay about $6,000 to $10,000 for the organ and the transplant operation. Still, news accounts from India occasionally surface reporting claims that doctors have been arrested for stealing kidneys (either through trickery or force) from unsuspecting citizens. Such claims are difficult to evaluate given the typical lack of any follow-ups in the Western press, but other sources suggest the usual result is that charges are dropped or reduced when investigations determine that the claimants entered into voluntary agreements to sell their kidneys (and later leveled criminal accusations because they regretted their decisions or were disgruntled with the size of the payments they had received). In May 1998 three surgeons and seven others at the Noida Medicare Center in Uttar Pradesh, India were arrested for tricking indigents out of their kidneys. According to charges made against them, members of this group approached various unemployed men, holding out the promise of jobs and offering to connect them with those doing the hiring. Victims were advised that a medical examination was required; they submitted and then were told something correctable by a small operation had turned up in the exam. During the operation and unknown to the patients, one of their kidneys would be removed for resale. Afterwards, nothing further would come of the job offer. In January 2008, several people were arrested in the Indian city of Gurgaon for allegedly luring hundreds of laborers to an underground medical facility in that area by promising them jobs, then duping or forcing them into “donating” their kidneys for transplant into wealthy clients. However, police later determined that the primary complainant’s kidneys were both intact. Sightings: In an episode of the television drama Law & Order (“Sonata for Solo Organ,” original air date 2 April 1991, police in Central Park discover a man whose kidney had been removed without his knowledge: In that same episode, a doctor explains to detectives why a purloined kidney is of no use in the United States: This legend also shows up as the plot of the 1993 movie The Harvest. You’ll also find it in the 1998 Will Christopher Baer novel Kiss Me, Judas, and it makes a gruesome appearance in the 1998 slasher classic Urban Legend. The 2001 film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back includes a sequence during which one of the lead characters dreams he wakes up in a tub of ice after selling one of his kidneys. The 6 February 2006 episode of the TV series Las Vegas (titled “Urban Legends”) references this legend when Danny and Mike enter one of the Montecito’s hotel rooms to discover a man missing a kidney lying in a bathtub full of ice.
15674	"$29 is what ""families on SNAP (i.e. food stamps) have to live on for a week."	"Paltrow pointed to $29 worth of groceries as what ""families on SNAP (i.e. food stamps) have to live on for a week."" It’s clear Paltrow is trying to do a good thing. But her specific claim falls short. SNAP is not intended to feed families by itself. It is designed to help people with low incomes meet a government-approved budget for food by providing a benefit that helps them get there, sometimes in conjunction with other sources of meals, such as school food programs, and financial support. The government expects SNAP beneficiaries to spend 30 percent of their own income on food. That expectation is what makes the $29 a week figure look so low. A single person with no income could receive about $48 a week in SNAP benefits (65 percent more than Paltrow stated) and would not factor in other types of government support."	false	Federal Budget, PunditFact, Gwyneth Paltrow,	"Love or loathe Gwyneth Paltrow, her experiment buying groceries on a food stamp budget stirred up a lot of awareness about the nation’s anti-hunger programs. Which, you know, was kind of the point. Paltrow, a health-conscious actress who prefers to cook with fresh ingredients, accepted a challenge from celebrity chef Mario Batali to live on food stamps for a week and draw attention to the Food Bank for New York City earlier this month. Paltrow shared a photo of her grocery haul in an April 9 tweet, writing, ""This is what $29 gets you at the grocery store—what families on SNAP (i.e. food stamps) have to live on for a week."" The Internet quickly balked at her choices, particularly the green garnishes that do little to stave hunger — seven limes, really? But few people paid attention to whether the budget she shared is actually accurate or typical of a family that needs assistance. A reader saw the figure in a CNN story about Paltrow’s challenge, which she quit after four days, and asked us to look into it. If you want to know what Paltrow ended up cooking from her basket, check out her GOOP recipes for black bean taquitos and sweet potato saute served with kale, brown rice and a poached egg. If you want to know what’s wrong about her $29 SNAP budget, keep reading. SNAP in a snap The key to understanding SNAP starts with its full name — Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The ""Supplemental"" is key because SNAP is not designed to provide low-income families with all the money they need to eat every single meal. It’s supposed to supplement grocery spending, not replace it. SNAP is one of the government’s biggest welfare programs, costing about $70 billion in 2014. Demand for SNAP grew over the course of the recession, reaching a high of more than 47 million beneficiaries in 23 million households. Program costs and payouts have come down amid the economic recovery. To receive SNAP benefits, a person must: Show assets less than $2,250; Report gross monthly income at or below 130 of the federal poverty line; Report net monthly income at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty line. How much a person or household receives depends on how much income they make and how big the household is. The sliding scale, which comes with monthly maximums, emphasizes how SNAP is indeed supplemental, and how Paltrow’s claim is wanting. Say a household of four qualifies for SNAP with a $1,136 net monthly income. While the maximum SNAP benefit is $649 a month, that household would receive only $308 a month (about $19 per person, per week), according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In this case, the USDA assumes the household would spend an additional $341 of their own money (30 percent of their monthly income) on food. The case of the person with no net income So the system is set up as supplemental food assistance. But what about people who have no income? They would get more SNAP money. A single person could receive $194 a month (about $48 a week). SNAP benefits for a household of four would be closer to $40 a week. Neither number is near Paltrow’s $29 a week figure. That figure is the amount of SNAP benefits for the average individual (all benefits divided by all people). The trouble is that calculation misses the point that SNAP is supposed to supplement people’s food budget, does not account for the fact that people with no net income receive more government support, and ignores other government programs that provide food aid. Many families bring in other income or benefits that complete the overall budget for food, said Greg Mills, who studies SNAP policy at the Urban Institute think tank. ""Households on food stamps do typically receive some other benefits from the government, but it may be limited,"" he said. For low-income women who are pregnant or have infants, they may also utilize another USDA supplemental program for women, infants and children (WIC). School programs offer free and reduced breakfast and lunch to children (48.1 percent of all students were eligible for free or reduced lunch in the 2010-11 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, which is part of the U.S. Department of Education). D.C. public schools also offer after-school snacks and supper, Mills said. In 2013, 24 percent of SNAP households had Social Security income, 7 percent received welfare payments under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and 4 percent received unemployment assistance. Paltrow, whose ""conscious uncoupling"" from musician husband Chris Martin previously ignited the Internet, has two children, Moses and Apple. If we consider an alternate reality in which Paltrow applied for benefits for herself and her children, the average monthly benefit for a household with children may provide a more useful look than a per-person figure. In 2013, the average monthly benefit for a household with children was $410, or $95 a week. In reality, Paltrow abandoned the $29 a week challenge after four days. Our ruling Paltrow pointed to $29 worth of groceries as what ""families on SNAP (i.e. food stamps) have to live on for a week."" It’s clear Paltrow is trying to do a good thing. But her specific claim falls short. SNAP is not intended to feed families by itself. It is designed to help people with low incomes meet a government-approved budget for food by providing a benefit that helps them get there, sometimes in conjunction with other sources of meals, such as school food programs, and financial support. The government expects SNAP beneficiaries to spend 30 percent of their own income on food. That expectation is what makes the $29 a week figure look so low. A single person with no income could receive about $48 a week in SNAP benefits (65 percent more than Paltrow stated) and would not factor in other types of government support."
10812	Platelet rich plasma therapy	"This story, about what’s called ""platelet rich plasma therapy"" for unspecified forms of knee pain, came up short on almost all of our criteria. It failed to emphasize the very preliminary nature of the research, while linking the approach to the estimate that ""every year Americans make 15 million visits to doctors because of knee pain"" and that this ""new, non-surgical treatment could get you up and running in record time."" It failed to give any insight about the evidence gathered so far, offering only the anecdotal experience of a fit young athlete. The story didn’t address how unlikely it is that the baby boom generation’s creaky joints would experience relief on the timetable the young athlete experienced. In fact, again, the story lead-in told viewers this might ""get you up and running in record time."" There is no evidence reported to support that statement – only one anecdote. There was no discussion of costs of the approach, not even a projection of future clinical costs. If such a preliminary experimental approach is ready for primetime TV, then it should be ready for even a preliminary discussion of what this approach will cost. And the story didn’t explain how this experimental approach might compare with other surgical or nonsurgical alternatives for various forms of knee pain, including the torn knee ligament profiled in the athlete’s story. Of course, that’s the problem with reporting on such experimental approaches at such an early phase: such comparisons are difficult to make until the facts and the data are in hand. The same story could have been done responsibly, and in an interesting manner, if it had only emphasized the very preliminary nature of the work, instead of posing one ideal subject’s experience as something that might be attained by millions of Americans, including those much older in the baby boom generation."	false		"No mention of costs, nor any projection of possible future clinical costs. If such a preliminary experimental approach is ready for primetime TV, then it should be ready for even a preliminary discussion of what this approach will cost. The story uses only an elite athlete’s impressive recovery time as an example, yet it frames the story as one that may be ready to move beyond the world of elite athletes to the world of knee pain that accounts for 15 million American visits to doctors each year. The young man’s experience may not be representative of anyone else who has this procedure, something that won’t be known until clinical trials are completed. This should have been a point of emphasis. The story only said"" ""reported side effects were minor. The biggest complaint so far? Needles hurt."" Let viewers judge which side effects were minor by naming them and listing how often they happened. Even more important, though, the story should have emphasized that really nothing can be said about side effects when the very preliminary experimental approach is still undergoing clinical trials. The story was completely devoid of evidence, but included only the anecdotes of one physician and one patient. The anchor lead-in – the ""hook"" for the story – commits egregious disease-mongering. It says ""Every year, Americans make 15 milion visits to doctors because of knee pain and recovering from surgery can take months."" Then, without qualification, it connects that number to the story by saying ""But a new, non-surgical treatment could get you up and running in record time."" The clear implication is that this very preliminary approach could be answer for the 15 million visits per year. That number begs explanation and qualification, which was not provided. Only one physician and only one patient’s experience were highlighted. This story was crying out for some independent perspective. There was no discussion of the range of surgical and nonsurgical alternatives for various forms of knee pain, including the torn knee ligament profiled in the athlete’s story. Not only was there no mention of treatment options, it also isn’t even clear what the treatment is indicated for. The athlete had a torn ligament. There are many ligaments in the knee and one could imagine that the treatment is for a meniscal tear, but this is never stated anywhere in the piece. If one knew what the indication was, one could then present current treatments that are available. The creaky joint mention at the end only confusing things more. This implies arthritis – something that the athlete didn’t even have (by report). It leave the listener/reader thinking that this could work for knee pain of any cause – something that past experience would say is very unlikely. The story only hinted at the limited availability of the Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy procedure. While it said that ""doctors have now taken first steps tomove this treatment beyond the world for elite athlete,"" and mentioned that clinical trials had begun, it did not answer viewers’ probable questions of ""Where can I get it?"" or ""Is it being tried at my local hospital?"" And when the story lead-in frames the problem as one pertinent to 15-million American medical visits per year, this is an oversight. The very limited availability and preliminary nature of the research should have been emphasized STRONGLY. This would be a novel approach, as the story makes clear. We can’t be sure if the story relied solely or largely on a news release. We do know that it publicized the work of only one physician."
31866	The government of Thailand issued a warning about canned food contaminated with HIV.	The earliest versions of these rumors appeared at the height of the AIDS crisis, voicing fears that anyone could contract the devastating virus even if they didn’t exhibit any known risk factors for HIV exposure. The warnings served both as a talisman offering protection against unwitting exposure as well as an expression of fears the disease could claim lives seemingly at random.	false	Uncategorized, canned food, HIV, hiv in food	In late 2016 a rumor claimed the government of Thailand had issued a warning about canned foods that had purportedly been contaminated with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The above-reproduced examples circulated both on Facebook as well as person-to-person platforms such as Viber, asserting that 200 people had deliberately contaminated food with HIV on the instructions of their unnamed “leader.” Although the provenance of the claim remained unclear, the rumor appeared to be an old at the time of its December 2016 circulation, as over two years earlier officials in Thailand had acknowledged the rumor and declare it a hoax: Related to the recent spread of rumours circulated via text messages alerting recipients that canned food, particularly canned fruits, manufactured in Thailand were contaminated with HIV virus. The Embassy wishes to inform that the circulated message is a hoax with no credible evidences to support such accusation. Related Thai agencies, including the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and Food and Drug Administration of Thailand, had announced that Thai canned products have been thoroughly inspected and are certified according to international standards (GMP and HACCP) before the products could be shipped out. In fact, the heat treatment during the processing method will eliminate all harmful microbes and other viruses that may existed. Moreover, HIV virus needs a human host cell to live and it does not live long outside the human body. Therefore, it is not possible that canned products are contaminated with HIV as claimed. In a separate statement, Mr. Roy Sparringa, head of Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) also said that ‘the message is not true, have long been circulated, and misleading’ and confirmed that BPOM has never found the said contamination. The message may aims to discredit the Thai food exporter and Thai canned fruits industry. Similar messages were also circulated in Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia in 2013. So if the rumor was debunked in October 2014, how can people rest assured it hasn’t since become a risk? As we have explained in other article about bananas and oranges purportedly tainted by HIV, the virus cannot be transmitted in the manner described. Notably, the heat from cooking destroys the virus, and the heat used for canning is even higher than normal cooking temperatures: Except for rare cases in which children consumed food that was pre-chewed by an HIV-infected caregiver, HIV has not been spread through food. The virus does not live long outside the body. You cannot get it from consuming food handled by an HIV-infected person; even if the food contained small amounts of HIV-infected blood or semen, exposure to the air, heat from cooking, and stomach acid would destroy the virus. That the warning was centered in Thailand was unsurprising, as AIDS awareness group AVERT maintained as of 15 December 2016 that: After sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific is the region with the largest number of people living with HIV, with Thailand accounting for approximately 9 [percent]. Although the HIV in canned food rumor (and its variants) are medically unsound, similar claims about low-risk activities leading to HIV infection have circulated for decades. Older versions involve malicious tampering with a gas pumps, ketchup dispensers impregnated with the virus, and pizza deliberately contaminated with infected bodily fluids.
32546	Monsanto has purchased or merged with the Whole Foods Market grocery chain.	Rumor No. 3: Whole Foods Market recently decided to start selling food with GMOs. Wrong again! As long as GMO crops have been in this country, GMOs have been in the US food supply. The most effective action we can take now is to label the food that DOESN’T include GMOs. That’s why we’ve enrolled our 365 Everyday Value and 365 Organic product line in the Non-GMO Project Verification Program, and have encouraged our branded vendors to do the same — and many, many have.	false	Business, Corporate Alliances, food democracy now, gmos	In July 2016, a rumor began circulating on social media claiming that the agribusiness giant Monsanto corporation had purchased or merged with Whole Foods Market organic grocery chain Claims of that nature were not new in mid-2016, but blog posts published then reinvigorated social media rumors about a purchase or merger involving Monsanto and Whole Foods. An undated blog post published by Healthy Holistic Living asserted in a headline that “Whole Foods Join[ed] Monsanto,” linking to a 28 June 2016 Food Democracy article that utilized the same language (in part). Owing to the frequent truncation of titles on social media, many users were exposed only to partial headlines, leading to widespread misinterpretation and inferences that Monsanto and Whole Foods had merged. However, the Food Democracy article pertained to a dispute over a legislative bill that would allow the labeling of genetically modified foods (GMOs) to be effected through the use of Quick Response (QR) codes, not to a corporate merger: [Food] companies, including Whole Foods, Smucker’s and Organic Valley, among others, have historically funded major public relations and advertising campaigns to promote themselves as “organic” brands. Now, some national leaders are criticizing these companies for “selling out” the GMO labeling movement, public health, and the environment, and urging the public to fight back. “Make no mistake, these self-proclaimed organic companies, including Whole Foods, Smucker’s Stonyfield and Organic Valley have just joined with Monsanto and sold out the ability for parents to know what they are feeding their children,” said Dave Murphy, Executive Director of Food Democracy Now!. Murphy continued, “Monsanto and Whole Foods’ new fake labeling bill would not only preempt Vermont’s bill this week, but all provisions of the bill are OPTIONAL — the bill’s language is so poorly written that it would actually not include 85% of the current GMOs on the market, including Roundup Ready GMOs owned by Monsanto that are sprayed with the weedkiller glyphosate, which the World Health Organization declared a “probable carcinogen” linked to cancer in lab animals and humans last year.” The underlying controversy over labeling of GMO-derived food products was widely discussed on alternative health web sites and blogs but received little news coverage. On 6 July 2016, political news outlet The Hill reported on a disturbance that had occurred that day during a GMO labeling vote involving the Organic Consumers Association (OCA): Members of the Organic Consumers Association threw money from the Senate gallery onto the floor to protest a vote on a bill to block states from issuing mandatory labeling laws for foods that contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The protesters yelled “Monsanto Money” and “Sen. Stabenow, listen to the people, not Monsanto” while $2,000 fell to the floor. The disturbance came during a procedural vote to advance the bill in the Senate. In an email to The Hill, U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman Eva Malecki said four people were arrested for the disturbance in the Senate gallery and are being charged with unlawfully demonstrating, a misdemeanor. The legislation, authored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), allows food producers to use QR codes, or a form of barcode, that consumers scan with smartphones to find out if a product contains GMOs. The codes would come in place of a label that the product was “produced with genetic engineering” — something now required by state laws in Vermont, Maine, Connecticut and Alaska. Opponents have nicknamed the bill, and others like it, the DARK, or Denying Americans the Right to Know, Act. The Organic Consumers Association said the money is to highlight the fact that senators who received money from Monsanto and other agribusinesses are voting against the 9 out of 10 people in America who support GMO labels. “When Congress moves to crush the will of 9 out of 10 Americans because they need companies like Monsanto to fund their campaigns, you know our democracy is in real trouble,” Alexis Baden-Mayer, the group’s political director who participated in the action, said in a statement. “The corporate lobbyists are totally corrupt.” On 1 July 2016, Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb published a blog post “clarifying” earlier comments he made about GMO labeling at a June 2016 conference in Aspen, and those remarks ostensibly fomented the rumors about a Monsanto/Whole Foods merger. In that statement, Robb denied he or Whole Foods had ever supported only QR code-based labeling of genetically modified products: I’ve been receiving questions about comments I made during a panel discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival when I was asked about GMO legislation. I truly appreciate all of the feedback and want to provide clarification and context so that there’s no misunderstanding about Whole Foods Market’s position on GMO labeling. My comment about Senator Stabenow “doing an incredible thing” with the bill was an acknowledgement that garnering bipartisan support on mandating any amount of GMO transparency represents significant progress over the DARK Act, which would have prevented mandatory labeling of GMOs at the state or national level. While the Stabenow-Roberts bill and the Vermont bill both aim to make it easier for consumers to identify GMO ingredients for consumers — a good thing at the fundamental level—no piece of legislation is perfect. I ended my response by reiterating that regardless of how GMO legislation may unfold, Whole Foods Market remains committed to working with our supplier partners to provide transparency in our U.S. and Canadian stores in 2018 and that our policy goes beyond what’s being proposed at the state or national level. Whole Foods Market has supported all state-level GMO labeling initiatives where we have stores with the hope that any bills that pass will lead to national legislation. We’ve long-supported the idea of a national policy requiring mandatory GMO labeling because it would help accelerate change in the marketplace and provide transparency for all customers nationwide. That said, our position has always been to support mandatory labeling of GMO foods through clear, on-package language, not QR codes or 1-800 numbers, which is our primary concern with the Stabenow-Roberts bill as currently written. We believe that in order to be truly transparent, food labels needs three things: a real standard (organic, for example), a third party verification and a reasonable label claim that’s easy for a customer to understand. It’s not just up to food companies to provide this though. Consumer demand plays a critical role in accelerating these changes. By 7 July 2016, the majority of comments published by users to Whole Foods’ Facebook page pertained to rumors about a Monsanto/Whole Foods merger. Representatives for Whole Foods alternately linked to Robb’s 2016 blog post and a 2 February 2012 Whole Foods article addressing and refuting earlier claims of the same nature: Stop the insanity! I help with customer inquiries here at Whole Foods Market and we’ve been hearing some wild, off-base stories from folks around the country lately. For brevity’s sake, I’m going to list them here in hopes of dispelling these rumors. Rumor No. 1: Whole Foods Market has been bought by Monsanto. No! What crazy talk! We’ve never had any affiliation with that company. We are publicly traded; our majority shareholders are listed in documents filed with the SEC and, I promise, Monsanto is not on the list and never has been. Rumor No. 2: Whole Foods Market made a secret deal with Monsanto to support the deregulation of GMO crops like alfalfa. Again, no way! This ridiculous rumor started over a year ago in January 2011 because of the Organic Consumer Association’s (OCA) misleading article titled “Whole Foods Caves to Monsanto.” You see, Whole Foods Market and others in the organic food industry met with the US Secretary of Agriculture in support of farmers’ rights to grow Non-GMO crops. Because we did not take the exact hard-line stance that the OCA did, they accused us of “being in bed with Monsanto,” and the rumor developed from there. Whole Foods Market has no ties to Monsanto and did not have any interaction with the company concerning this or any other issue. For a good description of what really happened, here’s a solid Washington Post story. You can also read our blog response from last year.
14283	You’re in more trouble if you leave your pet in the car than if you leave your child in the car.	"Sen. Pagliarini says ""You’re in more trouble if you leave your pet in the car than if you leave your child in the car."" We looked at the laws, and at face value, he’s right. But, through the power of the DCYF, police, hospital staff and child neglect statutes like Brendan’s Law, parents or caregivers can get in a heap of trouble if they leave a child in these circumstances. Because the statement leaves out important details about actual practice."	mixture	Rhode Island, Children, Criminal Justice, Public Safety, John Pagliarini,	"There are two unattended vehicles in a Rhode Island parking lot on a hot summer day. One has a child inside, and the other, an animal. Police are called. In the case of the pet, police or animal control can take ""all steps that are reasonably necessary to remove an animal from a motor vehicle"" if the animal is at risk. They are to leave a note for the motorist and bring the pet to an animal hospital for observation. The motorist must pay all costs associated with the rescue, and can face up to one year in prison, a fine of up to $1,000 or both, according to the state’s ""Animal confinement in motor vehicles prohibited"" law. In the case of a child, police can ""provide a verbal warning"" to the parent or caregiver about risks and dangers associated with leaving a kid in a car. No fines or sanctions can be imposed, according to the state’s ""Child passenger protection"" statute. Wait, what? Sen. John Pagliarini highlighted this discrepancy in a senate hearing in March. This seemed outrageous, so we called and asked him to explain. He told us if you look at the law for leaving a pet unattended in a car (§ 4-1-3.2) and compare it to the law for leaving a child unattended in a car (§ 31-22-22.1), the penalties for people who leave pets behind are more severe. ""It looks as though you’re in more trouble if you leave your pet in the car than if you leave your child in the car,"" Pagliarini said in an interview with The Journal. ""One would think we value our pets more than our children."" Pagliarini said he wasn’t sure if existing child neglect laws would apply in this case, but he encouraged a further look. ""I hope I’m wrong,"" Pagliarini said. Well, we’re going to find out. Looking only at the two laws outlined above, it seems Pagliarini is correct. For example, the pet law explicitly authorizes police to break into a car with a pet inside. For a child, there is no such language. We asked Sgt. Michael Wheeler in the Providence Police Department’s Youth Service Bureau what happens in practice. ""If there's a child in the car and I need to break into the car, I’m breaking into the car,"" he said. ""We deal with everything else later on."" Wheeler told us that in cases like this, Providence police are to get the child out of the car first. Then they take the child to Hasbro Children’s Hospital for assessment and contact the Department of Children, Youth and Families. Providence’s police chief, Col. Hugh Clements, who serves as the president of the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association, said the same thing. Police would immediately contact EMTs and get the child help. They take the child to Hasbro even if the parent, or driver, shows up during this whole process. At the hospital DCYF caseworkers, along with the hospital staff, can assess whether the child is in imminent danger or needs to be held further, Wheeler said. Under § 40-11-5 police, social workers or doctors are allowed to take a child into custody for 72 hours without parental consent if the child has any injuries caused by ""other than accidental means."" Leaving your child in a hot car on a 99-degree day might fall into that category, Wheeler said. Kerri White, a public information officer for DCYF, said her department might open a Child Protective Services investigation after a report like this. If investigators find the child is in danger, DCYF is to place the child on a protective hold (explained earlier) and seek a child protective order from the Family Court and remove him or her from the home. Amy Kempe, a spokeswoman in the attorney general’s office, said authorities can use existing child abuse and child neglect statutes (like § 11-9-5) to bring criminal charges against parents or caregivers depending on ""the facts and circumstances of a specific incident."" ""Please note, cruelty to or neglect of a child is a felony with a maximum penalty of three years, $1,000, or both,"" said Kempe in an emailed statement. Kempe pointed to the state’s ""Brendan's Law,"" which protects kids from serious bodily injury — meaning things like creating a substantial threat of death, broken bones, impairment of organs, etc. — or any physical injury — which the law defines as an injury ""which arises other than from the imposition of non excessive corporal punishment."" With these standards, a parent or caregiver could face charges of first-degree child abuse, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in jail and a fine of up to $10,000. Or they could be charged with second-degree child abuse and face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. Enter Sen. Lou Raptakis and his amendment to the ""child passenger protection"" law, which was introduced in the Senate on Jan.13. His problem with the way the current law stands is that Brendan’s Law and the other statutes Kempe mentions only apply if the child is injured, unlike in the animal-husbandry bill, where the motorist is culpable no matter what. ""It’s kind of absurd that a child doesn’t have the same protection as an animal does,"" Raptakis said. In his amendment, which he hopes will be up for vote later this month, a parent or caregiver would face the similar penalties as in the animal bill if they leave a child under 7 unattended in a car for more than 5 minutes. Our ruling Sen. Pagliarini says ""You’re in more trouble if you leave your pet in the car than if you leave your child in the car."" We looked at the laws, and at face value, he’s right. But, through the power of the DCYF, police, hospital staff and child neglect statutes like Brendan’s Law, parents or caregivers can get in a heap of trouble if they leave a child in these circumstances. Because the statement leaves out important details about actual practice."
4594	Macron vs. Salvini: Two leaders face off over EU’s future.	France’s pro-EU president and the leader of Italy’s euroskeptic, far-right movement jockeyed for the role of chief powerbroker on the continent Monday after elections to the European Parliament hollowed out the traditional political middle.	true	European Union, AP Top News, Italy, International News, European Parliament, Elections, France, Environment, Germany, Europe	The four days of balloting that drew to a close Sunday across the European Union’s 28 countries ended the domination of the main center-right and center-left parties in Parliament and established the anti-EU forces on the right and the environmentalists on the left as forces to be reckoned with. Voters delivered the highest turnout in 20 years, rejecting mainstream politics in France, Germany, Britain and Italy. The results could make the business of governing Europe even trickier, leaving the Parliament deadlocked over key issues to come, including immigration, a major trade agreement with the United States, global warming, regulation of the tech industry and, of course, Brexit. The outcome of the election is already setting off a power struggle. In France, President Emmanuel Macron’s party narrowly lost to the French far-right, led by Marine Le Pen. Macron, whose party was poised to secure 21 seats to 22 for Le Pen’s National Rally, spent Monday busily amassing allies ahead of a summit Tuesday in Brussels, hoping to build a durable pro-EU coalition. In Italy, Matteo Salvini’s right-wing League party won a third of the country’s vote and is poised to become one of the biggest parties in the European Parliament with 28 seats in the 751-seat legislature. But his ambitions reached higher. By midday, he had already spoken to Le Pen, Hungary’s hardline anti-immigrant prime minister, Viktor Orban, and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage and was promising to singlehandedly bring together a contradiction in terms — an international group of nationalists. “We want to be a group that has at least 100 members and has the ambition to be at least 150, if everyone can overcome jealousies, sympathies, antipathies. To create an alternative, you play. You don’t do it by turning up your nose,” he said. The center-right European People’s Party and the center-left Socialists & Democrats have dominated the parliament with a combined majority since direct elections were first held in 1979. With results still coming in , the EPP was on track to secure 180 seats, down from 217 five years ago. The Socialists were slated to win 145, down from 187. Riding what they called Europe’s “green wave,” environmentalist parties seeking action on climate change made strong gains, notably in Germany. Another mainstream formation, the free-market ALDE group backed by Macron, saw its stake in the Parliament rise to 109 seats, from 68 in 2014. For the Parliament to choose a European Commission president and ultimately to pass legislation, new and uncomfortable alliances must be forged, and nearly all will require some combination of ALDE and the Greens. Well aware of the far-right’s potential to turn against itself, Macron launched a flurry of meetings ahead of the dinner summit Tuesday where the EU countries’ presidents and prime ministers will take stock of the election results. He started with Spain and was due to hold talks with the leaders of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. “The future majority of the European Parliament goes through us, without question. There isn’t one without us,” Pascal Canfin, one of the leading candidates from Macron’s party, told France Inter radio. In Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right movement also lost ground, leaders of the country’s governing parties met to weigh the fallout from their worst post-World War II showing in a nationwide election. “We are facing a shrinking center,” a subdued EPP candidate Manfred Weber said. “From now on, those who want to have a strong European Union have to join forces.” Senior figures from the EPP hold the top posts in the EU’s three main institutions: Parliament president; head of the EU’s powerful executive commission; and European Council president, who chairs summits of European presidents and prime ministers. Just over 50 percent of the EU’s more than 400 million voters cast ballots. While real power in Europe remains in the hands of the 28 member states, the Parliament’s influence has grown. It has helped improve air flight safety in Europe, cut down on plastics use, end mobile telephone roaming charges inside the bloc, boost data privacy, and cut carbon dioxide emissions from cars. Steve Bannon, who helped propel Donald Trump’s populist campaign to the White House, was in Paris on Monday to celebrate the victories of like-minded parties in Europe and gird for the battle ahead. “You see the trend, and it’s definitely nationalist-versus-globalist,” he said. He predicted the far-right will prevail by grinding the European Parliament to a halt: “Every day will be like Stalingrad.” ___ Associated Press writers Lorne Cook and Mike Corder contributed to this story, along with Colleen Barry in Milan, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Jill Lawless in London, and Geir Moulson in Berlin. ___ For more news from The Associated Press on the European Parliament elections go to https://www.apnews.com/EuropeanParliament
18806	"Rob Portman Says out-of-state abortion clinics ""have marketed their services to minors"" in states with parental consent laws."	Sen. Rob Portman says abortion clinics market their services to minors in states with stricter laws	true	Abortion, Ohio, Rob Portman,	"Ohio and most other states require a parent’s consent or notification before they will allow a minor to have an abortion. Minors can get around this if they get a court order, or what’s known as ""judicial bypass."" But minors have another option -- one that abortion opponents consider dastardly but that abortion rights activists defend as necessary sometimes. The minor can go to an abortion provider in one of 12 states that have no parental-involvement laws. U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, wants to make it harder for non-parental adults to help minors bypass these state laws. Some of these adults do not have a girl’s best interest at heart when they transport her, say supporters of this effort, including Ohio Right to Life. So on Jan. 24, Portman announced the latest version of a bill long sought by abortion opponents. He would make it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion if it would circumvent a state law requiring parental involvement. In announcing his bill, Portman released a statement that caught the interest of PolitiFact Ohio: ""Ohio law requires the consent of one parent in order for a minor to get an abortion. Large, nearby states such as New York and Illinois, however, do not have such restrictions, and providers in those states have marketed their services to minors in states with parental consent requirements."" Not that we eagerly stepped into this one, opinions being heated on both sides. But we wondered how this marketing worked, so we asked. Were abortion providers in less-restrictive states actually advertising across state lines to let minors know they could come over without telling their moms or dads? Portman’s press secretary, Caitlin Dunn, answered the question by showing us an array of ads from the Internet and Yellow Pages. Some of what she sent us dated to a 2005 U.S. House of Representatives report on minors and abortions. But Dunn and others in her office also showed us more recent marketing efforts. For example, she showed us the results of Internet searches on Yahoo and Google, using ""abortion"" as the keyword. She said the searches were conducted in Erie and other Pennsylvania cities by members of an anti-abortion group there. Pennsylvania has a parental-consent law. We, too, got such sponsored, or paid, search results -- clearly marked as ads -- when we used Yahoo and Google to do web searches with the keywords ""abortion"" and ""Erie,"" and for searches using the names of other Pennsylvania cities as well. One of the sponsored search results for the terms ""Erie PA"" and ""abortion"" was an ad that said: ""South Jersey Board Certified (OBGYN) providing abortions in Cherry Hill, New Jersey."" Another ad said, ""Private, safe abortions."" The ads said nothing about minors or parental consent. But the headlines had links that took us to www.sjwc.net. By clicking, we were transported to the website of the South Jersey Women’s Center, in Cherry Hill, a suburb of Philadelphia. Though not in Pennsylvania, the New Jersey clinic is about as close as a Pennsylvanian can get. But it is also 429.6 miles from Erie, or a 6-hour and 44-minute drive, according to Google. Why would a clinic so far from Erie advertise for clients more than 400 miles away? Portman’s office suggested this is why: Near the top of the center’s website are the words, ""No 24-hour wait or parental consent required in New Jersey."" The no-consent clinic, in other words, was marketing to minors in parental-consent states, according to the Portman view. We called the South Jersey Women’s Center to ask about its ads and website. A woman who answered said she was not authorized to talk to the media. But she referred us to the National Abortion Federation, an association in Washington, D.C. that says it strives to ensure women have access to safe, legal abortion care. So we called the federation and spoke with Vicki Saporta, the president and CEO. Saporta said that just because the abortion clinic’s website says that ""parental consent is not required in New Jersey,"" that does not necessarily make it a marketing message. ""It’s just stating what the law is,"" she said, adding that it would be reasonable for any center to inform patients or potential patients about its services and its providers’ medical credentials, as this site does. ""I think it’s important that women know what the laws are that govern any particular state if they are considering an abortion in that state,"" Saporta said. The South Jersey center was not the only abortion provider believed by Portman’s office to be marketing to minors. Dunn showed us other ads, from the Internet as well as from Yellow Pages across Pennsylvania. An ad showing up in phone books in Scranton was for the clinic of Amy R. Cousins, M.D., in the Binghamton, N.Y. area. We found her clinic, too, in a paid Google ad when we searched under ""Scranton Pennsylvania abortion."" Cousins’ Yellow Pages ad states, ""No state consents."" An ad from 2010 said, ""No consent or waiting period."" Her website says her center ""offers one-visit abortion services with no waiting period or parental consent to women living in Pennsylvania including Scranton, PA, Wilkes-Barre, PA and surrounding counties."" We called Cousins’ clinic and spoke with Peg Johnston, the manager. Johnston has been active in national abortion-care networks and authored a guide promoting parental involvement. ""We advertise our services and all we have to offer,"" she said. This information, she said, helps patients or would-be patients know what services and procedures are available. ""We are completely within our rights to advertise whatever services we offer. It’s not like we’re luring"" minors over the state line. About that state line, she said, ""We are 10 miles from the Pennsylvania border,"" and the closest abortion center for many women around Scranton. ""A lot of people come to New York for their health care because we’re closer"" than facilities in their home states, she said. Portman’s office showed us other ads, from New York, New Jersey and Illinois, that stated ""no parental consent"" required. Some of the ads were nearly a decade old, others more recent. Based on this and our own Web searches, it appeared that Portman was correct in at least one regard -- that some abortion clinics in states that don’t have parental-consent laws were informing minors in other states of their parental-consent options. But before we could rule on his claim that they have ""marketed their services to minors,"" we had another question to answer: What, exactly, is marketing? Is running a small web ad that says nothing about parental consent marketing? What if that web ad takes you to the provider’s website, where the ""no parental consent"" feature is included? Is it marketing if the web ad appears in a Google or Yahoo search for ""abortion"" and ""Erie,"" but not a search for cities in other states? In answering, it is helpful to understand how web ads work. They are not placed blindly or randomly. Companies and services pay to have their Web addresses come up when users type in -- or their computers or Web-browsing habits help detect -- specific parameters, including a location. This is called geo-targeting. Here is how Yahoo’s advertising department explains: ""Whether your online customers live in Little Rock, Arkansas, or near the Great Wall of China, having the ability to pinpoint where in the world your audience is can help drive results for your business. Yahoo!’s geographic targeting delivers your audiences at scale and drives measurable results."" Even a small sponsored ad that shows a headline, a web address and little other information can be considered ""part of a larger marketing and communications plan,"" said Shelly Morton, a project manager and team leader for Hitchcock Fleming & Associates, an Akron marketing firm, if it takes you to a website with the full information the sponsor wanted you to have. The point of the ad is to have you click on it and get to that fuller information. We interviewed Morton to get an independent voice on Internet marketing, not to discuss abortion rights. PolitiFact Ohio cannot tell you why a minor might use certain terms in a web search. But we know most ads when we see them, and we generally understand how and why geo-tracking works. More important for assessing Portman’s claim, his office did not limit itself to Web searches or Web ads. It provided print ads, too. As Cousins’ clinic in New York told Yellow Page users in Pennsylvania, ""No state consents."" This is information the clinics wanted patients or potential patients to have, and paid money to help them have it. Whether it was to help persuade them to come in or not, it provided pertinent facts that could help them in their decision-making. It fit the definition of marketing."
33900	Former Monty Python member John Cleese penned a satirical piece announcing the revocation of America's independence for failure to elect a competent president.	Former Monty Python member John Cleese did not pen a satirical piece announcing the revocation of America's independence for failure to elect a competent president.	false	Politics Soapbox, john cleese	Just as most any anonymous piece of cynically humorous satire about American politics and culture ends up eventually being attributed to comedian George Carlin, so the same kind of material gets credited to English comic John Cleese when it evinces a British viewpoint on American affairs. Unlike his fellow Monty Python trouper Terry Jones, however, Mr. Cleese doesn’t generally pen this sort of political levity. The genesis of this article is a long and convoluted one. It hit the online world shortly after the contentious U.S. presidential election of 2000, in which the results of Florida’s crucial vote were disputed for weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court eventually stepped in to halt recounts, and George W. Bush was declared the winner despite receiving fewer popular votes overall than his opponent, Al Gore. The piece evidently originated on with one Alan Baxter of Rochester, U.K., who wrote and posted a much shorter, four-item version to an internal newsgroup hosted by his employer in November 2000, as a wry commentary on the recently concluded (but then still far from decided) U.S. presidential election: London, 8th November 2000. To the citizens of the United States of America, Following your failure to elect either a half decent candidate or man-monkey as President of the USA to govern yourselves and, by extension, the free world, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume a monarch’s duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, please comply with1 the following acts: 1. Look up “revoke” in a dictionary 2. Learn at least the first 4 lines of “God save the Queen” 3. Start referring to “soccer” as football 4. Declare war on Quebec Tax collectors from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776). Thank you for your cooperation and…have a nice day! This item was soon reworked and expanded into a ten-point version: NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE To all the citizens of the United States of America, In the light of your failure to elect a President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Britannic Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, will resume sovereign duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new Prime Minister (The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect: 1. You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up “aluminium”. Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up “vocabulary”. Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up “interspersed”. 2. There is no such thing as “US English”. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. 3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn’t that hard. 4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. 5. You should relearn your original national anthem, “God Save The Queen”, but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through. 6. You should stop playing American “football”. There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American “football” is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays “American” football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American “football”, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US rugby sevens side by 2005. 7. You should declare war on Quebec and France, using nuclear weapons if they give you any merde. The 97.85% of you who were not aware that there is a world outside your borders should count yourselves lucky. The Russians have never been the bad guys. “Merde” is French for “shit”. 8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 8th will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called “Indecisive Day”. 9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. 10. Please tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us crazy. God Save the Queen! The “Revocation” piece escaped into the wider world of the Internet a week later when Peter Rieden of Farnborough, U.K., added three more entries to a slightly revised the list (bringing the total to thirteen) and posted it to the USENET newsgroup sci.military.naval on 15 November 2000: The following is the text of a message which was communicated to President Clinton at 07:30 (EST) today: To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Britannic Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. In the light of your failure to elect a President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister (The rt. hon. Tony Blair, MP – for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect: 1. You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up “aluminium”. Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up “vocabulary”. Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up “interspersed”. 2. There is no such thing as “US English”. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. Future adult suffrage will be based in part on successful completion of compulsory spelling examinations which will focus on words like “colour” and “visualise” whose mis-spelling is endemic in the American colonies. 3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn’t that hard. 4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. 5. You should relearn your original national anthem, “God Save The Queen”, but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through. 6. You should stop playing American “football”. There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American “football” is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays “American” football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played in the girls leagues; it is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American “football”, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US rugby sevens side by 2015. 7. You should declare war on Quebec and France, using nuclear weapons if they give you any merde. The 98.85% of you who were not aware that there is a world outside your borders should count yourselves lucky. The Russians have never been the bad guys. “Merde” is French for “shit”. 8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 8th will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called “Indecisive Day”. 9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. 10. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself. 11. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as “beer”, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as “Lager”. The substances formerly known as “American Beer” will henceforth be referred to as “Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine”, with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as “Weak Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine”. This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen, Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion. 12. From November 1st the UK will harmonise petrol (or “Gasoline” as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2001) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon – get used to it). 13. Please tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us crazy. Thank you for your co-operation. The “Revocation of Independence” quickly spread far and wide on the Internet through e-mail forwards, newsgroup posts, and mailing lists, and within days newspapers in the U.K. were running even longer, fifteen-point versions, such as the following: The Supreme Court of Florida has instructed me to post the following to ensure strict balance in these turbulent times. NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE To the citizens of the United States of America, In the light of your failure to elect a President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchial duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect: 1. You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up “aluminium”. Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘favour’ and ‘neighbour’, skipping the letter ‘U’ is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters. You will end your love affair with the letter ‘Z’ (pronounced ‘zed’ not ‘zee’) and the suffix “ize” will be replaced by the suffix “ise”. You will learn that the suffix ‘burgh is pronounced ‘burra’ e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as ‘Pittsberg’ if you can’t cope with correct pronunciation. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up “vocabulary”. Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up “interspersed”. There will be no more ‘bleeps’ in the Jerry Springer show. If you’re not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn’t have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary then you won’t have to use bad language as often. 2. There is no such thing as “US English”. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter ‘u’ and the elimination of “-ize”. 3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn’t that hard. English accents are not limited to Cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents – Scottish dramas such as “Taggart” will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we’re talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is “Devon”. If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become “shires” e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire. 4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as “Men Behaving Badly” or “Red Dwarf” will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can’t cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness. 5. You should relearn your original national anthem, “God Save The Queen”, but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through. 6. You should stop playing American “football”. There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American “football” is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays “American” football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American “football”, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the ‘World Series’ for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls’ game called “rounders” which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs. 7. You should declare war on Quebec and France, using nuclear weapons if they give you any merde. The 97.85% of you who were not aware that there is a world outside your borders should count yourselves lucky. The Russians have never been the bad guys. “Merde” is French for “5hit”. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don’t believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public. 8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 8th will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called “Indecisive Day”. 9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour. 10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren’t even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called “crisps”. Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers. 11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself. 12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as “beer”, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as “Lager”. The substances formerly known as “American Beer” will henceforth be refered to as “Near-Frozen Knat’s Urine”, with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as “Weak Near-Frozen Knat’s Urine”. This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen, Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion. 13. From November 1st the UK will harmonise petrol (or “Gasoline” as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2001) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon — get used to it). 14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you’re not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you’re not grown up enough to handle a gun. 15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us crazy. Tax collectors from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776). Thank you for your cooperation. Curiously, U.S. newspapers tended to run a fifteen-point version as well, but one that was much terser and made significantly different “demands” to which the U.S. was required to comply: To the citizens of the United States of America: In light of your failure to elect anybody as President of the USA, and thus to govern yourselves and, by extension, the free world, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories including New Jersey. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, please comply with the following acts: 1. Look up “revocation” in the now official Oxford Dictionary. Start spelling English words correctly. 2. Learn at least the first four lines of “God Save The Queen.” 3. Start referring to “soccer” as football. 4. Declare war on Quebec and France. 5. Arrest Mel Gibson for treason. 6. Close down the National Football League. Learn to play rugby. 7. Enjoy warm, flat beer and steak and kidney pudding. 8. Train waitresses to be more aggressive with customers and not to tell you their names before you eat. 9. July 4th is no longer a public holiday; this has been replaced with Nov. 5. 10. All members of this British Crown Dependency will be required to take six weeks annual vacation and observe statutory tea breaks. 11. Driving on the left side of the road is now compulsory. Recall all vehicles to effect the change immediately. 12. Report to our Consulate General in New York for your new passport and job allocation. 13. Have Meg Ryan report to Prince Andrew’s bedchamber. 14. Add the royal insignia to the top of the Washington Monument and the Queen’s Christmas speeches to the Lincoln Memorial. 15. Stop referring to the World Series of Baseball and instead call it the National Series of USA, Cuba and Japan. Tax collectors from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776). Thank you for your cooperation and have a nice day. Predictably, the satire spawned a variety of U.S. “rebuttal” versions: The Supreme Court of Florida has instructed me to post the following to ensure strict balance in these turbulent times. DECLARATION OF ANNEXING THE BRITISH ISLES AS PART OF THE USA To the imperialist British colonizers. In the light of your indecision over joining a common European Currency, your dissatisfaction with the European Union, your bickering with European Governments and the fact that you already almost speak our language and refuse to speak any other European languages, you are to be annexed as a State of America. Your state code will be GB. Zip codes will be assigned to replace your old postal districts. The state capital will be Stratford-upon-Avon which is a lot prettier than London. Princess Diana will be declared a saint. You have already assimilated so much American culture that you are unlikely to notice the transition. To aid in the assimilation, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect: 1. Look up “aluminum” in any good American Dictionary. Check the spelling and pronunciation guide. We discovered it, we named it, you are mispronouncing it. Learn to live with it. You are, of course welcome to your idiosyncratic and illogical place-names such as Edinburgh, if you wanted it pronounced ‘Eddinburra’ you have spelled it that way in the first place. You will quit using words such as “fortnight”. The correct term is “a two week period”. You will learn words such as “credenza”, “intern” and “chad”. 2. There is no such thing as “UK English”. UK English is the relic of a defunct colonialist power which attempted to impose British English linguistic superiority on a nation which has a higher number of English speakers. 3. Your film-makers should learn to distinguish the American and Canadian accents. American accents are not limited to redneck drawls or New York accents. Mainland Americans have more than enough accents to cope with in our own country, so all British dramas will now bear subtitles, especially those made in impenetrable dialects such as Scottish, Scouse or Geordie. To make life easier for mainland America, all British films and TV programs must use American vocabulary and accents; Scotch characters will wear plaid, Irish characters will have shamrocks on them, Welsh characters will not be used since we don’t have Welsh Americans, and English characters will wear bowler hats and pinstripes. 4. The British film industry will no longer portray all Americans as cowboys, rednecks, trailer trash or Beverly Hills billionaires. Hollywood will continue to use “Mockney” and “Posh” British accents as this makes it easier for viewers to identify which characters are British. You can have Hugh Grant back. He’s a lousy actor and we don’t want him either. All British films will be made in Hollywood where the weather and scenery are better. Your film industry is already unable to make a halfway-decent film which doesn’t contain a American in the starring role. All American characters should be ‘good guys’. 5. You will learn your new national anthem “The Star Spangled Banner”. It shall be sung every morning at kindergarten, high school, university and your places of work. Your Union Flag will be hung up any damn way we wish so stop bitching about it being upside down. If there was meant to be a right way up you should have made it simpler. All Union flags will be replaced by the Stars and Stripes over a 12 month period of time. 6. You should stop playing soccer and rugby. There is no need to have two games, one of which is confusingly like Football and one of which is called football but patently isn’t real football. If it doesn’t require 45 pounds of padding, it isn’t football. You should also stop playing cricket. Americans can’t understand the rules. If you insist on playing this game which is only played by former British colonies, you will introduce a simplified scoring system, timeouts, colored strips and cheerleaders to make it more interesting. Any match which takes longer than 90 minutes will be declared a draw. 7. In films, as in real life, we decide who the bad guys are. The bad guys are those guys who don’t do as we tell them. They are also the guys who attract the biggest audiences into movie theaters. You will cease using the word “cinema”. They are “movie theaters”. The snippets of forthcoming films are not “trailers” they are “teasers”. 8. November 5th is no longer a day for fireworks. July 4th is the appropriate fireworks festival. If you want a big fireworks party on November 5th, we will help you to blow up your Houses of Parliament. You won’t be needing them any longer; Disneyland London will be situated there. Hunting with packs of dogs is also banned. Instead, you will go hunting with a pick-up truck, some six-packs of beer, two coonhounds and enough guns and ammo to equip a private militia. There is also no such activity as “caravanning”. It is properly called “camping”. The thing boy scouts do with tents and bedrolls is called “tenting”. 9. Roundabouts will be banned. What is the point of turning left in order to turn right? They are confusing to Americans and are death traps. You will start driving on the right with immediate effect. Most of the world drives on the right already. You will be allowed to turn right on a red light if safe to do so though you must check local county legislation as this is not permitted in all areas. 10. Those things which you call chips are cholesterol-soaked abominations. You will start to eat fries – light fluffy potato in crisp coating. If you want to eat British-style fried potato sticks you will need a certificate from your doctor and good medical insurance. Beer is to be served cold. The warm, flat drink you call beer is properly termed ‘ale’ and the FDA have determined it to be unfit for human consumption. You will also learn the difference between crackers, cookies and biscuits to avoid causing unnecessary confusion to mainland Americans. 11. All inter-personal communications between family members, even if resident in the same house, must be through a lawyer. It is compulsory to sue somebody at least once per year – be inventive. It is compulsory to have therapy three times each week and to recover false memories of your childhood which allow you to sue your parents and/or your therapist. Therapy will take the place of speaking to family members. You will be given compulsory courses on how to become dysfunctional. Name your children after interesting medical conditions. 12. You will not have guns. In the eyes of Mainland Americans you are wayward children. Children are not permitted to play with firearms unless they have a legitimate reason to do so i.e. they plan to gun down the population of a small town (self-defense) or slaughter every living creature within a mile radius (hunting). Thank you for your co-operation. You will be assimilated. Another popular response to the “Revocation” piece was this one: SUBJECT: NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE To the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: We welcome your concern about our electoral process. It must be exciting for you to see a real Republic in action, even if from a distance. As always we’re amused by your quaint belief that you’re actually a world power. The sun never sets on the British Empire! Right-o chum! However, we regretfully have to decline your offer for intervention. On the other hand, it would be amusing to see you try to enforce your new policy (for the 96.3% of you that seem to have forgotten that you have little to no real power). After much deliberation, we have decided to continue our tradition as the longest running democratic republic. It seems that switching to a monarchy is in fact considered a “backwards step” by the majority of the world. To help you rise from your current anachronistic status, we have compiled a series of helpful suggestions that we hope you adopt: 1. Realize that language is an organic structure, and that you aren’t always correct in your pronunciation or spelling. Let’s use your “aluminium” example. Sir Humphrey Davy (an Englishman) invented the name “aluminum” (note spelling) for the metal. However, in common usage the name evolved into “aluminium” to match the naming convention of other elements. In 1925 the United States decided to switch back to the original spelling and pronunciation of the word, at which point we dominated the aluminum industry. We’d also like to point out that the process of actually producing aluminum was developed by an American and a Frenchman (not an Englishman). However, we’d like to thank you for the Oxford English Dictionary. It’s an interesting collection, considering that over 10,000 of the words in the original edition were submitted by a crazy American civil-war veteran called Dr. William Charles Minor. 2. Learn to distinguish the American and Canadian accents, and then we’ll talk about the English and Australian accent issue. 3. Review your basic arithmetic. (Hint 100 – 98.85 = 1.15 and 100 – 97.85 = 2.15) 4. If you want English actors as good guys, then make your own movies. Don’t rely on us for your modern popular culture. We liked “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels”, “Trainspotting”, and “The Full Monty”. We’ve also heard good things about this “Billy Elliot”. But one good movie a year doesn’t exactly make a cultural powerhouse. However, you’re doing pretty well with music, so keep up the good work on that front. 5. It’s inefficient to have a national anthem that changes its title whenever your monarch dies. Let’s not forget that your national anthem has an extremely boring tune. We suggest switching to that Rule Brittania ditty, it’s toetapping. Or maybe Elton John could adapt “Candle In The Wind” again for you guys. 6. Improve at your national sport. Football? Soccer? This just in: United States gets fourth place in men’s soccer at the 2000 Summer Olympics. United Kingdom? Not even close. By the way, impressive showing at Euro 2000. You almost managed to get through the tournament without having your fans start an international incident. 7. Learn how to cook. England has some top notch candy. Salt ‘n’ Vinegar chips are quite yummy. However, there’s a reason why the best food in your country is Indian or Chinese. Your contributions to the culinary arts are soggy beans, warm beer, and spotted dick. Perhaps when you finally realize the French aren’t the spawn of satan they’ll teach you how to cook. 8. You’re doing a terrible job at understanding cars. The obvious error is that you drive on the wrong side of the road. A second problem is pricing, it’s cheaper to buy a car in Belgium and ship it to England than to buy a car in England. On the other hand, we like Jaguars and Aston Martins. That’s why we bought the companies. 9. We’ll tell you who killed JFK when you apologize for “Teletubbies”. Thank you for your time. You can now return to watching bad Australian soap operas. P.S. — Regarding WW2: You’re Welcome. All of this brought us to the end of 2004, when the U.S. went through another controversial presidential election (although one not nearly as close or contested as the 2000 version), which once again resulted in a victory for the Republican candidate, George W. Bush. One of the multiplicity of variants of the four-year-old “Revocation of Independence” satire was dusted off, British funnyman John Cleese’s name was appended to the end, and the cycle of forwarding started all over again, only this time with a recognizable name attached to the piece. Many, many people have had a hand in shaping the multiple variations of this bit of humor that now exist, but John Cleese himself is one of the few who hasn’t.
13514	One extra year of schooling for girls reduces infant mortality rates among their children by up to 10 percent.	The head of the World Food Programme said that one extra year of schooling for girls reduces the infant mortality rates among their children by up to 10 percent. Broadly speaking, the association between more education of young women and better odds for their offspring is real. But this claim suffers from several flaws. It speaks of infant mortality when the underlying research addressed child mortality. It asserts a causal link when the data, while very suggestive, don’t fully prove the point. And it treated every year of schooling the same. Perhaps most important, UNESCO, the source that the World Food Programme relied on, has distanced itself from this statistic. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details.	mixture	Global News Service, Children, Education, Public Health, Women, Ertharin Cousin,	"In development circles, no one quibbles that it’s good to educate girls. There’s plenty of evidence that it helps them and if they become mothers, that it helps their children. The head of the United Nations' World Food Programme Ertharin Cousin was in Armenia on Sept. 5, 2016, to talk about the importance of child nutrition and in the course of her speech, she mentioned a talking point on this topic that has been in play for decades. ""One extra year of schooling for girls reduces infant mortality rates among their children by up to 10 percent,"" Cousin said. It turns out, there are problems with Cousin’s claim. As often happens, this is a statement that has morphed over time, shifting from a more cautious assertion to a more definitive one. We’ll give you the highlights. The origins, changes to the 10 percent claim Staff at the World Food Programme told us they got their figure from UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It was part of a 2011 collection of illustrations and talking points called Education Counts and this graphic was among them. It reads: ""Each extra year of a mother’s schooling reduces the probability of infant mortality by 5% to 10%."" Before we jump into stat forensics mode, it’s important to say that UNESCO has retired this talking point. The way they put it now in their 2016 global education monitoring report is, ""Achieving universal secondary schooling would make a meaningful contribution to reducing infant and child mortality."" In short, the new statement drops the precision of the old. Yet there are numbers that come along with that new, broader statement. ""If all women in sub-Saharan Africa had upper secondary education by 2030, it would prevent 3.5 million deaths from 2050-60,"" UNESCO spokeswoman Katharine Redman told us. UNESCO’s wording clearly changed between 2011 and 2016 and it’s useful to note the details. They moved from talking about infant mortality to infant and child mortality. That’s important because the research on the tie between a mother’s education and the health of her children looked at the number of children who died before they turned 5 years old (child mortality), not the number who died before their first birthday (infant mortality). That research includes a seminal article from 1993, and a key 2010 survey of data from 175 countries that UNESCO in particular has relied on. Both found that more education for women is associated with lower child mortality rates. They did not measure infant mortality. So strictly speaking, UNESCO’s 2011 statement was a bit off when it came out. Does the distinction between infant and child mortality matter? It depends on who you ask. Health statistician Michael Stoto at Georgetown University said the two are highly correlated, so as one changed, so would the other. But Jishnu Das, a World Bank economist who studies both education and health, said in countries such as India, infant and child mortality rates take different paths. ""The child mortality rate has consistently declined while the infant mortality rate is roughly the same over a fairly long time period,"" Das said. The difference has implications for the role of maternal education. Deaths in infancy, Das told us, tend to come from complications that hit within the first few days after birth. On the other hand, deaths up to the fifth birthday relate more to ""what’s going on with the household."" While the education level of the mother can improve the odds in both cases, Das said her decisions have a bigger impact on the health of older children. Knowing the importance of getting kids vaccinated and recognizing the danger of diarrhea are just two ways that can play out. UNESCO’s latest claim also backed away from the simple equation that each additional year of schooling would cut the child mortality rate. Instead, the agency now looks at the effect of blocks of education -- primary, lower secondary (middle school) and upper secondary (high school). So Cousin’s statement is relying on data that is no longer supported by its authors. But you can still find the organization’s old material on the Internet. Similarly, we noticed how the claim has morphed over time. In 1993, a Yale economist wrote ""An added year of maternal education tends to be associated with a fairly constant percentage decline in child mortality rates .. between 5 and 10 percent. By 2004 researchers cited that work as ""An extra year of girls’ education can reduce infant mortality by 5–10 percent."" And by 2015, the same 1993 chapter was cited as saying ""an extra year of girls’ education cuts infant mortality by 5 to 10 percent."" The differences are subtle, but they all change the meaning of the statistic and the validity of supporting research. It’s not all education Researchers Das and Stoto both emphasized that so many aspects of life can be in flux as schooling increases that it’s tough to untangle the underlying dynamics. At the same time a country opens more classrooms for young women, it might also be building new health clinics and improving the local water supply. All those changes would give newborns and toddlers better odds of survival. Emily Hannum, a University of Pennsylvania sociologist, told us there can be many reasons for the association. ""These could range from delayed marriage and increased age at childbearing, to lower fertility, to better access to or greater utilization of health care, to improved access to information about healthy parenting practices,"" Hannum said. Emmanuela Gakidou at the University of Washington is a key researcher in this field. Gakidou oversaw the 2010 research that supplied UNESCO with much of its data. Gakidou speaks cautiously about the impact of schooling on mortality rates. ""It’s hard to ascribe causality, but the data and analyses on this topic are robust enough that I think we can say that education among women of reproductive age leads to improved child survival,"" she told us. ""Other factors are also important, of course."" Gakidou’s research did find that across the globe, one additional year of schooling is associated with a 10 percent decline in the child mortality rate, but Gakidou cautioned against thinking that would apply in any particular country. ""That’s the average effect at the global level and across all levels of education,"" she said. Our ruling The head of the World Food Programme said that one extra year of schooling for girls reduces the infant mortality rates among their children by up to 10 percent. Broadly speaking, the association between more education of young women and better odds for their offspring is real. But this claim suffers from several flaws. It speaks of infant mortality when the underlying research addressed child mortality. It asserts a causal link when the data, while very suggestive, don’t fully prove the point. And it treated every year of schooling the same. Perhaps most important, UNESCO, the source that the World Food Programme relied on, has distanced itself from this statistic. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details."
9505	‘Cool’ New Knee Procedure Eases Arthritis Pain Without Surgery	Knees crippled by osteoarthritis sideline millions of Americans. While most folks seeking help are offered such treatments as physical therapy and steroid injections, this story describes another option: using radio frequency to “mute” the nerves in your knee that transmit the pain signals to your brain. The story does a good job discussing side effects, and discussing costs of treatment. But when it comes to discussing the evidence, the story falls short. It doesn’t explain that the one study mentioned is an abstract of a talk given at a meeting, which is considered preliminary. Nor does it provide any specifics on how much the new technique relieved pain compared to the control group, or how that was measured. From what we can tell, there’s really not much high-quality data on this procedure–despite the FDA approval. The FDA approved this treatment earlier this spring, and that means its use could spread rapidly, making accurate stories about it all the more important. (Approval is no guarantee of safety of effectiveness.)	true	knee osteoarthritis	Costs are indeed addressed. Although the story makes clear that the process relieves pain, it offers little in the way of quantification. According to the one study mentioned, by how much did it help? How was that measured? That is particularly important here, as this procedure appears to reduce—but not necessarily eliminate—pain. The story does use verbs such as “eases” and “reduces,” but then it focuses on one patient who, after the procedure, seems to be pain-free. The text later does a good job of indicating that the pain reduction is relatively short-lived, lasting 6 months to a year. Risks are identified. However, we think it would have been worth pointing out that there is little scientific literature about applying this old technology to a new part of the body. So, it’s unclear what the eventual risks are. Also, the article is not quite clear what radiofrequency ablation is doing: killing nerves, for at least 6 months. There could be permanent loss of nerve sensation, or maybe the nerves will grow back years later, either normally or in an altered state (which has happened in some other medical and surgical situations). The story gives short shrift to details of the one study it cites, which compared the effect of cooled radio frequency ablation with steroid injections. In reality, the study has some issues. The story should have made it clear that this was a relatively small industry-funded study that hasn’t been published nor peer-reviewed and also wasn’t blinded (meaning participants knew which treatment they were getting). Osteoarthritis in the knee can be debilitating and the story didn’t disease monger its severity or prevalence. The story has several independent sources. However, the story missed a potential conflict of interest. According to ProPublica’s Dollars for Docs database, one of the story sources consults for at least two major medical device companies that make products similar to the “Coolief” system described in the story. That source also received small amounts of cash (for food and beverages) from Halyard Health, which makes the Coolief system. The text mentions treatment options and compares the radio frequency procedure with one of them. Recent approval by the Federal Drug Administration means that the technique is not yet widely available, the story notes. This use of radiofrequency treatment on arthritic knees does appear to be relatively new, although the technique has been employed to cope with a variety of other painful conditions, including trigeminal neuralgia, cancer pain, and spinal pain. Although radiofrequency therapy is over 60 years old, it is not used very often, apart from some procedures by cardiologists to rewire the heart’s electrical system. The story did not appear to rely on the news release.
335	California jury awards $29 million to woman with cancer who used J&J talc.	A California jury on Wednesday awarded $29 million to a woman who said that asbestos in Johnson & Johnson’s talcum-powder-based products caused her cancer.	true	Health News	The verdict, in California Superior Court in Oakland, marks the latest defeat for the healthcare conglomerate facing more than 13,000 talc-related lawsuits nationwide. J&J said it would appeal, citing “serious procedural and evidentiary errors” in the course of the trial, saying lawyers for the woman had fundamentally failed to show its baby powder contains asbestos. The company did not provide further details of the alleged errors during the trial. “We respect the legal process and reiterate that jury verdicts are not medical, scientific or regulatory conclusions about a product,” J&J said in a statement on Wednesday. The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company denies that its talc causes cancer, saying numerous studies and tests by regulators worldwide have shown that its talc is safe and asbestos-free. The lawsuit was brought by Terry Leavitt, who said she used Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower - another powder containing talc sold by J&J in the past - in the 1960s and 1970s and was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2017. It was the first of more than a dozen J&J talc cases scheduled for trial in 2019. The nine-week trial began on Jan. 7 and included testimony from nearly a dozen experts on both sides. The jury deliberated for two days before delivering its verdict, which was broadcast online by Courtroom View Network. Jurors found that J&J’s talc-based products used by Leavitt were defective and that the company had failed to warn consumers of the health risks, awarding $29.4 million in damages to Leavitt and her husband. The jury declined to award punitive damages. “Yet another jury has rejected J&J’s misleading claims that its talc was free of asbestos,” said Moshe Maimon, a lawyer for Leavitt, in a statement on Wednesday. “The internal J&J documents that the jury saw, once more laid bare the shocking truth of decades of cover- up, deception and concealment by J&J.” Leavitt’s was the first talc case to go to trial since Reuters on Dec. 14 published a report detailing that J&J knew that the talc in its raw and finished powders sometimes tested positive for small amounts of asbestos from the 1970s into the early 2000s - test results it did not disclose to regulators or consumers. Leavitt’s trial originally included J&J’s talc supplier, Imerys Talc America, a unit of Imerys SE, as a co-defendant. California Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman, who oversaw the trial, told jurors in February that the company was no longer part of the case after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under the weight of the talc litigation, which stayed lawsuits against it. While earlier talc lawsuits alleged talc itself causes ovarian cancer, plaintiffs’ lawyers have more recently focused on arguing asbestos contamination in talc caused ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, a form of cancer linked to asbestos exposure. In 11 cases so far alleging asbestos contamination in talc, three have resulted in wins for plaintiffs, awarding damages as high as $4.69 billion in a July 2018 multi-plaintiff ovarian cancer verdict. J&J won three other cases and another five ended in hung juries. J&J has appealed all of the plaintiff verdicts, and the company said it is confident the verdicts would be overturned on appeal. (Read the documents that sparked the investigation - here)
36307	Fans contracted herpes from drinking Belle Delphine's bathwater.	Did Fans Contract Herpes from Belle Delphine’s Bathwater?	false	Disinformation, Fact Checks	In July 2019 Instagram cosplayer Belle Delphine offered her bathwater for sale, news of which was quickly followed by a rumor that purchasers were afflicted with herpes after drinking it.Prior to that story appearing, Insider reported:Belle Delphine recently gave her 3.9 million Instagram followers the chance to buy her bathwater for $30 a bottle.She posted two photos [in July 2019] and said she was selling it to any “THIRSTY gamer boys” out there.The 19-year-old cosplay star has become famous for her NSFW content, where she wears very little clothing and makes ahegao facial expressions, sometimes used in Japanese anime and manga pornography.In June [2019], she made headlines when she told her followers she would make an account on PornHub if her photo received over 1 million likes. But instead of anything sexual, she posted bizarre videos of herself stroking stuffed toy cockerels and eating a picture of PewDiePie.News of the bathwater selling went viral on its own, prompting a thread on r/AskReddit asking prospective buyers why they were interested in buying it:People who ordered Belle Delphine’s bathwater, why? from AskRedditOn July 7 2019, a Twitter account posing at the time as “Daily Mail US” published a tweet claiming that fans were contracting herpes from drinking the bathwater:Over 50 People Have Reportedly Contracted Herpes After Drinking Instagram Star, Belle Delphine’s Bath Water pic.twitter.com/k1gwwSSwoM— Bake ❼ (@BakeRises) July 7, 2019Screenshots of the tweet as it originally appeared demonstrated that the account (@bakerises) posed as an American version of the UK tabloid Daily Mail at the time the tweet circulated:A Twitter bio for @bakerises read in part:Tweets so terrible they kinda work \| Roughly 50% of my tweets are stolenOne day after the tweet appeared, someone posted to Reddit’s r/OutOfTheLoop asking about rumors that the bathwater had caused herpes infections:What’s going on with Bella Delphines bath water giving people herpes? from OutOfTheLoopIt is highly unlikely the herpes virus can infect anyone through water. If that were the case, such infections would likely be attributable to swimming in public pools or hot tubs.Regardless, the story about herpes and Belle Delphine’s bathwater spread due to the accounts temporary appropriation of the Daily Mail‘s logo and moniker. No news story about any diagnoses of herpes among the purported bathwater drinkers existed, and herpes is contracted “by touching, kissing, and sexual contact.”The original @bakerises account appeared to acknowledge the rumor a day later:It seems the best way to grow on twitter is to impersonate a company and say things about a celebrity that legally can be considered libel and I could potentially be sued for.— Bake ❼ (@BakeRises) July 8, 2019
11321	Cancer Society calls for annual MRIs for women at greatest risk of breast cancer	"This is a classic case where one newspaper's (the Washington Post) original story on a topic was not done justice in a shortened version picked up by another news organization (the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). The article describes new American Cancer Society breast cancer screening guidelines that now recommend that certain women at high risk of developing breast cancer receive annual MRI in addition to mammograpy and self exam. The original Washington Post story ran 975 words; the St. Louis story ran 491 words. Many of the criticisms noted above were adequately addressed in the original Washington Post piece. Missing in the St. Louis version but covered in the Washington Post original story: what the evidence is for such a recommendation. absolute data on the benefits of MRI screening. a balanced perspective of harms of MRI and breast cancer screening. information on the likelihood that insurance might cover these tests, and discussion of cost-effectiveness. input from independent sources with different opinions. a quote like this: ""You can find a lot of cancer, but that's not the same thing as helping people live longer or better,"" said Russell Harris of the University of North Carolina. ""It's unclear how many women really will be helped and how many will be hurt by over-diagnosis and overtreatment."" We have written before on this site about how unfortunate it is that some readers in some markets don't get to see the original version of a story as it is syndicated and re-distributed and repackaged in other places. This is another example of the important information that a reporter put in the original story – information that was left out in a shortened version – all for the sake of saving 484 words."	false		"The shortened St. Louis version of the original Washington Post story mentions only the cost of a single MRI. It didn't discuss whether insurance would cover these tests and it didn't discuss the cost-effectiveness of such a strategy for breast cancer screening. The original Washington Post story touched on all of these points: ""While MRIs are expensive — $800 to $2,000 — the studies indicate that the exams are cost-effective for this high-risk group, the panel found. No one has estimated what the overall cost to the nation would be if the recommendations were fully implemented, or how many insurance companies would pay for the exams."" In the shortened St. Louis version of the original Washington Post story, there is only one line that says ""MRIs plus mammography can double the number of cancers found."" But what are the absolute data? But the original Post story stated: ""For those women, MRIs plus mammography can double the number of cancers found, the panel said, detecting them in 6 percent of high-risk women screened, compared with about 3 percent for mammograms alone."" The St. Louis version comes up short on this criterion. The story stated ""MRI tends to produce false-positives at about twice the rate of mammography, forcing more women to undergo repeated tests and sometimes biopsies unnecessarily and subjecting them to anxiety, distress and discomfort. But the panel concluded the benefits outweigh the downside for high-risk women."" In the shortened St. Louis version of the original Washington Post story, there is no evidence presented for the recommendation that MRI should be used for breast cancer screening in selected women. Readers have no way to know the strength of the evidence for such a recommendation. Is this based on expert opinion? Randomized controlled trials? It's not stated. But that St. Louis version left out material that was in the original Post story: ""After reviewing research on MRI since 2002, a panel of experts assembled by the American Cancer Society endorsed annual MRI screening for women whose risk is about 20 percent above average for any of several reasons, including testing positive for one of the known breast cancer genes; having a close relative — mother, sister or daughter — who has tested positive for one of the genes; having at least two close relatives who have had breast cancer; or having had chest radiation for Hodgkin's disease."" The shortened St. Louis version of the original Washington Post story seems to have a screening bias. It only used a comment from an American Cancer Society spokesman – hardly an independent voice since the story was about new ACS guidelines. No other possibly dissenting voices were heard. But the original Post piece stated: ""While many patient advocates and breast cancer experts welcomed the guidelines, others questioned whether there is enough evidence to justify the recommendation. Echoing the debate over mammography, they noted that detecting cancer early does not necessarily translate into saving lives and can subject women to unnecessary tissue biopsies and other treatment and anxiety."" We find the St. Louis version lacking in this criterion. The shortened St. Louis version of an original Washington Post article quotes only one source of information and he works for the American Cancer Society, so he is not an independent source. But the original post piece had this perspective: ""You can find a lot of cancer, but that's not the same thing as helping people live longer or better,"" said Russell Harris of the University of North Carolina. ""It's unclear how many women really will be helped and how many will be hurt by over-diagnosis and overtreatment."" The St. Louis version lacked this balancing perspective. The article mentions briefly the alternative of mammography screening, but what's lacking is a discussion of not screening at all. Of course, the new guidelines apply to a higher-than-average risk group of women for whom screening may make more sense. But, it's reasonable to include a discussion of ""no-screening"" when talking about any screening program. The shortened St. Louis version of the original Washington Post story lacked this perspective. The Post touched on it with the quote: ""You can find a lot of cancer, but that's not the same thing as helping people live longer or better,"" said Russell Harris of the University of North Carolina. ""It's unclear how many women really will be helped and how many will be hurt by over-diagnosis and overtreatment."" The story doesn't explicitly state that MRI is currently ""available,"" but most people probably understand that this technology is around, or at least have heard of it for use with other applications. The story states that MRI for breast cancer screening would be a new tool physicians can use, making it clear that this is a new approach for breast cancer screening (although not a new technology, per se). This criterion is not applicable in this case. The story in question is a shortened St. Louis version of an original Washington Post story. We are confident that the Post story did not rely solely or largely on a news release. It is unfortunate that the St. Louis paper didn't rely more heavily on ALL of the content in the original Post piece."
11442	New Test May Predict Prostate Cancer’s Aggressiveness	"The bottom line is that the value of the new test remains quite uncertain. The study’s sample size was small, the follow-up period appeared relatively short, and the accuracy statistics were difficult to interpret. The story reports on a study in 71 men, but allows another source to throw in unsourced information about a Chicago-area study in 2,000 men. It seems quite unlikely that – as the story states – ""it will take another year or two to get enough cases to nail down the predictive value"" with sufficient precision or validity to change practice. . And to tell readers that it’s already approved in Europe without providing any information on the European experience with it is not helpful."	false		"There is no discussion of costs for this product. While it is currently not approved for clinical use in the US, the story could have extrapolated from princing in Europe. Would it be expected to double screening costs or inflate them by a factor of 10? The story didn’t provide quantitative data on potential benefit. The story indicated the test might help identify men who could delay or defer treatment of their prostate cancer, but it did not provide any estimate of the proportion of men that might be expected to reap this benefit. The story also mentioned in passing an additional benefit which was that the test might reduce the frequency of prostate biopsies from every year to every other year. However it should be noted that current guidelines for the frequency of follow-up biopsies are variable and some recommend intervals of up to at least 18 to 24 months – which would mean this test would result in no change. The story did not provide insight about the individuals who were incorrectly diagnosed in the study reported on. What percentage of men had aggressive tumors that the test failed to detect? And what percentage of men received treatment because the test identified them as having aggressive tumors but actually did not need to be treated? The story reported that the test was 70% accurate in ""singling out aggressive tumors"" and that the data reported on were from a small study and finally that the results reported on had been described at a recent meeting. However the story never linked these three pieces of information together to provide a clear statement indicating that this information is preliminary. What does it mean that the test is 70% accurate? Does it correctly identify aggressive tumors 70% of the time and that 30% of the time aggressive tumors go undetected? Or does it mean that of the tumors suggested to be aggressive, really only 70% are and the remaining 30% of men receive treatment for something that didn’t need to be treated? The story did not include enough information to know. More useful statistics in describing diagnostic tests are sensitivity–in this case the proportion of men with progressive cancer who tested positive–or specificity–the proportion of men whose cancer did not progress and who tested negative. If this test is used in Europe, surely that use is not based on the results of the current study. Therefore the story should have included some insight about other work indicating the value of this test. Lastly – reporting about results presented at a meeting means that these results have not been vetted by experts. The story should have indicated this. The story did not engage in disease mongering. Instead of suggesting in the first sentence that this test might help identify those prostate cancers that did not require immediate treatment, the story could have stated that it might identify those prostate cancers that might never require treatment. The experts quoted in the story appear to have an association with Beckman Coulter, Inc, the company planning to market the test reported on. This was not made clear in the story. The existing alternative is to use the PSA test, digital exam, and biopsy results to determine whether a man should consider aggressive treatment. The story does not indicate how much more accurate the new test was compared to PSA. The glib comment about a coin flip does not necessarily accurately characterize the study results. Perhaps the story also should have told readers that there are other companies with similar sorts of tests in development. The story mentioned that this test is currently ""awaiting"" FDA approval for use in the US but has already been approved for use in Europe. This type of wording is misleading because it may imply that FDA approval is a done deal. It would be better reporting to state that the product is being considered by the FDA for approval. It is not clear from the story what the actual components of the Prostate Health Index and the DNA content measures were. The story did not detail whether the individuals tests are being combined in a new way or whether some were new. It does not appear that the story relied solely on a news release."
34706	Restroom hand dryers spread disease by blowing germs and bacteria around.	Sightings: In an episode of the television comedy The Big Bang Theory (“The Griffin Equivalency,” original air date 13 October 2008), Sheldon Cooper rants about the university’s decision to provide hand blowers rather than paper towel dispensers in the facility’s restrooms, stating “Hot air blowers are incubators and spewers of bacteria and pestilence. Frankly it’d be more hygenic if they just had a plague-infested gibbon sneeze my hands dry.”	unproven	Medical, hand dryers, Swine Flu	An e-mailed alert began circulating in October 2009, holding that hot air hand dryers in restrooms were contributing to the spread of a flu virus: Bathroom Hand Dryers..Interesting Info Everyone in the cleaning industry has always been told that hand dryers in restrooms are not sanitary; they spread germs and bacteria around. I always thought that this just came from the paper companies because they are losing sales to the hand dryers. A couple of years ago, I was working with a rep, and I noticed that after he washed his hands and noticed that there were no paper towels, only a hand dryer, he left the restroom with wet hands. I asked him about it. He said that hand dryers blow a lot of germs and bacteria around. He also told me to take a look under the hand dryer next time I was in a restroom. There is a filter underneath the hand dryer that is supposed to be cleaned on a weekly basis. I looked at one and it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years. It had layers and layers of caked on gunk (disgusting). Since then I will not use hand dryers in restrooms. Now this is where the story gets really interesting. The schools and universities that have had the H1N1 (swine flue) outbreak this year are being told by the health department that they have to take out all of their hand dryers and replace them with towel dispensers because the hand dryers are spreading disease. Please pass this along so everyone knows not to use hand dryers. The central claim that forced air hand dryers spread disease is in dispute, and we found no substantiation for this item’s ancillary assertion that schools and universities that experienced outbreaks of swine flu had been ordered by their local health departments to replace such machines with paper towel dispensers. Try as we might, we found no confirmatory information about such institutes of learning being told by anyone (health department or otherwise) to remove their forced-air hand dryers. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends in various online publications that public sinks be stocked with paper towels or equipped with hand dryers (e.g., its Preventing the Spread of Influenza (the Flu) in Child Care Settings: Guidance for Administrators, Care Providers, and Other Staff states: “Ensure that sink locations and restrooms are stocked with soap, paper towels or working hand dryers“). Regarding the e-mail’s central claim about hand dryers contributing to the spread of disease, there’s no clear answer to the subject because what little research that has been done in this area is disputed. A 2008-09 research paper produced by academics at the University of Westminster claimed forced air hand dryers increased the average number of bacteria on the finger pads and palms. It also stated that the Airblade device (a super high-speed hand dryer relatively new to the market) had proved capable of dispersing microbes over a distance of up to two meters via a test involving the placement of petri dishes containing agar at 25 cm intervals to catch the particles and incubation of same to reveal any bacterial growth. The manufacturer challenged those findings, pointing out the study had been funded by the European Tissue Symposium, calling the work “flawed and questionable.” If there is any truth to the rumor that hand dryers that work by blowing hot air onto the just-washed paws of restroom patrons contribute to the spread of disease, it would lie not in the contents of these machines’ lint filters (as the e-mail would have it), but in the poor handwashing practices of a significant portion of the general public. Despite their claims to the contrary, a goodly number of folks do not wash their hands after performing bathroom functions. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, (MDH): American Society for Microbiology studies showed: 97% of females and 92% of males say they wash of these only 75% females and 58% males actually washed 50% of middle and high school students say they wash of these 33% of females and only 8% of males used soap while washing hands An August 2005 observational study conducted by the American Society for Microbiology and the Soap and Detergent Association showed that while 97% of women and 96% of men say they always or usually wash their hands after using a public restroom, only 83% of adults actually did so. An August 2003 survey of handwashing habits in airport restrooms further bore out that observation: reported the American Society of Microbiology, more than 30% of people using restrooms in New York airports, 19% of those in Miami’s airport, and 27% of air travelers in Chicago didn’t wash their hands. However, it is not the interaction of unwashed hands and hand dryers that is the concern (because, after all, no one is trying to dry unwashed hands, since they’re not wet to begin with), but rather of poorly-washed hands. Precious few nasty microbes are dislodged by tap water alone: merely rinsing one’s hands under running water and then drying them with a blower is doing little other than putting microbe-laden (albeit wet) hands in front of a wind generating machine. Also, of those that use soap in the ablutions, not all that many wash their hands long enough to rid themselves of whatever nasties their hands have accumulated. For handwashing to be effective, folks need to lather up and then scrub for no less than 20 seconds before rinsing (roughly the same amount of time it takes to twice run through “Happy Birthday to You”). Those who don’t wash all that well or for long enough are putting still-germy hands under a blower. Whether germs, microbes, or viruses could be blown off still-wet hands and into the surrounding air by such devices is an unanswered question, though. Paper towels offer a couple of advantages that electric hand dryers do not. Since their use is frictional (you rub your hands with them), the act of drying with them can aid in the removal of some bacteria. Also, given that the four most microbe-laden areas of public restrooms are the toilet, the floor around it, the counter area, and door and flush handles, using a paper towel on the door handle when exiting the restroom rather than handling it directly can keep one from coming into contact with one of microbial “hot spots” of such venues. However, paper towels also have their microbial downside as used ones are discarded in bins, which means whatever got wiped onto them is now lurking in a communal garbage can, happily multiplying away in that warm, damp environment. One downside inherent to hand dryers is that folks tend not to use them correctly. Whether it’s the noise, or a sense of the user’s being made the center of attention, or just the amount of time such air blasting takes, people tend not to keep their hands under the blower until drying is complete, instead preferring to walk away with damp hands. (Which defeats the purpose, in that wet hands pick up microbes the way a magnet picks up iron filings.) A study by the Mayo Clinic in 2000 found that four potential drying methods — paper towel, cloth roller towel, warm-forced-air dryer and “spontaneous room air evaporation” — were all about equal in removing bacteria. In April 2018, the issue of a hand dryer’s potential ability to disperse and deposit bacteria captured the internet’s attention again thanks to a paper published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. That study cultured bacteria from dryers in 36 bathrooms at the University of Connecticut, finding higher levels of bacteria — including the disease-causing Staphylococcus aureus — from the dryer air than the bathroom air in general. That study concluded that “hand dryers [are] a possible mechanism for spread of infectious bacteria including spores of potential pathogens if present.”
8608	Too much focus on hospitals in Europe's coronavirus fight - MSF.	More attention needs to be given to COVID-19 patients outside of hospitals where care workers are often poorly-equipped and the sick are dying alone, representatives from Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Italy and Spain said on Monday.	true	Health News	Infection rates of the respiratory disease are beginning to slow in two of the worst-hit countries which have together accounted for more than 20% of over 1.2 million cases in the global pandemic, according to World Health Organization data. Staff for the medical charity said the slight easing in the case-load was allowing them to begin to grapple with the scale of the contagion and deaths at nursing homes and individual homes which are often not covered by official figures. “We suffered very much because of over-inflated attention to hospitals,” Dr Chiara Lepora, MSF project coordinator in Italy’s Lodi province in Lombardy told journalists in Geneva in a briefing about “challenges from the field”. “When the number of cases is overwhelming compared to resources, it is necessary to put in place and develop and sustain a number of alternatives.” She said it was not yet possible to say how many had died outside of hospitals, but added more than half of suspected COVID-19 patients in some areas never went there. Of the nursing homes MSF visited, there was a mortality rate of 10-30% among residents, she said. While it has not been possible to confirm what they died of amid test shortages, this matched the COVID-19 mortality rate for those age groups. Staff infection rates in the same facilities were 30-50%. It was not immediately clear how that percentage compares with hospitals. More than 4,000 Italian health workers have contracted the virus. “We really, really call for every other (place) ... that has not yet seen this tragedy unfolding to be more prepared and protect the staff working in nursing homes,” she said. MSF has about 30 staff in Italy and is helping the government. “We need to focus on nursing homes where people have no training and there is not the same level of medical care,” said MSF’s Luis Encinas, medical coordinator for its 65-person Spanish mission. Spain has over 12,000 infected health workers. “Old people are dying alone in hospitals but also in nursing homes without the company of loved ones and in terms of dignity that is one of the key lessons learned,” he said. Processes also need to be adapted immediately to allow loved ones to say goodbye to COVID-19 patients under protocols to reduce infection risks, he said.
8539	Chile plans 'release certificates' for recovered coronavirus patients.	Chile will start handing out certificates to people who have recovered from the novel coronavirus that will exempt them from adhering to quarantines or other restrictions, the health ministry said on Thursday.	true	Health News	Health Minister Jaime Manalich said he hoped some of the 1,274 people identified as having recovered from COVID-19 - 21% of the total confirmed cases - would be able to help restart the local economy which has been paralysed since the virus was first confirmed in Chile at the start of March and successive lockdowns were announced. “Those given a medical discharge certificate will be freed from all types of quarantine or restriction, specifically because they can help their communities enormously since they pose no risk,” he said in a briefing at La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago. Those who have recovered represented a population that was “immune” to the coronavirus and “incapable of transmitting it,” he added. The certificates will be handed out after the roll-out in Chile of rapid fingerprick tests to detect the presence of antibodies due to start within two weeks, he added. The new tests aim to identify antibodies showing contact with the virus and whether the body has developed a defense against it. They are simpler than PCR swab tests on mucus used to confirm the virus itself, but some authorities have questioned their reliability. Britain said this week it had provisionally ordered 17.5 million of the fast tests, but Health Minister Matt Hancock has said some of those in a trial work poorly, and that one test missed three out of four cases. Uncertainty remains about relapses, with cases reported globally including South Korea of people testing positive after recovering. Cristobal Cuadrado, a public health expert at the Universidad de Chile, said it was unconfirmed whether the antibodies tested for provided lasting immunity. “If you want to confirm that someone is not infectious, you must ensure that they have at least one negative PCR test to be released from quarantine,” he said on Twitter. Chile’s government closed schools, malls and restaurants within days of the first confirmed cases and announced $14 billion worth of measures to mitigate its effect on vulnerable families, businesses and a growing number of jobless people. To date Chile has 5,972 confirmed cases of the virus and there have been 57 deaths.
9325	J&J's Stelara succeeds in chronic bowel disease study	The news story focuses on an announcement from Johnson & Johnson that one of its drugs, Stelara, is effective at treating moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis (UC). The story does make note of potential harms, and points out other treatments on the market to treat the disease. However, the story does not make clear how well the treatment works –nor how much it costs. There was also no information about how or where these research findings were presented, nor was there any input from independent experts. It is not much more than a rewrite of the news release, which is emerging as a pattern in our review of Reuters stories. Relying solely on a pharmaceutical company for information about its products means that a news story is little more than a news release. In this case, the relevant news release actually provided significantly more information.	false	ulcerative colitis	Costs are not addressed. This is problematic given that Stelara is already on the market for use in treating other medical conditions — and it can cost thousands of dollars. The story also doesn’t make clear that patients in the relevant trials received only a single dose (at one of two different dosages) — which is an important factor when considering cost. The story notes that either dosage of Stelara “showed clinical remission in significantly more patients, compared with those on placebo, after eight weeks.” But what does that mean? One percent more of patients? Ninety-nine percent more of patients? The story notes that the patients in this study had not responded to available treatment options, and also states that “More than half of UC patients have not experienced remission with currently available treatment options.” But the story fails to say what percentage of patients who received Stelara experienced remission. (According to a news release, the answer was 15.5 or 15.6 percent, depending on which dosage they received.) The story notes that one patient who received Stelara died from “excessive bleeding” but that overall side effects were similar between Stelara and placebo patients. That’s enough to earn a satisfactory rating here. However, it was fairly glaring to discuss a patient dying without explaining whether or not it was thought that this death was attributed to the treatment or the underlying disease. Also the story would have been stronger if it had noted that Stelara affects the immune system, and can cause a host of other significant side effects. The story doesn’t need to list every single risk, but a sentence addressing the risks would be worthwhile. The story infers that the study design included placebo, but doesn’t explicitly state that it was a randomized study with placebo. It also doesn’t make clear that patients in the relevant trials received only a single dose. No disease mongering here. The story does not incorporate input from anyone not associated with the company or the study in question. The story does note other UC treatment options, and notes that the patients in the study had not responded to those treatments. The story notes that Stelara is already on the market. However, it’s not clear whether Stelara could currently be prescribed “off label” to patients suffering from UC. Nor is it clear whether the “late-stage” trial is still ongoing or has been completed. Is there a pathway to FDA approval? If so, what might the timeframe be? The complexity of the drug approval process is such that news reports should help the public understand that this use of the drug is still experimental. that although the drug may be used “off-label,” it is not clear whether the company is seeking to broaden the FDA-approved indications or drum up interest among clinician researchers to design their own clinical trials. The findings appear to be the first large-scale trial results assessing the effect of Stelara on chronic moderate-to-severe UC. That’s not explicitly stated, but it is sufficiently inferred to give this a satisfactory rating. The release appears to be drawn almost entirely from a news release (including a slightly paraphrased quote from a researcher involved with the study). The only departure from the release that we could find was a reference to other, currently available treatments for UC.
14127	"U.S. Dairy Export Council Says a WHO proposal ""portrays milk and dairy products as an obstacle to a healthy start in life."	"The U.S. Dairy Export Council said a WHO proposal ""wrongly portrays milk and dairy products as an obstacle to a healthy start in life."" The proposal clearly is targeting some dairy products, specifically powdered formulations, as ones that work against the benefits that come from maintaining breastfeeding through a child’s early years. But the dairy industry is making a much broader claim, saying the proposal targets milk and dairy products generally. That’s at best unclear. It’s likely unfounded, experts told us. The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression."	false	Global News Service, Agriculture, Children, Public Health, Trade, U.S. Dairy Export Council,	"The milk industry is upset with the World Health Organization, claiming the international group is pushing a set of marketing guidelines that put their products in a bad light. In a letter to President Barack Obama on May 9, 2016, the U.S. Dairy Export Council wrote that a WHO proposal ""portrays milk and dairy products as an obstacle to a healthy start in life."" Does WHO think that milk and dairy products don’t do a baby’s body good? Proposed marketing guidelines At issue are proposed guidelines from the World Health Organization due for a vote at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, at the end of May. The document has been in the works for years and its stated purpose is to end ""the inappropriate promotion of foods for infants and young children, with the aim to promote, protect and support breastfeeding, prevent obesity,"" and generally promote a healthy diet. Dairy exporters are not against breastfeeding, said Shawna Morris, vice president of trade policy for the U.S. Dairy Export Council. The problem, Morris said, is that the WHO proposal covers toddlers up to 3 years old. ""If we have images of a 1- or 2-year-old drinking milk, is that prohibited?"" Morris said. ""It seems to us that it would be."" Morris highlighted several troublesome clauses in the WHO document, including this one (emphasis ours): ""Products that function as breast-milk substitutes should not be promoted. A breast-milk substitute should be understood to include any milks (or products that could be used to replace milk, such as fortified soy milk), in either liquid or powdered form, that are specifically marketed for feeding infants and young children up to the age of 3 years (including follow-up formula and growing-up milks). As the trade groups see it, the proposal would go further. Yogurt, milk and cheese would fall under this definition, they say, when guidelines from the medical community say that most young children do just fine with these foods. Charles Taylor, a marketing professor at Villanova University’s School of Business, told us that the dairy industry has a point. He calls the document ""draconian."" ""At best, the WHO guidelines are a one-sided argument in favor of their strongly held position that breastfeeding is healthier for children without giving the whole position,"" Taylor said. "" At worst, they can be viewed as providing consumers with incomplete information on milk."" How WHO responds Make no mistake, WHO doesn’t want to see breast-milk substitutes promoted. WHO contends, however, that the dairy industry is reading too much into the proposed marketing rules. The proposal says you can identify what products would be affected by how they’re pitched to the public. If they are ""specifically marketed for feeding infants and young children up to the age of 3 years,"" then they are a breast-milk substitute. WHO officials says that excludes milk products such as yogurt, milk and cheese. WHO spokeswoman Olivia Lawe-Davies said that ""in no way does the guidance discourage the consumption of milk. In fact, WHO recommends milk consumption for older infants and young children who are not being breastfed."" That jibes with current WHO guidelines for non-breastfed children age 2 and under. The guidelines state, ""Milk products are rich sources of calcium and several other nutrients. Diets that do not contain animal source foods (meat, poultry, fish or eggs, plus milk products) cannot meet all nutrient needs at this age."" Davies said the new proposal simply adds marketing restrictions for products known as ""follow-up formula"" and ""growing-up milks."" Both are similar to infant formula, but the first one is aimed at infants from 6 months to 1 year, and the second is for toddlers up to 3 years. ""Milks marketed for infants and young children are breast-milk substitutes because they de facto displace the intake of breast milk,"" Davies said. ""Milk that is marketed as a general family food is not covered by this recommendation since it is not marketed specifically for feeding of infants and young children."" Reading between the lines Experts who have studied the language and are aware of both arguments say both the dairy industry and the World Health Organization have a point. Allyn Taylor has a special expertise in the legal ins and outs of these global health codes. Taylor, a law professor at the University of Washington School of Law, was a senior legal adviser when the WHO crafted its rules on tobacco control. She has had no involvement with the latest guidelines. Taylor criticizes the current text as ambiguous, ""poorly written"" and subject to interpretation. Taylor told us she hopes the wording will be debated at the upcoming World Health Assembly in Geneva. (Perhaps in a way to settle this dispute.) But even with that, she said to assert that the proposal casts milk as an obstacle goes too far. ""That is quite a pejorative claim,"" Taylor said. ""You will not find any words in this document to that effect."" Another law professor, Emily Parento at the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, Calif., agreed. The text of the proposal could be more tightly written, she said. But she didn’t see how that flaw gets you to the industry line that WHO is against milk products for toddlers. ""I can’t see the WHO not wanting little kids eating string cheese or having a cup of plain milk,"" Parento said. ""That’s just not there."" A key industry trend The world of powdered milk mixes has changed a lot since the current breast-milk formula marketing guidelines passed in 1981. Formula makers began targeting older infants and toddlers. A report from a New Zealand business group said the expansion produced a $55 billion a year market. In a nod to the impact of the 1981 WHO marketing guidelines, the report noted ""Infant formula is typically defined as ""birth to six months""; the product is then renamed for a range of reasons (primarily to avoid regulation and restrictions on advertising)."" Our ruling The U.S. Dairy Export Council said a WHO proposal ""wrongly portrays milk and dairy products as an obstacle to a healthy start in life."" The proposal clearly is targeting some dairy products, specifically powdered formulations, as ones that work against the benefits that come from maintaining breastfeeding through a child’s early years. But the dairy industry is making a much broader claim, saying the proposal targets milk and dairy products generally. That’s at best unclear. It’s likely unfounded, experts told us. The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.
3929	California OKs pharmacists to dispense HIV prevention meds.	Pharmacists in California will be able to dispense HIV prevention pills to patients without a doctor’s prescription after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Monday that supporters say will greatly reduce the spread of infection.	true	Medication, Health, General News, Legislation, California, Gavin Newsom, U.S. News	Advocates of Senate Bill 159 say California is the first state to authorize pre-exposure prophylaxis, also called PrEP, and post-exposure prophylaxis, known as PEP, without prescriptions. California is already considered a leader in AIDS prevention, they say. PrEP is a once-daily pill for HIV-negative people while PEP is a medication that people take to prevent the virus from taking hold. Supporters say PEP significantly reduces the risk of infection, but only if started within 72 hours of exposure to the virus. Not everyone can get to a doctor in that time frame, says Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California. “The ability to go into a pharmacy to avail themselves of the medication is a huge improvement to removing a barrier,” he said. He says the law will greatly improve access and help reduce the stigma around the drugs, especially in rural areas and among minorities. Nearly 30,000 people in California use PrEP and 6,000 use PEP, according to the California Health Benefits Review Program, which provides analysis to the Legislature. The California Medical Association was initially opposed to the legislation but became neutral on it after it was amended to limit the number of PrEP pills patients can get without a physician’s note to 60 days, said Anthony York, spokesman for the association. The association was concerned about “long-term use without physician oversight,” he said. The law also prohibits insurance companies from requiring patients to get prior authorization before using insurance to get the drugs, eliminating another obstacle. The bill was co-authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who has publicly disclosed that he takes PrEP as an HIV prevention strategy. “To end new HIV infections, we must dramatically expand access to PrEP and PEP, yet far too many Californians who need these drugs struggle to access them,” he said. Pharmacists in California are already authorized to dispense emergency contraceptives and birth control without a prescription. Newsom also signed legislation Monday aimed at lowering the cost of prescription drugs. The new law targets so-called “pay for delay” agreements, when makers of brand-name drugs pay for makers of similar generic drugs to delay putting the products on the market. The new law presumes such arrangements are anti-competitive and steps up enforcement to stop them. Drug companies argue the bill will cause more delays for generic drugs by ensuring lengthy legal battles over patents.
1682	As youth vaping rises, teens cite the allure of tricks.	On a recent morning, Roger Tarazon and several friends gathered a few blocks from their Queens, New York high school. Some smoked traditional cigarettes, but Tarazon and a few others puffed on electronic vaping devices.	true	Health News	“Sometimes I use it to relax,” the 18-year-old senior said of the device. He also uses it to perform tricks with the vapor, blowing smoke rings or creating funnels of smoke that look like miniature tornadoes. “I don’t do it to show off,” he said. “I just do them because I’m bored.” Tarazon’s embrace of such tricks reflects a growing trend among U.S. teenagers, whose use of e-cigarettes tripled in the last year alone. New research provided to Reuters has found that performing tricks is one of the top two reasons young users say they consider the devices cool. Public health officials have warned for several years of the attraction of flavored nicotine liquid to teens and tweens, and have urged regulators to ban them. Consumers have a wide range of flavor choices, including menthol, single-malt scotch, cappuccino and pomegranate. But the role of tricks in enticing young people to use e-cigarettes has not previously been explored. Now researchers are asking whether they could help hook a new generation who otherwise would not have used nicotine. “We expected the flavors were attractive,” said Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, a psychiatry professor at the Yale School of Medicine. “But smoke tricks were a surprise to us.” Krishnan-Sarin and her team, with funding from the National Institutes of Health, asked 5,400 Connecticut teens to identify what they found “cool about e-cigarettes?” The top two answers were: the flavors of the vaping liquids, and the “ability to do tricks.” Electronic devices produce much more vapor, especially when adjusted to operate at high temperatures, than conventional cigarettes, which helps facilitate the vapor tricks. Teen interest in performing them comes as “cloud competitions,” are increasing in popularity. The contests, in which adult vapers, as they call themsleves, compete to perform the best tricks and create the biggest and densest vapor clouds, are becoming a regular feature at local vape shops. Some regional competitions offer thousands of dollars in prize money. Thousands of videos demonstrating expert vaping and how to perform tricks have been posted on YouTube and Instagram. “Even if (teenagers) don’t attend these events they are exposed to a lot of these issues,” Krishnan-Sarin said. E-cigarette use by U.S. tweens and teens tripled in 2014 to 13.4 percent from 4.5 percent in 2013, according to data released in April by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall tobacco use during that period dropped to 9.2 percent from 12.7 percent. For a graphic, see: link.reuters.com/fes54w The data prompted new alarm among public health advocates, who urged the Obama administration to quickly finalize proposed rules that will allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate e-cigarettes for the first time. Using e-cigarettes is considered less risky than smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes, which increase the likelihood of lung cancer and other disease. But several studies have found that heating the liquids used in electronic devices to very high temperatures could release formaldehyde, a carcinogen. “If you don’t smoke, if you don’t use tobacco products, there is no reason to experiment with electronic cigarettes,” said Maciej L. Goniewicz, a professor at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, who has done some of the formaldehyde research. Tarazon and other teens said their favorite tricks include something called the “dragon,” in which vapor is exhaled from both nostrils and sides of their mouth. They learn the tricks from each other or by watching online videos with demonstrations set to popular music. Many are of cloud competitions, which started on the West Coast a few years ago but are now popular nationwide. The majority are low-key events at vape shops where winners typically are awarded devices or gift cards. But there are also beginning to be far more serious competitions. The Vape Capitol Cloud Championship, for example, will offer $10,000 for the Biggest Cloud and the best Vape Tricks. The competitors – mostly men in their 20s and 30s - train to increase their lung capacity by blowing up balloons and by using diving equipment and plastic breathing devices typically used after surgery. The events bar minors from competing, and often from attending, too, though there is no law prohibiting them from being part of the audience. “We’re aware that there is a niche group that enjoys participating in vaper competitions,” said Phil Daman, president of the Smoke-Free Alternative Trade Association. “Any use of these products should be strictly limited to adults.” Chris Esker, at Fogwind Vapor in Effingham, Illinois said he’d rather not have minors attend the store’s events, but he can’t prevent parents from bringing their kids. Esker converted his T-shirt store into a vape shop about a year ago. Sales have been so strong that he hopes to open this year two more stores. “There are kids doing back flips on dirt bikes,” said Esker, who began smoking at age 12 but now vapes. “There are way worse things they can be doing.”
6975	Crash victim’s mother, man who received her son’s heart meet.	Zack Kelly always had a strong heart_and 13 months after the young man died in a horrific car accident, his mother desperately wanted to hear his powerful heart beating inside another person’s body.	true	Health, Fredericksburg, Virginia, Organ transplants, Accidents	That’s why Melanie Kelly brought her pale pink stethoscope to the clubhouse of Lake Wilderness in Spotsylvania County on a Saturday afternoon. LifeNet Health, the Virginia Beach organization that arranged for Zack’s organ transplants, had set up a meeting between her and Tim Bibey, the 52-year-old who got his heart. The two hugged at first, then took a few steps back to talk, while about 40 members of their families looked on. Bibey told her how he’d always been healthy, never even needed a doctor, until an unknown infection started his decline in August 2016. By the following year, his heart couldn’t pump properly, causing his lungs to fill up with fluid. Then, the carpenter who’d spent 32 years building log homes — and had never smoked, drank or used drugs — lost so much strength and weight during a monthlong hospital stay, his wife and son had to carry him into their house. But since December 2017, when Zack Kelly’s 21-year-old heart was put in Tim Bibey’s chest, the older man has started to feel like himself again — and then some. He’s been to almost 40 appointments at VCU Medical Center in Richmond to have his heart checked and “aced them all,” he told Melanie Kelly. “You got the best heart around,” the mother responded. “It’s strong, trust me,” he said. Then, Bibey asked if she was ready. Both looked a little nervous, and the mother took a deep breath. She reached for the stethoscope she carried as a longtime first responder and approached Bibey. He wore a sky-blue T-shirt which read, “The greatest hero I never knew was the organ donor who saved my life.” He lifted the bottom of it, and she slipped the instrument under it. Melanie Kelly moved the bell-shaped piece around for a second, then gasped. She had found the lub-DUB, lub-DUB, lub-DUB she sought, the same “strong-as-a-jackhammer” sound heard when she listened to Zack’s heartbeat when he was a kid. With one hand on the stethoscope, she clasped the other over her mouth, overjoyed and overcome with emotion at the same time. So were lots of other people, who reached for the tissues that had been placed on every table. “Oh, God, that sounds so good,” she said, crying. “Doesn’t it?” Bibey replied. “Isn’t that amazing? How strong is it?” “That’s my baby boy written all over you,” she said. ... Eight months to the day after Bibey had his transplant, he was in the CVS at Lake of the Woods. The pharmacist knew his history and asked how he was doing. In line that same moment was Kathy Kelly, Zack’s grandmother. Bibey had shared his story with her, and as he talked, she wondered: Could he be the recipient? Bibey seemed a little hyper, and the grandmother couldn’t help thinking he reminded her a little of her oldest grandson. She went outside the store and waited for Bibey in the August heat. He bounded outside, saw her and wondered in a friendly tone: “Did you lose me?” When she asked the date and place of his transplant — and heard Dec. 8 in Richmond — she almost passed out. He even reached for her, to make sure she was OK. Then, the two shared their stories, and tears came to both. Bibey’s next words echoed the nervousness he felt meeting Melanie Kelly face to face. How could he express his sorrow for their loss? And gratitude for a second chance? “There’s not enough words on this earth,” Bibey said. Kathy Kelly was a bit overwhelmed. She wasn’t just “MaMaw” to Zack, she’d been a second mother. He and Melanie had lived with her and her husband, Denny Kelly, from the time Zack was born. The grandma had been in the delivery room, had cut the newborn’s umbilical cord. Losing him was the hardest thing she’d ever been through, and here she was at the local drugstore, talking to a man who might have part of her grandson inside him. What were the odds? It seemed too impossible to be true. But there was more to the story. Bibey and his wife, Lisa, lived three miles from the Kellys in Spotsylvania. The Bibeys had two sons about the same age as Zack, and all three had attended Riverbend High School. They knew of each other and probably passed in the hallways countless times. Fate intervened again when Melanie Kelly was paying her personal property taxes at Spotsylvania Courthouse. In line with her was one of Bibey’s four sisters, who was talking with the clerk — a relative — about Bibey’s heart transplant. Melanie Kelly overheard and put two and two together. The families started texting and calling each other in November. They didn’t meet in person until this month, but after getting official word from LifeNet that Bibey was the recipient, the Kellys had been keeping up with his medical appointments. “We totally circumvented the whole system,” Melanie Kelly said. Seeing the families together was the perfect example of something good coming out of a tragic situation, said Dr. Corey Wright, trauma surgeon at Mary Washington Hospital. Wright and his team tried to save the life of Zachary Aaron Kelly after a vehicle accident on Dec. 5, 2017, on U.S. 17 in Stafford County. Another driver had made a U-turn and pulled into Kelly, and his injuries were so severe, he couldn’t be saved. He was declared brain dead, though his mother said his heart never stopped beating. “He fought so hard for my boy,” Melanie Kelly said about Wright, “I couldn’t not have him here today.” Wright has been on both sides of the table, both as a doctor preparing organs for transplants, and during his training, on a team that put them in place. Still, he’d never witnessed this other “surreal” side, seeing the impact the donation had on all affected. “I feel honored to be here,” Wright said, as he talked with members of both families. Zack Kelly had wanted to be an organ donor since middle school, his grandmother said. A transplant had changed a classmate’s life, and he wanted to do the same for others. One person can save eight lives through donations of the heart, liver, pancreas, two lungs and two kidneys. Every day, 20 people die waiting for a transplant, according to the U.S. Government Information on Organ Donation and Transplantation. Zack Kelly’s muscle and tissue also were transplanted, and his mother said his corneas helped a person see again. A man who got one of his kidneys was on his deathbed and had needed dialysis every day of the week, she said. But of all those helped by organs from her only child, Melanie Kelly prayed the most for the person who got his heart. She knew how damaged it was in the accident. It had a tear in the aorta from the impact of the crash, and the left ventricle had collapsed. Still, the mother knew if it was viable, it would change a person’s life. She saw, and heard, that for herself after meeting Bibey. “He said he’s got energy now he never had,” the mother said. “I know where he got it from.” February was the first time the families met, but they said it won’t be the last. “We’ll be friends forever,” Melanie Kelly said. Bibey’s wife, Lisa, said the same, praising the other mother for how she’s handled the situation. “She’s very strong to go through this.” Melanie Kelly wants to hear how Bibey is doing, and she continues to pray that the 38 pills he takes daily will keep his body from rejecting her son’s heart. She’s also curious to know what new foods he craves — green peppers, fettuccine Alfredo or Brussels sprouts — that her son also enjoyed. After the mom heard her son’s heartbeat again, she seemed to have trouble breaking the connection. She held her palm on his chest, then rested her head against it. Bibey said his heart was open to her and her stethoscope. “Anytime you want to hear it,” he offered, and she jumped at it. “I’ll call you,” she responded. ___ Information from: The Free Lance-Star, http://www.fredericksburg.com/
4974	Cheap combo pill cuts heart, stroke risks, study finds.	A cheap daily pill that combines four drugs cut the risk of heart attacks, strokes and heart failure in a large study, suggesting it could be a good way to help prevent heart problems especially in poor countries.	true	Health, General News, Stroke, Heart attack, Cholesterol, U.S. News, Heart failure	The pills contained two blood pressure drugs, a cholesterol medicine and aspirin. Many people can’t afford or don’t stick with taking so many medicines separately, so doctors think a polypill might help. A previous study testing one in India found it lowered cholesterol and blood pressure. The new study is much larger and gives stronger evidence because it tracked heart attacks, strokes and other problems — not just risk factors. It involved about 6,800 people in Iran, ages 50-75, some with previous heart problems and others without them. All got advice on healthy lifestyles and half also were given polypills. After five years, 6% of those in the pill group had suffered a heart attack, stroke or heart failure versus 9% of the others. That worked out to a 34% lower risk with the polypill, and a 22% lower risk after researchers took into account other heart drugs that participants were taking. People who took the polypill most faithfully, at least 70% of the time, had even bigger reductions in heart risks. The benefit mostly seemed to come from lowering cholesterol; blood pressure didn’t significantly change. Side effects were similar in both groups. Some who developed a cough while on the polypill were switched to another version that substituted one of the four drugs. All of the drugs are cheap generic medicines now. Results were published Thursday in the British journal Lancet. The study was paid for by Tehran University of Medical Sciences, a foundation and Alborz Darou, the company that makes the polypills. “This is an important step in the right direction,” said Dr. Salim Yusuf of McMaster University in Canada, who leads another polypill study expected to finish next summer. “This could be used in every sensible country where we want to save lives.” One study leader, Dr. Tom Marshall of Britain’s University of Birmingham, said the results show the polypill is a “viable strategy” to prevent heart disease in developing countries. “It’s much simpler to give people one medication that manages a couple of risk factors at the same time,” he said. Marshall said, however, that the benefits would be minimal for people who already have access to good health care. “But if you’re in a system where people don’t have great access, then this is a significant advantage,” he said. Dr. Amit Khera, director of preventive cardiology at Southwestern Medical School in Texas who had no role in the study, said he expected that polypills would start to be used more widely in the next few years if they’re shown to work in other groups besides the people of central Asian ancestry tested in the Lancet study. “The biology is different in different populations, so before we apply it to all of India or all of North Africa, we need to know these polypills are actually safe in these populations,” he said. ___ 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.
16454	"American Crossroads Says Tom Steyer is a ""California billionaire who stands to profit by blocking Keystone"" and ""is spending big to help"" Bruce Braley."	"American Crossroads said Steyer ""stands to profit by blocking Keystone"" and ""is spending big to help"" Braley’s Senate campaign. At one point, this might have been an accurate ad. Steyer’s former hedge fund, Farallon Capital Management, had significant holdings in a company that owned a pipeline considered a rival to Keystone XL, and under Steyer’s direction, his investment group had a large stake in fossil fuels. However, Steyer has since left the investment group he started, and asked his company to divest any of his holdings from fossil fuels, including tar sands. He also donated his profits from the Kinder Morgan pipeline to charity. Further, as of 2014, Farallon is no longer invested in Keystone’s competitor, according to SEC filings. As far as we can tell, Steyer would not directly profit from Keystone’s demise going forward. So the evidence from American Crossroads falls short."	false	Environment, National, Campaign Finance, Climate Change, Message Machine 2014, Negative Campaigning, American Crossroads,	"It’s Republican strategist Karl Rove versus billionaire Democratic donor Tom Steyer in Iowa. Rove’s group, American Crossroads, is up with a new ad that claims the Democratic Senate candidate there, Rep. Bruce Braley, is doing the bidding for Steyer by voting against the Keystone XL oil pipeline. ""Now, a California billionaire who stands to profit by blocking Keystone is spending big to help Braley’s campaign,"" the ad says. ""Bruce Braley, he’s on the side of billionaire special interests, not Iowa workers."" Steyer is identified in the ad as the California billionaire. He has run ads helping Braley and against his opponent, Republican Joni Ernst. Rove’s group is a super PAC backed by millions of dollars in undisclosed donors, so American Crossroads warning voters about ""special interest"" dollars in the race sounds a little to us like, ""Pot, meet kettle."" But regardless, we wanted to review American Crossroads' attack against Steyer. Would he ""stand to profit"" if Keystone is killed? We reviewed the evidence. For those unfamiliar with Steyer, he’s the billionaire behind NextGen Climate Change who has promised $100 million to Democrats in the midterm elections. Some have called him the Democrats’ Koch brothers of the election cycle. How, exactly, would an environmentalist make money by blocking Keystone XL, a pipeline that would carry oil from the Alberta tar sands through Nebraska to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico? American Crossroads sent us quite a few news stories that showed Steyer wasn’t always the hardcore environmentalist he now portrays himself as. Steyer made his fortune at Farallon Capital Management, an investment group he started in the 1980s. According to a Washington Post profile and other reports, Farallon Capital heavily invested in energy throughout Steyer’s time there, including fossil fuels. Steyer left the company in the fall of 2012. ""Investments included BP and mining companies in the United States and around the world,"" the Post wrote. ""Farallon's second-largest holding in September 2012, a month before Steyer announced his departure, was a $220 million investment in the oil-and-gas giant Nexen."" Also included in Farallon’s investment portfolio was Kinder Morgan, a company that owned a pipeline connecting the Alberta tar sands to the Pacific coast. The pipeline is considered a rival to Keystone XL. So case closed, right? Not so fast. As we said, Steyer left Farallon Capital in 2012. But it wasn’t just that he left, it’s how he left. When he stepped down as a co-managing partner, Steyer directed Farallon Capital to divest his investments in the company from any of its holdings in tar sands and coal. That would have included the Kinder Morgan pipeline. Later in 2013, Steyer called for the company to divest his money from fossil fuels entirely. A spokeswoman for Steyer told the Post in June that process would conclude that month. Around the same time, Steyer took heat from Republicans for investing in an energy source he was simultaneously vilifying. In response, Steyer vowed to donate all the profits he made from Kinder Morgan pipeline to a charity. He announced in June he was donating $2 million to that cause. We don’t know if that was the full amount of the profit Steyer earned from his investment in the rival pipeline. But the ad from American Crossroads is prospective anyway, claiming that Steyer ""stands to profit"" from blocking Keystone. Steyer no longer has any way to directly earn money from the Kinder Morgan pipeline. And here’s the kicker: As of today, Farallon Capital Management no longer has any investment holdings in Kinder Morgan. Security and Exchange Commission filings for Farallon show $45 million worth of investments in Kinder Morgan through the end of 2013. But Kinder Morgan does not show up on the investment group’s portfolio for the first or second quarter of 2014. Our ruling American Crossroads said Steyer ""stands to profit by blocking Keystone"" and ""is spending big to help"" Braley’s Senate campaign. At one point, this might have been an accurate ad. Steyer’s former hedge fund, Farallon Capital Management, had significant holdings in a company that owned a pipeline considered a rival to Keystone XL, and under Steyer’s direction, his investment group had a large stake in fossil fuels. However, Steyer has since left the investment group he started, and asked his company to divest any of his holdings from fossil fuels, including tar sands. He also donated his profits from the Kinder Morgan pipeline to charity. Further, as of 2014, Farallon is no longer invested in Keystone’s competitor, according to SEC filings. As far as we can tell, Steyer would not directly profit from Keystone’s demise going forward. So the evidence from American Crossroads falls short."
27466	A newspaper photograph shows a pregnant, cigarette-smoking woman worrying about the effect of construction noise on her unborn child.	“We don’t allow no smoking in the house at all,” Muse said, emphatically. “Cigarettes are a habit my son will never pick up.”	true	Fauxtography, pregnancy, Signs Of The Times, smoking	In recent years, medical authorities have tried to impress more and more upon pregnant women the importance of being careful about what they ingest (especially in the early states of pregnancy). What’s good for a pregnant mother isn’t necessarily good for the child she carries; substances that an adult woman can tolerate without harm may still have deleterious effects on a fetus. Two activities pregnant women are strongly urged to avoid are smoking cigarettes and drinking alcoholic beverages, to the extent that those two products now carry government-mandated warning labels directed at mothers-to-be: SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking By Pregnant Women May Result in Fetal Injury, Premature Birth, And Low Birth Weight. GOVERNMENT WARNING: According to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects. In this context, many people found it anything from puzzling to ludicrous to see a newspaper photograph of a woman expressing concern about the effect of jackhammer noise on her unborn child while visibly puffing away on a cigarette. So much so that quite a few readers believed the picture to be part of a phony, mocked-up newspaper article, but it was the real thing: The photograph accompanied a 20 September 2004 article published by the Times of Roanoke, Virginia, about complaints over a road construction project which had been disrupting traffic in that town: Traffic-calming efforts along Bullitt Avenue Southeast are making Robert Parsley furious. Parsley, 44, said he has lived in Southeast Roanoke all of his life and has witnessed many changes. But this current construction project, Parsley said, “is the dumbest thing the city has ever done.” Complaints from both residents and drivers about traffic on Bullitt Avenue from Sixth to Ninth streets have been “numerous,” said Mark Jamison, the city’s traffic engineer. The article included a picture of an obviously pregnant woman holding a cigarette above the following caption: Mellisa Williamson, 35. a Bullitt Avenue resident, worries about the effect on her unborn child from the sound of jackhammers. The perceived disparity between Ms. Williamson’s words and her actions didn’t escape notice, as scanned copies of the Roanoke Times article in which she appeared began circulating on the Internet, most of them featuring a variety of snide, reader-added comments. Within a few days the photograph had sparked so much controversy that Roanoke Times columnist Joe Kennedy penned an article about it the following week: Mellissa Williamson came to her door smoking a cigarette Thursday morning. It was a sign that the Southeast Roanoke woman didn’t know or didn’t care about the furor her photograph had ignited since it appeared in The Roanoke Times on Sept. 20. The photo showed her seven months pregnant and smoking a cigarette. It accompanied a story about unpopular “traffic-calming” measures under way on Bullitt Avenue, where she lives. The caption said she worries about the effect of jackhammer noise on her unborn child. She couldn’t have touched off a controversy more quickly if she’d called President Bush an Islamic extremist. Dozens of calls and e-mails came to The Roanoke Times impugning her reputation and criticizing the paper for printing the photo. It glamorized or promoted smoking while pregnant, some people said. At least one syndicated talk radio host mentioned it, and the picture proliferated on Web sites, with the caption and some wise remark like, “Yeah, the noise is what the baby needs to fear.” Williamson said she knows smoking is bad because people have criticized her since she took up the practice 20 years ago. “I really don’t pay that much attention to it,” she said. “If people don’t like it, that’s their opinion. They’ve got theirs and I’ve got mine.” She has tried every way to quit without success, she said. As for smoking while pregnant, she said her doctor told her “it would be good if I cut back, but if I totally quit, it would not only cause stress on me but it would cause stress on the baby.” Joe Kennedy visited with Mellissa Williamson and her partner — and their new son — a few months later: I dropped in at the apartment that Williamson and Emmett Muse Jr. share in a house on Bullitt Avenue Southeast. She was in the front room, dressed in a red sweat shirt and white pants and holding Emmett Muse III — the baby she bore at 1:15 a.m. on Nov. 15. Emmett III weighed 5 pounds, 2 ounces at birth and measured 18.5 inches in length. He arrived one day early. He is up to 6 pounds now and doing well, she said. She and Muse, her partner for two years, had a good Thanksgiving, and they anticipate a good Christmas. Muse is 49, a big man in a camouflage jacket who has applied for disability because of a back injury he suffered in car wreck several years ago. Williamson, 35, is a small woman who worked at a fast-food restaurant until after she became pregnant. She is unemployed and on public assistance. Clearly the couple is thrilled by their newborn — Emmett’s first child and Mellisa’s second. She and Muse said they hope to marry in January. Despite [the couple’s] smoking, their apartment did not smell of smoke.
11127	Bran, soy help cut cholesterol	There were no independent perspectives on the research, and information on costs and availability was lacking. The story also failed to make it clear that we’re talking about a surrogate marker of cardiovascular disease–not actual heart attacks. The competing story from the LA Times had some of the same shortcomings, but did a better job overall giving readers the information they need to make decisions. We sympathize with bloggers who say that our criteria are difficult to satisfy within the confines of a short blog post. (But who says it has to be this short?) Nevertheless, examples abound of stories that are able to check most or all of our boxes in posts not much longer than this one. There’s just no good excuse for stories that fail to help readers interpret complicated health research and make informed decisions about their care.	false	CNN,health food claims	Same problems here as with the competing LA Times story: The post doesn’t address how much it will cost to maintain this diet, which includes some pricey soy-based components and expensive fortified margarines. The story tells us how much the diet reduced cholesterol, providing the actual values from the lab report. It could have also estimated the expected reduction in 10-year cardiovascular risk that this would correspond to. There was no discussion of the safety of the diet. The study paper notes that there were some potential allergic reactions in the portfolio diet group. In contrast to the LA Times, which clearly established that this study looked at the surrogate outcome of LDL cholesterol, this blog post made it sound as if LDL cholesterol reduction were totally synonymous with heart disease prevention. Although the two are closely linked, we can’t say without further study whether this diet will result in a reduction in actual cardiovascular events. (This is the kind of detail an independent source might have provided.) Also, the study never mentioned the important role of margarine fortified with plant sterols for achieving the LDL reductions seen in the study. As the study authors note in their paper, sterol-fortified margarines are the greatest single contributors to LDL cholesterol reduction in this portfolio diet. These impressive cholesterol-lowering results cannot be achieved simply by eating more oat bran, soy burgers, and by replacing a standard lunch with fruit and nuts–which is what readers might think based on the story. This story tripped our disease-mongering detector by failing to discuss or even mention why someone would care about their cholesterol levels. High LDL cholesterol is not a disease, it is a heart disease risk factor. The LA Times, by comparison, reported: “Cleveland Clinic’s Nissen stressed that researchers did not directly measure rates of coronary heart disease — just LDL cholesterol — so the health effects of the portfolio diet are not yet clear.” The CNN post makes it sound like lowering cholesterol is an end in and of itself. That’s the kind of mindset that leads to more medical treatment instead of better medical treatment. The story quotes the lead author of the study, but includes no truly independent perspectives. It also does not disclose that many of the study authors have ties to organizations (e.g. Unilever) that might benefit from wider adoption of this diet. The story does not clearly explain that the control group in this study was eating the “standard” diet recommended to reduce risk of heart disease — an important detail. It also does not discuss how the results compare with those of statin drugs. There’s no discussion of the difficulty people in poor urban and rural areas may have finding some of the vegetarian foods called for in this diet, which includes some fairly exotic soy products (e.g. soy deli slices) as sources of protein. Also, considering the lack of physician reimbursement for dietary advice, patients may have trouble finding a health professional who can counsel them on this approach. The story makes it clear that this study is a follow-up to previous studies of this diet conducted under more controlled conditions. This is nicely explained. The story has a quote that is taken from a phone interview, which tells us the story wasn’t entirely based on a news release.
15325	"Since 2009, ""we've cut homelessness (among veterans) by a third."	"Obama said, ""Let’s take something like homelessness among veterans. So we’ve cut that by a third."" According to the most recent, best available data, he’s right. During his tenure, homelessness among veterans has decreased 32.57 percent. However, that number is based on estimates that have an element of uncertainty. Also, funding to end homelessness among veterans has received bipartisan support in Congress. Still, Obama’s point is largely accurate."	true	National, Housing, Veterans, Barack Obama,	"Ever since Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized the war record of Vietnam veteran Sen. John McCain on July 20, the treatment of veterans has been a major point of political discussion. President Barack Obama got into the fray in his July 21 interview with Jon Stewart on the Comedy Central program The Daily Show, during an unaired, exclusively online portion of the interview. Stewart questioned Obama on the state of veteran health care, citing, among other things, the VA’s long wait times. Obama defended the government agency, claiming the VA is structurally better than when he entered office, though it remains underfunded and its employees overworked. Later in the interview, he further defended his record when it comes to serving veterans. ""Let’s take something like homelessness among veterans. So we’ve cut that by a third,"" Obama said. That one-third number struck us. Does Obama have the facts to back it up? One independent agency dedicated to fighting homelessness thinks so. On the ""Veterans"" page of the National Alliance to End Homelessness’ website, it reads, ""In 2009, the Obama Administration committed to ending veteran homelessness in the U.S. by the end of 2015. Since 2010, there has been a 33 percent decrease in the number of homeless veterans."" Nan Roman, the CEO and president of the Alliance, said the 33 percent decrease is backed by the yearly ""point in time,"" called PIT, count of homeless veterans. Every year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) releases a detailed report about the state of homelessness in the United States to Congress, called the Annual Homeless Assessment Report. The 2014 report reported 49,933 homeless veterans according to the point in time count, a 32.57 percent decrease from the 2009 count of 74,050. The 2015 numbers are not yet available, but Roman said she expects further decreases. National ""point in time"" counts were first conducted in 2009, during the peak of the recession, so it is possible that the decline in homelessness among veterans has been symptomatic of the larger national economic recovery. But the count has been largely consistent since then. But what is a ""point in time"" count, and what do other metrics say about veteran homelessness? According to Dennis Culhane, a professor who studies homelessness at the University of Pennsylvania, the PIT count is conducted around the same time every year by individual cities. The number is supposed to reflect the total number of homeless people, ""sheltered"" and ""unsheltered,"" on a given night in a given city. Cities must do a count if they are to receive HUD funding. The ""sheltered"" count is easy. When homeless people stay in temporary, government-sponsored housing, they have to register with city officials. It’s the ""unsheltered"" population, the people living on the street, who pose a counting challenge According to Culhane, not every city counts the same way. Some literally count by hand the number of homeless people living on the street. Some estimate based on how likely it is to find a homeless person in a given area of a city. And some even change their counting methodology from year to year, forcing revised estimates that can change the national number. Despite some inevitable discrepancies, Roman said the PIT numbers are consistent. ""They may be imperfect, but they’re imperfect in the same way every single year,"" Roman said. Further complicating things, it can be difficult to ascertain whether certain unsheltered homeless people are veterans. Sometimes, those who have served do not identify as such, or, on the flip side, people exaggerate their service. The PIT count also isn’t the only statistic for counting the homeless veteran population. Brian Sullivan, the supervisory public affairs specialist at HUD, pointed us to both the PIT number and the one-year estimate of sheltered veterans, a different metric. That number isn’t limited by the small time frame of the PIT count. It uses an entire year’s worth of data. The one-year estimate of sheltered veterans does not support the 33 percent number Obama offered. According to the most recent data, there were just 6.5 percent fewer homeless veterans from 2009 to 2013. But Roman and Culhane say the PIT number is preferred over the one-year estimate because the PIT takes into account both sheltered and unsheltered veterans. ""I would use the PIT count. Annual data would be strong, if they included all veterans (i.e., unsheltered as well as sheltered),"" Roman wrote in an email. ""Over one-third of the homeless veteran population is unsheltered on a given night. That is a large percentage of the population to ignore."" Culhane said the biggest drop in the homeless veteran population has been among the unsheltered, so ignoring that slice of the population would be counterintuitive. The only reason to be skeptical of the Annual Homeless Assessment Report numbers, Roman said, would be because they are pretty much the only numbers available. ""It’s the administration reporting on the administration’s data, and we don’t have any verification of it,"" Roman said. Culhane, who helps with the count as the director of research for the VA’s National Center for Homelessness Among Veterans, said there were multiple reasons to believe the numbers. For one, he pointed out, individual communities conduct the counts. For another, Obama and Congress together have thrown a lot of money at this problem in recent years. ""In 2009, the federal budget for veteran homelessness was $400 million and that paid for a transitional housing program that was basically a fancy shelter,"" he said. ""Now the budget is $1.5 billion."" Roman agreed. ""There’s a lot of work going on in communities to find every veteran, and there’s a lot of money being spent to get them into housing,"" she said. She pointed to the Supportive Services for Veterans Families and HUD-VA Supportive Housing programs, which have both cut down significantly on the cost of housing for homeless veterans. Our ruling Obama said, ""Let’s take something like homelessness among veterans. So we’ve cut that by a third."" According to the most recent, best available data, he’s right. During his tenure, homelessness among veterans has decreased 32.57 percent. However, that number is based on estimates that have an element of uncertainty. Also, funding to end homelessness among veterans has received bipartisan support in Congress. Still, Obama’s point is largely accurate, and"
4083	Alabama investigates 5 cases of lung disease tied to vaping.	The Alabama Department of Public Health says it’s investigating five reports of potentially severe lung disease associated with electronic cigarettes or vaping.	true	Health, General News, Lung disease, Alabama, Public health	The department told news outlets that it’s evaluating the reports and will release information as it becomes available. A department statement says the group is joining other state health departments in requesting information from health care providers on any cases of suspected respiratory illness among patients who vape. It says most cases are among young adults and adolescents. Symptoms include chest pain and vomiting. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says as of Sept. 6 there are over 450 possible cases of lung illness associated with the use of vaping over 33 states. It says five deaths have been confirmed in California , Illinois , Indiana , Minnesota and Oregon .
10188	Hormone oxytocin may help Asperger’s patients	Briefest – by far – of the three stories we reviewed on this same topic, this story oversimplified content to the point of producing errors. The study is a preliminary investigation of the role of oxytocin treatment in autism and was intended to examine the short term effects of the hormone using a standard set of laboratory measures of socialization. The study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting a linkage between autism and oxytocin and a potential avenue of additional research.	false		"The story does not speak to the potential costs associated with a hormone treatment potentially for the life of the person with autism or Aspergers syndrome. While the published study itself does not quantify the results clearly, which is understandable for preliminary laboratory research, we give the story an unsatisfactory rating for exaggerating the study results, claiming that the subjects, ""……dramatically improve their social learning skills and spend more time gazing at pictures of faces after inhaling the social-bonding hormone oxytocin."" The study was of short duration and the improvements seen were not across the board and were not long-lasting, as is implied in the story. For comparision, a HealthDay story stated clearly: There were, however, wide variations in individual responses, the team noted. ""It’s not clear whether this would be effective at all in children or in young adults who had intellectual problems,"" warned (an independent expert). Also, scientists would need to come up with a different method of delivery, (one independent expert) said. ""The nasal [inhaled] drugs only work for a few minutes. Potentially it would be very difficult to be using this drug once an hour or something. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,"" he pointed out. ""But it does point the way to the possibility of raising oxytocin levels with other kinds of compounds to increase oxytocin levels more generally over a longer period of time. I don’t know whether this is a realistic therapy as we have it now but, potentially, in the future it could really help these people whose primary autistic symptoms are having to do with reduction in social activity."" The harms of oxytocin are not discussed in the story. While we do not see a discussion of adverse events in the study report either, and the study was not a real-world trial of a drug, we think the potential harms are worth acknowledging, particularly considering the potential extension of such research to children. Another story included the expert quote, ""We have to be careful about the safety and efficacy of oxytocin on pediatric populations."" We do know about the side effects of oxytocin when given over a period of hours to women to induce labor. Allergic reactions and the risk of water intoxication are well-known issues with short term administration of oxytocin. We have limited to no information on the safety of oxytocin administration in children. The story provides a brief summary of the study results without any context or balanced view. The headlne of the story suggests that oxytocin may help people with Aspergers, a conclusion that is a bit of a reach given the study design and conclusions. Unfortunately, the story does little to attenuate the initial impression provided by the headline. It seems that the story misinterprets some of the methods. First, the 13 subjects in the study’s main group did not have ""Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism"" — they had either. Ten had Asperger syndrome, 3 had high-functioning autism. There is debate over whether the diagnoses ""Asperberger syndrome"" and ""high-functioning autism"" overlap, but in this study they are treated as separate diagnoses. Second, it’s a bit misleading to say the study involved ""13 subjects with Asperger’s syndrome and a control group."" There were, in fact, 13 subjects with Asperger syndrome or mild autism, and they received either the active treatment, oxytocin spray, or a placebo spray. There were another 13 healthy subjects. Finally, and most importantly, where is any critical analysis of the preliminary nature of this laboratory study and its extraordinarily small sample? No outside sources are consulted in this very brief story. The sole quote is acknowledged to be from a study coauthor. Although the story is very short, if there were only room for one quote, perhaps some outside perspective would have been warranted. The story does not speak to current approaches or the lack of current treatments. Although the study is preliminary, a brief comment on the lack of avaiable treatments would have been valuable. The story does not speak to the availability of oxytocin as a prescription drug or its off label use in the study or – apparently (according to other stories) by many families already. The article claims that the study is ""the first to demonstrate the effects of oxytocin — a hormone that promotes mother-infant bonding, socialization, trust and cooperation — in people diagnosed with Asperger’s."" The link between oxytocin and autism has been the subject of investigation for a number of years, including prior studies examining social interactions as well as other symptoms of the disorder. In fact, the study itself cites prior research (#28, Hollander et al) entitled ""Oxytocin infusion reduces repetitive behaviors in adults with autistic and Aspberger’s disorders."" While the testing employed in the study may be unique, the novelty of the research is arguable. We can’t be sure of the extent to which the story was influenced by a news release, so we judge this to be N/A."
28877	Police are asking meth users to bring in their drugs because they might be contaminated with Ebola.	What's true: A police department posted a humorous message on Facebook warning meth users about potential Ebola contamination. What's false: Methamphetamine supplies have been contaminated with Ebola.	mixture	Uncategorized, ebola, meth	In March 2016, several warnings circulated on Facebook stating that methamphetamine supplies, and the ingredients used to create meth for recreational drug use, could be contaminated with the virus for the deadly disease Ebola. While the most popular version of this Facebook message claimed that the Ebola contamination affected meth users in Hot Springs, Arkansas, other iterationsmentioned various locations that included cities in the states of California, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington and Kentucky: Regardless of the locations mentioned in these warnings, they all featured nearly verbatim language and a generic “Breaking News Alert” graphic — the hallmark of fake news hoaxes. While police departments may appreciate drug users’ voluntarily turning their meth in due to fears of Ebola contamination, these messages are an obvious jape. The exact origins of the joke warnings are unclear, but we did find at least one police department Facebook page that reproduced one of them. On 23 March 2016, the Grayson Police Department posted on Facebook that their warning had been “tongue in cheek” and that the ruse resulted in no arrests: Well, apparently everyone is confident in the quality of their methamphetamine, as we had no one bring theirs in to be checked. While our post yesterday was “tongue in cheek”, the dangers of meth use are no laughing matter. As always, we encourage anyone with suspicions of illegal drug activity to give us a call!
13431	"Not one illness has been reported from raw milk in"" Texas ""in more than four years. A total of six illnesses have occurred in the last 20 years."	"Flynn wrote: ""Not one illness has been reported from raw milk in"" Texas ""in more than four years. A total of six illnesses have occurred in the last 20 years."" Government counts suggest raw milk only rarely touched off illnesses in Texas over those decades. However, Flynn presented an incomplete too-low count, failing to note seven to 10 illnesses tied to raw milk that reportedly occurred in Texas last year."	false	Corrections and Updates, Food Safety, Public Health, Texas, Dan Flynn,	"CORRECTION, 12:30 p.m., Sept. 30, 2016: After this fact check posted, Rep. Dan Flynn's office pointed out an error. We'd presented all national illnesses and deaths tied to food by the federal government as being linked to raw milk. We've now amended that sentence below to note only the illnesses and a death connected to raw milk. These changes didn't affect our rating of the claim. Thirteen legislators charged Texas authorities with unwarranted interference--in milk deliveries. At issue: Whether consumers may legally designate an agent to bring raw--meaning unpasteurized--milk from a farm to a pickup spot. State law says licensed producers may sell raw milk to retail customers where the milk is produced. Our curiosity was stirred, though, by the legislators suggesting raw milk rarely poses a health risk. After all, pasteurization kills the bacteria responsible for diseases including typhoid fever, tuberculosis and diphtheria. Still, the lawmakers said in their September 2016 letter to the Texas Department of State Health Services: ""Not one illness has been reported from raw milk in our state in more than four years. A total of six illnesses have occurred in the last 20 years."" Do those counts hold up? The letter, we determined, failed to account for up to 10 suspected illnesses in 2015 due to drinking raw milk. Before then, it appears, there were indeed a handful of identified illnesses. Flynn: Two illnesses in 2000, four in 2011 When we asked the letter’s lead author, Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, how he reached his conclusion about no illnesses in more than four years and just six in 20 years, an aide, Kelli Linza, emailed us a chart citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The chart included an entry stating the agency confirmed two Texas illnesses, both in February 2000, traced to drinking unpasteurized milk. Linza later told us Flynn also recognized four 2011 cases of salmonellosis allegedly linked by State Health Services to raw milk from a North Texas dairy. Agencies: Seven to 10 illnesses in 2015 Next, we emailed the CDC about such Texas illnesses; spokeswoman Brittany Behm pointed us to its database of foodborne outbreaks enabling us to glean, clicks later, that from 2005 through 2015, Texas had two suspected outbreaks and seven illnesses (but no deaths) attributed to raw milk--all in March and April 2015. Nationally in the decade-plus, the government tallied more than 421 illnesses and one death linked to raw milk, according to our database search. Closer to home, we asked State Health Services about the frequency of illnesses tied to drinking raw milk. Spokesman Chris Van Deusen replied by email that in 2015, ""raw milk was the suspected source of at least 10 reported cases of illness in Texas. ""As is frequently the case with foodborne illness investigations,"" his reply continued, ""we weren’t able to test the milk consumed by the people who got sick, so we can’t say 100 percent definitively that raw milk was the cause. Often, by the time someone gets sick and an investigation occurs, the food has been eaten or discarded, so there’s no longer product available to test. ""Also, it’s worth noting that only a small percentage of foodborne illnesses are diagnosed and reported, so there may be additional cases out there that we don’t ever find out about,"" Van Deusen wrote. We circled back to Flynn about the reported illnesses from 2015. By email, Linza expressed concern that the suspected 2015 instances of illness linked to raw milk that we found didn’t show up in what Flynn fetched from the CDC in July 2016. Linza, asked whether Flynn asked State Health Services to tally raw-milk illnesses, said she didn’t remember doing so. Separately, Van Deusen affirmatively answered our inquiry about whether the count of 10 suspected 2015 illnesses linked to raw milk would have been available to anyone asking the agency about such illnesses in July 2016, which was when Flynn queried the CDC. National hospitalizations, deaths Nationally, we found in an online search, the Food and Drug Administration tallied 133 health incidents from 1987 to September 2010 due to raw milk or raw milk products, accounting for 269 hospitalizations, three deaths, six stillbirths and two miscarriages. Also, CDC research published in 2012 found that ""between 1993 and 2006, more than 1,500 people in the United States became sick from drinking raw milk or eating cheese made from raw milk."" According to the CDC study, states where the sale of raw milk was legal had more than twice the rate of outbreaks as states where it was illegal. The 30 states where raw milk sales were legal at the end of the study in 2011 included about a dozen states, like Texas, that allowed raw milk sales only on the farm where the milk was produced. Then again, a chart with the study says the identified outbreaks occurred in 25 states--with no outbreaks in Texas: SOURCE: Study, ""Increased Outbreaks Associated with Nonpasteurized Milk, United States, 2007–2012,"" Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, in journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases, January 2015 (accessed Sept. 19, 2016) We also spotted a nongovernmental website funded by a Washington state law firm that represents food-poisoning victims. When we peeked, the site, realrawmilkfacts.com, had a chart itemizing 2,468 U.S. illnesses and two deaths from June 1998 through October 2013, all attributed to raw milk products. By phone, Bill Marler, managing partner for the Marler Clark law firm, told us the firm doesn’t have a hand in the figures, relying instead on California researchers. In Texas, the chart indicates, four residents took ill with salmonella in November 2010 after ingesting raw cow milk from a farm store. In April 2011, Dallas County’s Health and Human Services Department said a 56-year-old resident had been hospitalized after drinking unpasteurized milk. The agency said that since November 2010, three other similar cases of illness linked to raw milk had been investigated by the state. Previously, per the Real Raw Milk Facts chart, a June 2005 Texas outbreak involved a dozen residents who ate cheese made from raw milk. Before that, in February 2005, two Texas residents took ill from eating cheese made from raw milk, the chart indicates, with another 14 Texas illnesses attributed to raw milk in 2000 and 2003 (when one person died). Our ruling Flynn wrote: ""Not one illness has been reported from raw milk in"" Texas ""in more than four years. A total of six illnesses have occurred in the last 20 years."" Government counts suggest raw milk only rarely touched off illnesses in Texas over those decades. However, Flynn presented an incomplete too-low count, failing to note seven to 10 illnesses tied to raw milk that reportedly occurred in Texas last year. – The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.
16990	"A proposed amendment ""allows a teenager to get a recommendation for medical marijuana without the consent of a parent."	"Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot says ""the amendment allows a teenager to get a recommendation for medical marijuana without the consent of a parent."" The group didn’t offer us any specifics on what it meant. The amendment is actually silent on the issue of minors. The proposal’s framers say they specifically didn’t include minors in its language in order to let state law reign supreme. Policy experts said state regulations usually dictate parental consent is necessary, and there’s no reason to think Florida would be any different. We should note that in all probability, 18- and 19-year-olds would have access like any other adult."	mixture	Health Care, Florida, Marijuana, Don't Let Florida Go To Pot,	"Family Feud time! Today’s question: Name something most teenagers cannot do. Vote? Ding! See R-rated movies alone? Ding! Buy beer? Ding! Score some weed without a hitch under Florida’s proposed medical marijuana amendment? BUZZZZ! An anti-marijuana coalition operating the website DontLetFloridaGoToPot.com has claimed as much. Among the talking points was the assertion, ""The amendment allows a teenager to get a recommendation for medical marijuana without the consent of a parent."" There’s already plenty of debate over the legalities of Amendment 2, which is on the November ballot. But can teens easily score a nickel bag solo should it pass? We’ll have to take our own survey and see what it says. A minor hitch Amendment 2 calls for the state to allow patients with cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, hepatitis C, ALS, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and unspecified ""other conditions"" to obtain medical marijuana with a doctor’s written recommendation. Technically, the physicians won’t write prescriptions, because marijuana would still be illegal under federal law. If 60 percent of voters ratify the amendment, the state must set up a dispensary system and write regulations for growing and selling the drug. The Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot website lists more than 40 ""coalition partners."" The Orlando Sentinel reported the site is run by Save Our Society From Drugs, a St. Petersburg-based lobbying group, and the Florida Sheriffs Association. The sheriffs association’s tax status prevents it from actively lobbying for people to vote against Amendment 2, but the group publicly opposes the measure. The sheriff’s association and Save Our Society did not answer our questions about why they think teens will be free to roll up spliffs without asking mom and dad first. Others have complained the measure’s language doesn’t set a minimum age, and therefore targets minors. But the vague amendment language is by design, according to the organization behind the amendment. United for Care attorney Jon Mills told PolitiFact Florida that by not addressing the age issue, a topic that was discussed while drafting the proposal, the amendment allows state law to take precedent on the issue of age. Currently, a parent or guardian must provide consent for medical treatment for a minor, except in emergencies or other unusual circumstances, such as when the Department of Children and Family Services must get involved. The absence of an age limit is to allow the state freedom to write the rules as they see fit, should the amendment pass and become part of the state Constitution. ""If we put a minimum age in we’d never be able to modify it,"" Mills said, referring to how the amendment will change the state’s Constitution, rather than creating a new statute, as many medical marijuana states do. There are 21 states with laws that allow medical cannabis. Only three (California, Washington and Massachusetts) make no mention of minors in their language, as in the Florida amendment. Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, which favors measures to allow medical marijuana, said all three still require parental involvement in some way. Minnesota, which will soon be the 22nd state to allow it, also doesn’t include language about children. Three other states (Connecticut, Delaware and Illinois) specifically exclude allowing minors to use the drug -- and Illinois is on the brink of changing its law concerning kids. The other 15 allow children access to the drug to some degree but only with parental consent. ""In Florida, I think there is no way that minors will actually ultimately be allowed to sign up for medical marijuana without their parent or guardian’s support. In fact, the rules may be even more strict than they are in most states,"" O’Keefe said. She compared Amendment 2 to Massachusetts’ 2012 law, which didn’t mention minors. The state ended up heavily regulating use by children. Vanderbilt Law School professor Robert Mikos pointed out that any teenager would have to go through the same vetting process as adults. That means they would undergo whatever examination, registration and regulation process the state creates. ""Does this mean a 13-year-old could just go in and get a certification? That’s not the case in any state,"" he said. ""There’s nothing about the Florida proposal that says Florida would be worse than any other state."" So if concerns about minors are unfounded, could Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot potentially mean 18- or 19-year-olds? They’re technically teenagers. Mikos says if that’s what Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot is saying, ""it’s a very misleading statement meant to scare people."" He points out that 18-year-olds are allowed to buy tobacco and are allowed prescriptions to Oxycontin, so marijuana probably shouldn’t be treated any differently. Douglas Berman, an Ohio State University law professor who edits a marijuana policy blog, says the opposition’s concern about teen use could possibly be better illustrated by the possibility of those older teens exploiting the system. ""There’s nothing in this to stop college kids on spring break to go into the doctor’s office and saying, ‘My back hurts,’ and getting some, not for medicinal purposes, but because they want to have fun,"" Berman said. But focusing on that angle in medical legislation is a dubious argument. ""There’s nothing else in medicine that we go to a 19-year-old and say, ‘Hey, you need your parents’ permission,"" Berman added. Our ruling Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot says ""the amendment allows a teenager to get a recommendation for medical marijuana without the consent of a parent."" The group didn’t offer us any specifics on what it meant. The amendment is actually silent on the issue of minors. The proposal’s framers say they specifically didn’t include minors in its language in order to let state law reign supreme. Policy experts said state regulations usually dictate parental consent is necessary, and there’s no reason to think Florida would be any different. We should note that in all probability, 18- and 19-year-olds would have access like any other adult."
29221	It's now against the law in California to shower and do laundry on the same day.	What's true: New water conservation legislation in California will mandate water districts and municipalities enact water conservation measures statewide starting in 2022. What's false: The laws do not render it illegal for Californians to do laundry and take showers on the same day.	false	Politics, zerohedge	On 3 June 2018, multiple web sites falsely reported that it is now “against the law” for Californians to shower and do laundry on the same day, thanks to supposedly draconian water conservation legislation signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. For example, the conspiratorial web site ZeroHedge reported that: Governor Jerry Brown is retiring but not before he passes a few draconian laws as parting gifts for California. Two bills were signed into law on Thursday of last week to “help California be better prepared for future droughts and the effects of climate change.” The mandatory water conservation standards will be permanent, according to their wording, and not just for use in times of crisis. To make a long story short, now that these bills are law, it’s illegal to take a shower and do a load of laundry in the same day because you’ll exceed your “ration.” The bills in question, Senate Bill 606 and Assembly Bill 1668, were indeed signed into law by Governor Brown on 31 May 2018 (and Brown has indeed reached his term limit as governor). Neither bill, however, carries language penalizing consumers for taking a shower and doing laundry on the same day. Instead, they outline conservation mandates for water districts and municipalities, and water agencies can be fined if they fail to meet conservation goals (but not until 2027). Overall, Californians will have to use less water in a state that has been plagued by persistent droughts, and this is not a new concept to locals. Residents had to slash water use during a historic five-year drought that ended in April 2017. Jim Metropulos, legislative director for California State Assemblywoman Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) who authored 1668, told us the legislation sets water efficiency goals for water districts and municipalities on the territorial level, but it does not regulate what individual Californians or businesses can and can’t do: “There is nothing in this bill to target households or companies. Water use objectives are on territory-level of a water agency. There is nothing regulating the time a person may shower or when they may or may not do laundry.” (The “penalty of up to $1,000 per day” for excessive water use referenced in many alarmist articles on this subject applies to “urban retail water suppliers,” not to individual customers.) The legislation instead will prompt water agencies to set methods and goals for reducing per capita water use over time, starting in 2022. In a statement released by Brown’s office, the governor said the legislation is meant to brace the state for the next water shortage: “In preparation for the next drought and our changing environment, we must use our precious resources wisely. We have efficiency goals for energy and cars – and now we have them for water,” said Governor Brown. SB 606 and AB 1668 establish guidelines for efficient water use and a framework for the implementation and oversight of the new standards, which must be in place by 2022. The two bills strengthen the state’s water resiliency in the face of future droughts with provisions that include: -Establishing an indoor, per person water use goal of 55 gallons per day until 2025, 52.5 gallons from 2025 to 2030 and 50 gallons beginning in 2030. -Creating incentives for water suppliers to recycle water. -Requiring both urban and agricultural water suppliers to set annual water budgets and prepare for drought. According the San Jose Mercury News, water agencies can take steps such as incentivizing water conservation by encouraging customers to do away with thirsty lawns and installing drought-resistant landscaping: The targets must be approved by the State Water Resources Control Board between now and then, and will vary by city and county. Standards will be based on a formula that is made up of three main factors: an allowance of 55 gallons per person per day for indoor water use — dropping to 50 gallons by 2030; a yet-to-be determined amount for residential outdoor use that will vary depending on regional climates; and a standard for water loss due to leak rates in water system pipes. The new laws make it likely that water agencies will need to offer more rebates for home owners and business owners who replace lawns with drought-tolerant plants and who purchase water efficient appliances. The agencies could also limit the hours and days of lawn watering, even when droughts are not occurring. Given that the average shower uses about 17.2 gallons of water, while most high-efficiency clothes washers use only 15 to 30 gallons of water per load, most California residents (depending upon their personal habits and the efficiency of their home appliances and water fixtures) shouldn’t find it too difficult to accommodate a daily shower and a daily laundry load while staying within the 55 gallons per person per day guideline. But either way, nothing in either legislative bill specifically levies fines against customers who do laundry and shower on the same day.
10836	Medtronic tests stent for erectile dysfunction	Even in – or perhaps especially in – a business story, more critical analysis of such very early research is warranted. More context and more background is necessary for investors or for patients to have in order to judge this extremely preliminary report that is framed by the company as “promising.” We have seen how drugs for erectile dysfunction have been marketed – and how drug makers have tried to expand the market for these drugs. Such an early story about a surgical approach should have emphasized just that – this is a surgical approach that may not be a good choice for many of the millions of men estimated to have some kind of erectile dysfunction.	false	Reuters Health	Sure, it’s early in development. But just as surely, some estimate could have been made of what the stent, the surgery, and followup care would cost. If it’s not too early to report on “promising” results after ann initial feasibility study, then it’s not too early to start projecting costs – even in – or perhaps especially in – a business story. As stated above in the “evidence” criterion, the potential benefit wasn’t made clear. There was no critical evaluation or explanation of what it means to improve by 4 points on the 30-point index of erectile dysfunction scale. What difference does such an improvement mean in men’s lives? Basically, to interpret the results, we would also need to know baseline function and then post-procedure function. More interpretable data would be responses to specific standard questions about erectile function, e.g., whether erections were firm enough for intercourse, how often did the man have an erection when he wanted one. Yes, the story explained that there were no adverse events reported up to three months later but that risks may become evident much later. That’s an appropriate and important reminder. But the story didn’t go far enough in providing available context. The coronary stents are well known to have problems with clotting – generating a new generation of more expensive “coated” stents and the need for prolonged treatment with expensive oral medications to prevent clotting. The story could have addressed this – extrapolating that coronary artery complications could occur in penile arteries is not unreasonable. However, the trade-offs of stent risks – protecting the heart vs. protecting erectile dysfunction are quite different (and implicitly equating them smacks of another element of disease-mongering). There was no critical evaluation of the evidence – and of how limited are the conclusions that can be drawn from an initial feasibility study in 30 men. There was no critical evaluation or explanation of what it means to improve by 4 points on the 30-point index of erectile dysfunction scale. What difference does such an improvement mean in men’s lives? We think there’s an element of disease-mongering at play here. No source was cited for the estimates of 30 million US men and 300 million worldwide with erectile dysfunction. For example, it took us just seconds to find one citation: Second, the story could have noted that erectile dysfunction comes in many forms – some as the result of illness, some from treatment of another problem. And many of these baseline problems – such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes – are preventable. And the estimates take into account ALL degrees of erectile dysfunction – not all equate to a total inability to achieve an erection. Third, the vascular causes might not be safely amenable to stenting. We don’t know the inclusion/exclusion criteria for the study. So, even in a business story, the “market” of “a real unmet clinical need” for a surgical procedure may have been inflated in this story. No independent source was quoted – the company-sponsored investigator was the only source quoted. Some comparison was made with drug therapy for erectile dysfunction. But there was no mention of a very safe and often effective alternative – the penile vacuum pump. Penile implants are also effective, though require surgical procedures. It would have required only an additional line to give this backgrounding context. Even business story readers and investors would want this reminder. The story was clear that “it could be several years before Medtronic undertakes a much larger late-stage trial” and that “this is still investigational.” The story includes a quote that “this is the incepton of an entirely new way of treating ED that has never been seen before.” We don’t question the investigator’s comment. We only question the editorial decision-making. We easily found news stories from at least two years ago that talked about Medtronic’s development of this approach. How many “inception” stories will we get before there is actually some meaningful, longterm experience to report in large numbers of men? If it was “new” two years ago, is it still new today? Is there still anything meaningful to report? Not applicable. We can’t be sure of the extent to which the story relied on a news release. We do know that the company-sponsored investigator was the only source quoted.
18161	Twenty-four percent of doctors in Virginia currently don’t accept new Medicaid patients because the reimbursement rates are so low.	"Schwartz said, ""24 percent of doctors in Virginia currently don’t accept new Medicaid patients because the reimbursement rates are so low."" The survey Schwartz cites to back his claim did not include primary care providers in hospitals and community clinics -- who very often are the doctors that care for Medicaid patients. So the actual percentage of all Virginia physicians not taking on Medicare recipients is slightly lower than Schwarz’s number -- exactly how much lower is impossible to say because no study has computed the number. Schwartz also is askew in claiming that every Virginia doctor who closed his or her door to new Medicaid patients did so because of low reimbursement rates. The survey he cited did not ask physicians about Medicaid rates. Other research has shown that U.S. doctors avoid Medicare patients for a variety of reasons that almost always include low fees. All told, Schwartz’s statement paints a generally accurate picture but needs elaboration."	true	Health Care, Medicaid, Virginia, Dave Schwartz,	"During a recent rally on the state capitol grounds, opponents of Medicaid expansion argued it is ridiculous to expand a health care program that they said is fundamentally flawed. Among the speakers was Dave Schwartz, Virginia director for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group that organized the rally. He said Medicaid patients receive poor health care, in part because many doctors are unwilling to treat them. ""Twenty-four percent of doctors in Virginia currently don’t accept new Medicaid patients because the reimbursement rates are so low,"" he said. We wondered whether Schwartz’s statement about Virginia physicians is correct. It’s an intriguing claim because if expansion is approved in the Old Dominion, 400,000 additional Medicaid recipients will be seeking the care of state doctors. Schwartz, who repeated his statistic in a June 18 op-ed in The Virginian-Pilot on June 18, said it came from a 2012 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs.The article, written by an economist at the National Center for Health Statistics, broke down national data to show what percentage of office-based physicians in each state in 2011 accepted new patients. The NCHS extracted its state data from a from a survey of 4,326 U.S. doctors conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Only 4 percent of those physicians said they did not take on new patients in 2011. Of that national sample of doctors, 31 percent said they did not accept new Medicaid patients. Of the Virginia physicians, 24 percent did not add Medicaid recipients -- the number Schwartz cited. But Schwartz glossed over some fine points in the study, creating two issues with his claim. First, the survey omitted doctors who practiced in hospital outpatient departments or clinics that are part of a hospital -- important sites of care for Medicaid patients. Thirteen percent of the nation’s physicians worked in hospital-based practices and 3 percent worked in community health centers, according to 2008 data from the Center for Studying Health System Change. Those numbers were not broken down by state. But they tell us that the proportion of all Virginia doctors that did not accept new Medicaid patients -- as Schwartz framed his statement -- had to be slightly lower than 24 percent. The second issue is that Schwartz said all of the Virginia doctors who declined new Medicaid patients did so ""because the reimbursement rates are so low."" But the survey on which the NCHS study was based did not ask physicians why they shunned new Medicaid patients. It did cite other national research that said reimbursement was a primary reason for doctors shunning new Medicaid patients, but not the only one. Two years ago, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a national study of the acceptance of Medicaid patients. It was based on the responses of 1,460 physicians to a survey conducted in 2008 by the Center for Studying Health System Change. Kaiser’s study said more than 90 percent of physicians cited multiple reasons why they accepted only some or no new Medicaid patients. The most frequently mentioned reason was inadequate reimbursement, at 89 percent, followed by billing requirements and delayed reimbursement, each at 76 percent. Other major reasons were that Medicaid patients often required a lot of clinical work and difficulties in arranging care for them from specialist physicians. Research has also shown correlation between the historic Medicaid reimbursement rates in each state and the willingness of its doctors to accept patients covered by the program. At the end of 2012, states, on the average, paid doctors treating Medicaid recipients 66 percent as much as the federal government paid them to care for Medicare patients, according to another Kaiser study. . Virginia reimbursed at 80 percent of the Medicare rate. Under Obamacare, the U.S. is paying to raise Medicaid payments for primary care providers to the level of Medicare fees in 2013 and 2014. After that, the Medicaid fees are expected to return to state control, according to Stephen Zuckerman, co-director of the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute. Our ruling Schwartz said, ""24 percent of doctors in Virginia currently don’t accept new Medicaid patients because the reimbursement rates are so low."" The survey Schwartz cites to back his claim did not include primary care providers in hospitals and community clinics -- who very often are the doctors that care for Medicaid patients. So the actual percentage of all Virginia physicians not taking on Medicare recipients is slightly lower than Schwarz’s number -- exactly how much lower is impossible to say because no study has computed the number. Schwartz also is askew in claiming that every Virginia doctor who closed his or her door to new Medicaid patients did so because of low reimbursement rates. The survey he cited did not ask physicians about Medicaid rates. Other research has shown that U.S. doctors avoid Medicare patients for a variety of reasons that almost always include low fees. All told, Schwartz’s statement paints a generally accurate picture but needs elaboration."
23039	Congresswoman Kathy Castor voted to spend $2.6 million to teach prostitutes in China to drink responsibly.	Mike Prendergast mailer says Kathy Castor voted for $2.6 million to teach prostitutes in China to drink responsibly	false	National, Economy, Health Care, Stimulus, Mike Prendergast,	"As attack ads go, the claim in a last-minute mailer (and accompanying radio ad) in a Florida congressional race is certainly an attention-grabber. It features a picture of two martinis behind the text: ""Congresswoman Kathy Castor voted to spend $2.6 million to teach prostitutes in China to drink responsibly."" The ad from Florida Republican Mike Prendergast also states on the front, ""The more of our taxpayer dollars Castor and Pelosi waste on outrageous spending, the more jobs we lose in Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg."" On the back, the ad lists ""Examples of Kathy Castor's Spending Votes"" and lists a bunch of outrageous-sounding programs. The source is listed as H.R. 1. That's the Democrats' economic stimulus package -- approved in March 2009. The list includes some projects that have frequently been cited by Republicans as prime examples of wasteful stimulus spending. For example, the mailer says Castor voted to spend ""$2 million to capture and study exotic ants. "" In Oregon, Republican Senate hopeful Jim Huffman claimed Democratic incumbent Sen. Ron Wyden voted to fund said study of exotic ants. Our partners at PolitiFact Oregon checked it out and found that Wyden’s vote for the stimulus did eventually lead to the funding of a study of exotic ants, but he never voted specifically for the project. He voted, through the stimulus, to direct more money to the National Science Foundation, which then distributed the funds as it saw fit. But the Prendergast claim that the stimulus included $2.6 million to teach prostitutes in China to drink responsibly was a new one to us. The Prendergast campaign directed us to a story about the project in CNSNews.com (The Right News. Right Now). The story ran under the headline, ""U.S. Will Pay $2.6 Million to Train Chinese Prostitutes to Drink Responsibly on the Job,"" but that's a summary contested by the agency that awarded the grant. The 5-year, $2.6 million grant awarded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health to Wayne State University in Detroit will allow Dr. Xiaoming Li, professor and director of the university's Prevention Research Center, to ""establish and evaluate whether an alcohol and HIV intervention center can assist in reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS among sex workers in China,"" according to a university press release announcing the grant. According to the release, ""The findings could have ramifications for at-risk populations throughout the world."" The research will take place specifically in Guangxi, China, where the sex trade is prevalent and the rate of HIV is ranked third among the country's provinces, the release states. A spokesman for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health told us the ad distorted the aim of the project. The grant ""was not awarded for that purpose,"" John Bowersox told us via e-mail. ""Rather, the researchers will use the grant to develop, implement, and evaluate an alcohol use and HIV risk reduction intervention program among female sex workers in China. This is in line with previous studies showing that social norms and institutional policy in commercial sex venues greatly influence alcohol use and sexual behavior among the sex workers in those venues. Studies such as these are needed to translate and adapt interventions that have proven to be effective in the U.S. to other settings and to learn from other conditions and cultures to inform our understanding of the causes, consequences, and differences in HIV-related risks, morbidity, and mortality in diverse populations. Preventing HIV infection is NIH’s highest priority for HIV-related research. We need to explore a range of research avenues in vulnerable populations around the world to learn the best ways to control the transmission of HIV."" Bowersox noted that the grant went through the NIH's two-tier review process, ""which includes a scientific and technical review as well as consideration by an Advisory Council that includes public representatives. The Council makes recommendations based on alignment of the grant application with the research priorities of the NIH."" In an interview with CNSNews.com, Li said, ""The purpose of the project is to try and develop an intervention program targeting HIV risk and alcohol use. So basically, it’s an alcohol and HIV risk reduction intervention project."" ""We want to get some understanding of the fundamental role of alcohol use and HIV risk,"" Li told CNSNews.com. ""We use the population in China as our targeted population to look at the basic issues. I think the findings will benefit the American people, too."" The CNSNews story ran on May 11, 2009. That was about the time that a lot of Republican members of Congress were putting out lists of stimulus projects they said were wasteful or unrelated to job creation. But, as the CNSNews.com story noted, the grant for the project was awarded in November 2008. That's pre-stimulus. It's also pre-Obama administration. So which vote actually led to the funding for the grant? That's a tricky question. Again, the grant was awarded in November 2008. That's part of the 2009 fiscal year (which began in October 2008). But the omnibus appropriations bill for 2009 wasn't approved until March of 2009. Castor voted for it. Castor also voted for the Fiscal Year 2008 consolidated appropriations bill, (H.R. 2764) in June 2007. But it is arguably another vote, a ""continuing resolution"" to continue funding programs at the same levels of the 2008 budget until an appropriations bill passed, that funded the grant. The resolution passed easily -- with scores of Republicans and most Democrats voting for it -- as a vote against would have meant a vote to cut off disaster and war funding. Castor voted for that, too (H.R. 2638) in June 2007. Again, these are all massive spending bills. It was one of those spending bills that actually funded the grant in question in Prendergast's mailer (contrary to the ad's claim that it was part of the stimulus). By e-mail, Robert J. Winsler, press secretary for the Prendergast campaign, told us that it didn't matter whether it was part of the stimulus. ""While several reputable news sources reported the funds as part of stimulus, all reports have proven taxpayers funded the over two-and-a-half million dollar study, and none investigated how the money for the five-year grant was actually appropriated -- be it the stimulus bill or the 2009 budget for the NIH, both of which Rep. Castor voted in favor,"" Winsler said. It was ""irrelevant"" how many Republicans may have also supported the spending bills, because ""Mike is a free-thinking candidate,"" Winsler said. ""Let's not digress too far: the study existed, and one way or another the Congresswoman approved taxpayer money for it,"" Winsler said. ""The real story here isn't the tiny print on the bottom of one of our mailers but rather why a representative who has let the unemployment rate rise so atrociously under her time in office is sending money overseas to study an illegal practice instead of working for the people she represents."" But Steve Ellis of the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense called the ad's claim ""an enormous stretch."" Congress voted to allocate funding to the National Institutes for Health, to spend according to its discretion. The NIH, in turn, appropriated money to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which then decided to fund the grant in question. It wasn't an earmark, Ellis said. And, he noted the grant was awarded during the Bush (Republican) administration. ""They are trying to make it seem like she voted on a bill about spending the money on that program, and in reality, that's not the case,"" Ellis said. One could argue that part of the problem with Congress is that legislators sign off on spending bills without knowing how every dollar will be spent. But, said Ellis, that's ""too much information for anyone to maintain,"" and so spending is left to the discretion of various government departments. ""They are trying to draw a direct line,"" Ellis said. ""But it's a vote at 10,000 feet, and the decision was made on the ground."" We have two problems with the ad's claim. No. 1, the ad distorts the purpose of the grant. More importantly, though, it was a grant awarded by the National Institutes for Health based on its own internal review process and was determined to be within the institute's mission and priorities. Castor voted to allocate money to the National Institutes for Health, but she had nothing to do with selecting the grant, and there was no mention of the grant in the bill she voted on. And it wasn't -- as the fine print of the mailer suggests -- even part of the economic stimulus. In fact, it was a grant awarded by a department of a Republican administration."
10311	Oxygen Therapy May Relieve Cluster Headache Pain	Unfortunately, the HealthDay story on this promising research is essentially the JAMA press release, only shorter. The quotes are taken directly from the press release. No new sources’ perspectives were included in the story. If the reporter read the journal article or even the abstract, there is no evidence of it. Like the press release, the story relays the major take-home points of the journal article. The hazards or reporting-by-press-release are obvious, the most glaring being that there’s no way to verify that the press release has described the research accurately. To be fair, if that is necessary, a note at the end of the story should disclose that its source is the press release rather than the journal article. The pain of cluster headaches can be overwhelming, and an effective medication is already in wide use. Not everyone can use the medicine because of side effects or existing medical problems. This study tests whether breathing 100% oxygen can shorten the headaches’ duration. A treatment like this with few side effects would be a big help to these headache sufferers. But the story apparently didn’t include any independent reporting to scrutinize the evidence.	false		"The story fails to mention costs for either oxygen treatment or the conventional treatment, an injection with sumatriptan. The story outlines the most basic outcomes–that 78 percent of patients receiving oxygen reported relief at 15 minutes, and that pain relief was better than placebo at 30 and 60 minutes. Still, both the study and the article fail to address longer-term benefits or harms. The story cites the researchers’ claim that there were no adverse effects to the oxygen treatment. Both the study and the article fail to address potential future harms, and this should have been discussed. The story barely receives a ""satisfactory"" rating under this criterion. This is one area where an independent perspective would have been helpful. The story both overstates and understates the quality of the evidence. While the story mentioned how many people were in the trial, It fails to point out the limitations of drawing conclusions when the study size was so small [particularly in the ""chronic"" patient category]. Yet it fails to mention that it was a double-blind crossover study, which gives it more methodological integrity. There isn’t any disease mongering in the story, but there also isn’t any information provided about the prevalence of cluster headaches, nor of the proportion of all headaches that they represent. The reader therefore may have a hard time identifying the importance or applicability of this treatment. No independent sources were cited in the story. The story fails to compare pain relief from the standard drug treatment with that of high-flow oxygen. The study itself failed to do this, but a diligent reporter would have dug to find outcomes data on the drug treatment. The story says high-flow oxygen is in ""limited use"" to treat cluster headaches. But it fails to say where or how it is available – or even what ""limited"" really means. Two places in the US? Twenty? The story does a decent job explaining that high-flow oxygen is in scattered clinical use, and that this study provides some validation of a current practice. The story appears to depend solely on the Journal of the American Medical Association press release. It uses the same quotes in their entirety. All facts in the story also appear in the press release. If the reporter did any independent research there is no evidence of it."
33977	Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm delivered a speech on the perils of multiculturalism.	Both Governor Lamm and the writer of the e-mail misidentified the author of the book Mexifornia, whose correct name is Victor Davis Hanson:	true	Politics Soapbox, immigration	Richard D. Lamm was a Democrat who served as governor of Colorado for twelve years from 1975 to 1987. In 2005, a third-person account of a speech attributed to him, on the perils of multiculturalism, became a viral item online: A Frightening Analysis We all know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration-overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of American’s finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor named Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, “Mexifornia,” explaining how immigration — both legal and illegal — was destroying the entire state of California. He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream. Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America. The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States. He said, “If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let’s destroy America. It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that ‘An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide. '” “Here is how they do it,” Lamm said: First to destroy America, “Turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country. History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar Seymour Lipset put it this way: ‘The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy. Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans.” Lamm went on: Second, to destroy America, “Invent ‘multiculturalism’ and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal. That there are no cultural differences. I would make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds. Third, “We could make the United States a ‘Hispanic Quebec’ without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: ‘The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved! Not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentrically and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together. '” Lamm said, “I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America reinforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities.” “Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school.” “My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of ‘Victimology.’ I would get all minorities to think their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population.” “My sixth plan for America’s downfall would include dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other – that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity! Unity is what it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshiped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic Games. A common enemy Persia threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to over come two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell. “E. Pluribus Unum” — From many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the ‘pluribus’ instead of the ‘Unum,’ we can balkanize America as surely as Kosovo.” “Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits ~ make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of ‘diversity.’ I would find a word similar to ‘heretic’ in the 16th century – that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like ‘racist’ or ‘x! xenophobes’ halt discussion and debate.” “Having made America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multi-culturism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of ‘Victimology,’ I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them.” In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally he said, “Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Davis’s book Mexifornia. His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America. If you feel America deserves to be destroyed, don’t read that book.” There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Every discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate ‘diversity.’ American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America — take note of California and other states — to date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell’s book “1984.” In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: “War is peace,” “Freedom is slavery,” and “Ignorance is strength.” Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this great democracy are deeply in trouble and worsening fast. If we don’t get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path, especially The American Dream. Lamm told us in mid-June 2005 that this text represented a reasonably accurate account of a speech he had given a few years earlier: Yes, it is a speech I gave a year and a half ago in Washington D.C. It was a 5 minute speech, and I am amazed and gratified it has received so much coverage. He also passed along to us the following “revised version” of his speech: I HAVE A SECRET PLAN TO DESTROY AMERICA. IF YOU BELIEVE, AS MANY DO, THAT AMERICA IS TOO SMUG, TOO WHITE BREAD, TOO SELF-SATISFIED, TOO RICH, LETS DESTROY AMERICA. IT IS NOT THAT HARD TO DO. HISTORY SHOWS THAT NATIONS ARE MORE FRAGILE THAN THEIR CITIZENS THINK. NO NATION IN HISTORY HAS SURVIVED THE RAVAGES OF TIME. ARNOLD TOYNBEE OBSERVED THAT ALL GREAT CIVILIZATIONS RISE AND THEY ALL FALL, AND THAT “AN AUTOPSY OF HISTORY WOULD SHOW THAT ALL GREAT NATIONS COMMIT SUICIDE.” HERE IS MY PLAN: I. WE MUST FIRST MAKE AMERICA A BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL COUNTRY. HISTORY SHOWS, IN MY OPINION, THAT NO NATION CAN SURVIVE THE TENSION, CONFLICT, AND ANTAGONISM OF TWO COMPETING LANGUAGES AND CULTURES. IT IS A BLESSING FOR AN INDIVIDUAL TO BE BILINGUAL; IT IS A CURSE FOR A SOCIETY TO BE BILINGUAL. ONE SCHOLAR, SEYMOUR MARTIN LIPSET, PUT IT THIS WAY: THE HISTORIES OF BILINGUAL AND BICULTURAL SOCIETIES THAT DO NOT ASSIMILATE ARE HISTORIES OF TURMOIL, TENSION, AND TRAGEDY. CANADA, BELGIUM, MALAYSIA, LEBANON-ALL FACE CRISES OF NATIONAL EXISTENCE IN WHICH MINORITIES PRESS FOR AUTONOMY, IF NOT INDEPENDENCE. PAKISTAN AND CYPRUS HAVE DIVIDED. NIGERIA SUPPRESSED AN ETHNIC REBELLION. FRANCE FACES DIFFICULTIES WITH ITS BASQUES, BRETONS, AND CORSICANS. II. I WOULD THEN INVENT “MULTICULTURALISM” AND ENCOURAGE IMMIGRANTS TO MAINTAIN THEIR OWN CULTURE. I WOULD MAKE IT AN ARTICLE OF BELIEF THAT ALL CULTURES ARE EQUAL: THAT THERE ARE NO CULTURAL DIFFERENCES THAT ARE IMPORTANT. I WOULD DECLARE IT AN ARTICLE OF FAITH THAT THE BLACK AND HISPANIC DROPOUT RATE IS ONLY DUE TO PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION BY THE MAJORITY. EVERY OTHER EXPLANATION IS OUT-OF-BOUNDS. III. WE CAN MAKE THE UNITED STATES A “HISPANIC QUEBEC” WITHOUT MUCH EFFORT. THE KEY IS TO CELEBRATE DIVERSITY RATHER THAN UNITY. AS BENJAMIN SCHWARZ SAID IN THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY RECENTLY: …THE APPARENT SUCCESS OF OUR OWN MULTIETHNIC AND MULTICULTURAL EXPERIMENT MIGHT HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED NOT BY TOLERANCE BUT BY HEGEMONY. WITHOUT THE DOMINANCE THAT ONCE DICTATED ETHNOCENTRICALLY, AND WHAT IT MEANT TO BE AN AMERICAN, WE ARE LEFT WITH ONLY TOLERANCE AND PLURALISM TO HOLD US TOGETHER. I WOULD ENCOURAGE ALL IMMIGRANTS TO KEEP THEIR OWN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. I WOULD REPLACE THE MELTING POT METAPHOR WITH A SALAD BOWL METAPHOR. IT IS IMPORTANT TO INSURE THAT WE HAVE VARIOUS CULTURAL SUB-GROUPS LIVING IN AMERICA REINFORCING THEIR DIFFERENCES RATHER THAN AMERICANS, EMPHASIZING THEIR SIMILARITIES. IV. HAVING DONE ALL THIS, I WOULD MAKE OUR FASTEST GROWING DEMOGRAPHIC GROUP THE LEAST EDUCATED – I WOULD ADD A SECOND UNDERCLASS, UNASSIMILATED, UNDEREDUCATED, AND ANTAGONISTIC TO OUR POPULATION. I WOULD HAVE THIS SECOND UNDERCLASS HAVE A 50% DROP OUT RATE FROM SCHOOL. V. I WOULD THEN GET THE BIG FOUNDATIONS AND BIG BUSINESS TO GIVE THESE EFFORTS LOTS OF MONEY. I WOULD INVEST IN ETHNIC IDENTITY, AND I WOULD ESTABLISH THE CULT OF VICTIMOLOGY. I WOULD GET ALL MINORITIES TO THINK THEIR LACK OF SUCCESS WAS ALL THE FAULT OF THE MAJORITY – I WOULD START A GRIEVANCE INDUSTRY BLAMING ALL MINORITY FAILURE ON THE MAJORITY POPULATION. VI. I WOULD ESTABLISH DUAL CITIZENSHIP AND PROMOTE DIVIDED LOYALTIES. I WOULD “CELEBRATE DIVERSITY.” “DIVERSITY” IS A WONDERFULLY SEDUCTIVE WORD. IT STRESSES DIFFERENCES RATHER THAN COMMONALITIES. DIVERSE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE ARE MOSTLY ENGAGED IN HATING EACH OTHER-THAT IS, WHEN THEY ARE NOT KILLING EACH OTHER. A DIVERSE,” PEACEFUL, OR STABLE SOCIETY IS AGAINST MOST HISTORICAL PRECEDENT. PEOPLE UNDERVALUE THE UNITY IT TAKES TO KEEP A NATION TOGETHER, AND WE CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS MYOPIA. LOOK AT THE ANCIENT GREEKS. DORF’S WORLD HISTORY TELLS US: THE GREEKS BELIEVED THAT THEY BELONGED TO THE SAME RACE; THEY POSSESSED A COMMON LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE; AND THEY WORSHIPED THE SAME GODS. ALL GREECE TOOK PART IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES IN HONOR OF ZEUS AND ALL GREEKS VENERATED THE SHRINE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI. A COMMON ENEMY PERSIA THREATENED THEIR LIBERTY. YET, ALL OF THESE BONDS TOGETHER WERE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO OVERCOME TWO FACTORS . . . (LOCAL PATRIOTISM AND GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS THAT NURTURED POLITICAL DIVISIONS …) IF WE CAN PUT THE EMPHASIS ON THE “PLURIBUS,” INSTEAD OF THE “UNUM,” WE CAN BALKANIZE AMERICA AS SURELY AS KOSOVO. VII. THEN I WOULD PLACE ALL THESE SUBJECTS OFF LIMITS – MAKE IT TABOO TO TALK ABOUT. I WOULD FIND A WORD SIMILAR TO “HERETIC” IN THE 16TH CENTURY – THAT STOPPED DISCUSSION AND PARALYZED THINKING. WORDS LIKE “RACIST”, “XENOPHOBE” THAT HALTS ARGUMENT AND CONVERSATION. HAVING MADE AMERICA A BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL COUNTRY, HAVING ESTABLISHED MULTICULTURALISM, HAVING THE LARGE FOUNDATIONS FUND THE DOCTRINE OF “VICTIMOLOGY”, I WOULD NEXT MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ENFORCE OUR IMMIGRATION LAWS. I WOULD DEVELOP A MANTRA – “THAT BECAUSE IMMIGRATION HAS BEEN GOOD FOR AMERICA, IT MUST ALWAYS BE GOOD.” I WOULD MAKE EVERY INDIVIDUAL IMMIGRANT SYMPATRIC AND IGNORE THE CUMULATIVE IMPACT. VIII. LASTLY, I WOULD CENSOR VICTOR HANSON DAVIS’S BOOK MEXIFORNIA — THIS BOOK IS DANGEROUS — IT EXPOSES MY PLAN TO DESTROY AMERICA. SO PLEASE, PLEASE — IF YOU FEEL THAT AMERICA DESERVES TO BE DESTROYED — PLEASE, PLEASE — DON’T BUY THIS BOOK! THIS GUY IS ON TO MY PLAN. “THE SMART WAY TO KEEP PEOPLE PASSIVE AND OBEDIENT IS TO STRICTLY LIMIT THE SPECTRUM OF ACCEPTABLE OPINION, BUT ALLOW VERY LIVELY DEBATE WITHIN THAT SPECTRUM.” — NOAM CHOMSKY, AMERICAN LINGUIST AND US MEDIA AND FOREIGN POLICY CRITIC. An audio recording of Lamm’s speech from 18 October 2003 is now available online:
11460	Curcumin Improves Memory and Mood, New UCLA Study Says	This news release summarizes an 18-month study of 40 healthy adults to determine whether oral curcumin — the active substance in the spice turmeric — has cognitive benefits. While it does provide some details on the study design and results, it is incomplete in several important areas. For example, is a 28% improvement in cognitive test results clinically important or simply statistically significant? This should have been explained. The release did not speak to the costs of the supplement used although it appears to be commercially available. Furthermore, there are harms and conflicts of interest that should have been explored further. Curcumin has been investigated as a potential therapy for a wide range of conditions. Because ingested curcumin is poorly absorbed and rapidly metabolized, its bioavailability has been brought into question. This study, according to the published article, used a more bioavailable form of curcumin called Theracurmin. Curcumin has shown some promising anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects but most of these studies have been in mice. Given the wide range of health claims being made regarding curcumin, we believe that news releases and stories about this substance need to be cautious and pay close attention to study design and limitations.	false	University news release	There’s no discussion of costs in the news release. A quick google search for Theracurmin capsules reveals that — at the dosages used in the study — a month’s supply would cost somewhere between $75-$100 dollars. The news release mentions these benefits in the 21 subjects who took curcumin: “significant improvements in their memory and attention abilities (ie. ‘improved 28 percent over the 18 months’) … mild improvements in mood …and their PET scans showed significantly less amyloid and tau signals in the amygdala and hypothalamus” when compared to the 19 subjects in the placebo group. We are told that standardized tests were used but not where the improvements were seen or how widespread the improvements were seen. Nor are we given context to answer “28 percent of what”? We’re also given no context to understand what reduced amyloid and tau signals mean (nor what “significantly less” means), only that “the amygdala and hypothalamus are regions of the brain that control several memory and emotional functions.” The release notes that four volunteers taking the curcumin supplement experienced abdominal pain and nausea — a potential harm of turmeric use. But the published study notes that six volunteers dropped out of the study due to “gastrointestinal distress.” This should have been noted in the release as well. As we have reported before in our reviews related to health claims made about curcumin, the active ingredient of tumeric: Neither turmeric nor curcumin has been extensively studied in clinical trials, but animal studies have shown that chronic use could lead to stomach ulcers. In addition, the American Herbal Products Association classifies turmeric as a menstrual stimulant. Turmeric should be avoided in patients with bleeding disorders and bile duct obstruction. Experts believe tumeric is generally safe, although the quality of the available clinical studies is questionable. The release describes the study as “double-blind, placebo-controlled study involved 40 adults between the ages of 50 and 90 years who had mild memory complaints. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a placebo or 90 milligrams of curcumin twice daily for 18 months.” Limitations of the study, not directly addressed in the release, are that the changes observed in the amygdala and hypothalamus of the curcumin group are highly subjective and have no established causal relationship with memory or mood. Also, this is an extremely small sample size and the authors did not correct for the multiple comparisons they made. (Learn more about the problems with multiple comparisons in research studies here.) The study authors noted in the published paper that the volunteers were not representative of the general population; they were “motivated, educated, physically healthy subjects concerned about age-related memory problems,” authors wrote. Finally, curcumin levels were measured in the blood only; just how much crosses the blood-brain barrier and is actually bioavailable to brain cells is unknown. To its credit the release does note that researchers will be following up with larger studies. There is no disease mongering in this news release. The news release lists funders and notes that “Theravalues Corp. provided the curcumin and placebos for the trial, as well as funds for the laboratory testing and for [lead author] Small’s travel to present preliminary findings at the 2017 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.” What isn’t mentioned is that UCLA owns the patent for the amyloid and tau labelling method used in the study, and that the lead author — as well as three of the co-authors — invented the method and have a financial interest in the company that sells it (TauMark, LLC). The lead author has financial relationships with a dozen biomedical companies besides Theravalues and TauMark. There is no discussion of other therapies used in addressing memory or mood problems. Theracurmin is available from several sources not mentioned in the news release. The initial comments in the release give the reader the erroneous impression that eating Indian food is equal to the form used in the study. (We also discuss this under Unjustified Language.) The lead sentence of the news release — “Lovers of Indian food, give yourselves a second helping …” — implies that the alleged benefits of curcumin might be achieved through diet alone, thus making availability a no-brainer. But the dosages used in the study (which we’re not told are about three times the commonly recommended dose) require oral supplements, which certainly are widely available in health stores and online, but at a much greater cost than the kitchen spice. The release notes that previous studies have examined whether curcumin affects memory and mood, that “curcumin has previously been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in lab studies” and that regions with diets rich in curcumin tend to have a lower prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease. The release’s first sentence says that people should consume more Indian food for health benefits, but the study measured the effects of “an easily absorbed curcumin supplement” — not traditional Indian meals.
7993	Explainer: China's symptom-free coronavirus carriers raise fears of new wave of infections.	The existence of a substantial but unknown number of asymptomatic carriers of coronavirus in China has raised concerns among the public that people could still be spreading COVID-19 without knowing they are sick.	true	Health News	As the virus continues to wreak havoc across the world, China is close to declaring victory and is already easing travel restrictions. The border of Hubei province, epicenter of the virus, opened on Wednesday after a two-month shutdown. But there are concerns that the end of the lockdown will release thousands of infectious people back into circulation. Asymptomatic cases present a huge challenge in the control of infectious disease, making it harder to detect and stop transmission. In China, the number of known asymptomatic cases is classified, and it is not included in the official data, though the South China Morning Post, citing unpublished official documents, recently said it was more than 40,000. China had reported 81,218 coronavirus cases, and 3,281 deaths by the end of Tuesday. Asymptomatic cases are currently found through “contact tracing”. China identifies people exposed to someone with a confirmed diagnosis, and if they test positive, they are quarantined whether or not they manifest symptoms. “Asymptomatic patients have all been discovered during our contact tracing,” said Wu Zunyou of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention at a briefing on Tuesday. “So will they be able to create transmission? They won’t.” Still, the failure to include them in the official data has raised concerns about Beijing’s commitment to transparency, and some experts say it could also create a misleading picture about how the epidemic spreads and whether or not it is under control. Despite recording zero new infections from March 18 to March 22, the COVID-19 hotspot city of Wuhan disclosed on March 20 that one newly diagnosed case was not included in the official data because the patient, a 62-year old man surnamed Zhang had shown no symptoms. Citing hospital sources, the news magazine Caixin also reported that a new case in Wuhan on Tuesday was a doctor who had been infected by an asymptomatic patient. China says asymptomatic patients will be added to the list of confirmed patients if they show symptoms at a later stage. But it remains unclear how many asymptomatic cases remain undiagnosed and therefore unquarantined. Some experts warn that undetected, asymptomatic patients could create fresh transmission routes once lockdowns are eased. “It is especially concerning given that many countries have yet to implement sufficient levels of widespread community testing,” said Adam Kamradt-Scott, a public health specialist at the University of Sydney. It is also unclear how much they might infect others. “We know that that is possible, but we do not believe that that’s a major driver of transmission,” said Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organization at a briefing early in March. New studies show that asymptomatic carriers could pose risks. One analysis of the Diamond Princess cruise ship outbreak showed that 33 of the 104 infected passengers remained asymptomatic even after an average of 10 days of observation at the Self-Defense Forces Central Hospital in Japan. While many appeared healthy throughout, a few other initially asymptomatic passengers quickly became seriously ill. Another study published on March 23, looking at cases in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, said 18% of patients were asymptomatic. Another even found that people are more likely to transmit the disease when symptoms are at their mildest. The Yale School of Public Health said the existence of presymptomatic (asymptomatic) patients meant that screening procedures at airports and other points of entry were insufficient to prevent the coronavirus passing from China to other countries. “The real picture will only come to light when we have a serological test to find out who has been infected,” said Ian Henderson, Director of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at Queensland University.
9778	Blood Test Might Detect Deadly Pancreatic Cancer in Early Stages	This story is about a study of a new test for pancreatic cancer. It covered a lot of ground in a short space. It included many voices and a lot of good background about pancreatic cancer. It missed some big areas, though, including the potential costs of the tests and treatments for the disease, the quantification of the benefits, and any explanation of harms that would come from widespread screening for pancreatic cancer. It was stronger than a competing story from the Houston Chronicle about this study, and similar in quality to a competing LA Times piece. Pancreatic cancer is a deadly cancer that often presents insidiously. By the time of diagnosis the cancer is often advanced and incurable. There are no current screening tests for detecting early-stage cancer. A tumor marker that can both detect early cancer and monitor treated patients for cure/recurrence would potentially have great value.	false	pancreatic cancer	There is no mention of costs in this story. No costs for the test. No costs for the downstream treatments and surgeries. If a researcher is going to be quoted as saying a clinical test could be on the market in a year, there should be some mention of costs. The story does not actually quantify the benefits of this screening test. It skirts the issue by saying that the test detected cancer in 100% of the people who were known to have cancer. That description isn’t inaccurate, but it doesn’t fully (or fairly) convey what would be the true value of a screening test: detecting cancer at an early — potentially curable — stage. The story suggests that the test might have saved the life of Dr. Teresa Flippo-Morton, a prominent breast surgeon from Charlotte, N.C., whom we presume has died of invasive pancreatic cancer (although this is never explicitly stated, and the story later suggests her life could still perhaps be saved). That’s problematic, because while the test identified all of the people known to have cancer, only 5 patients in the study had early stage cancer. (The story states, erroneously it would seem, that there were 7 such patients.) That’s a very small sample from which to draw conclusions about the value of the test. In addition, while patients who are able to undergo early treatment might be cured of the disease, the NCI cancer summary points out that the 5-year survival rate for patients who underwent complete resection for small pancreatic tumors that were confined to the pancreas (the target for screening) was still only 18 to 24%. So, patients may still face long odds even when their tumors are caught early — context the story could have provided. The harm from screening and treatment is an important issue — these are major surgeries (which are best performed by skilled surgeons at high-volume centers) that are associated with mortality rates of around 4% and multiple morbidities. While the test was 100% sensitive and specific in the study, in the real world there will be false negatives and false positives–and possibly indeterminate results. We also do not know whether there is any risk of overdiagnosis (detecting cancers that would never cause a problem). But there was no mention in the story of the potential harms. The logical extension of the approach advocated in this piece is that all people should be screened for pancreatic cancer. If that is what the researchers and the other commentators in the piece believe, then they should also address the issue of unnecessary surgeries, side effects from treatments, and the anxieties caused by mass screening. A more reasonable point of discussion in the piece might have been to suggest developing a screening protocol for populations known to be at risk. For example, people who smoke, are obese, or who have diabetes are all more likely to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. An effective and cost-effective screening program would need to determine which people to target (including whether a person is healthy enough to undergo surgery) and at what age. The story earns credit for including skeptical comments from Dr. Wolpin about the limited applicability of the results. He notes that “In this study the patients were known to have cancer or not to have cancer. In this kind of sample sensitivity and specificity tend to look good.” But while those comments are on-target, they come at the very end of the story and feel bit like an afterthought to the strong language throughout the rest of the piece, essentially heralding this test as a possible cure for cancer. The very first sentence says, “With just a drop of blood doctors may one day be able to detect pancreatic cancer in its early stages, before it has become deadly, a new study suggests.” Then later it says, “But, by good fortune, the protein turns up in exosomes only when there is cancer, so its presence could be an early, and testable, marker for the disease.” The story even suggests that the test could have saved the life of a prominent surgeon. Such enthusiasm is a bit out of balance with the quality of evidence on display here, some of which was based on mouse models. This test is far from ready for use in clinical practice. We wish more stories took the time to explain to readers how common or rare a condition is. This story gets high marks for pausing to say, “For perspective, over the course of a lifetime, 1.5 percent of Americans will develop pancreatic cancer.” We give the story a pass here because there are multiple voices in the piece. But it should be noted that there was only one dissenting opinion, at the very end, from Dr. Brian Wolpin, of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He brought up the point that should have been in the second paragraph of the story: “In this study the patients were known to have cancer or not to have cancer. In this kind of sample sensitivity and specificity tend to look good.” There is no mention of alternatives in this story or whether other research has gone in this direction and failed to yield a marketable test. While there really aren’t any good screening tests, there is another tumor marker (CA 19-9) that has been used for screening, but it does not readily detect the early-stage cancers. The study actually compared the new test with CA 19-9. We were surprised to see mention in the story that a clinical test could be available within a year. Given that the test will need to be further validated in a much larger group of study subjects, we think that’s very unlikely. The story does frame the comment as “just speculation” and notes that additional research will be needed. We’ll give the benefit of the doubt. The findings are presented as novel, but novelty is not established. There’s no discussion of whether there has been other research into tests for pancreatic cancer and how the new test builds upon those previous efforts. We can infer that this is new, but the context is not established. The story does not rely on a news release.
10284	New study casts more doubt on drugs Vytorin, Zetia	This was a story reporting on the results of a recent clinical trial in which individuals at elevated risk of heart attack were given either niacin or ezetimbe in addition to the cholesterol lowering medication they were already taking. What the study showed was that the niacin containing drug appeared better at reducing the size of the plaque present in the carotid artery compared to ezetimbe in these patients. Whether this observation is clinically significant still remains to be seen. This last point was nowhere to be found in the story. It‘s also important to report on dropout rates as one sign of how treatments are tolerated – and that information was also missing from the story. No information on costs nor estimates of how frequently harms occurred.	mixture		There was no discussion of costs. The story did not do an adequate job of reporting quantitative benefit of treatment. The difference reported was in the size of the plaque in the carotid artery. What does this mean in terms of the health of the individuals studied? The story should have been clear that this is a surrogate endpoint and while it may be suggestive that there will be a clinical difference, is not the same as demonstrating one. A couple of sentences explaining this would have added to the value of this story for the average reader. The side effects of niacin, itching and flushing, were presented in this story as making niacin difficult to take. However there was no information in this piece about how many people were affected nor the severity of their symptoms. And, as already noted, no mention is made of the overall drop out rate in both arms of the study related to adverse drug events. The story did not provide a clear explanation of the study – who was studied, what was the goal, what end points were used and what does it all mean in terms of real health outcomes. The evidence from the study was provided in a somewhat confusing and incomplete fashion. The primary endpoint of the study was carotid intima changes and the study was stopped early based on pre-established stopping rules. A composite endpoint of major cardiovascular events (heart attack, revascularization etc) was used as a secondary endpoint. The story notes a numeric advantage in the niacin group and quotes the senior author. However, the actual article notes that there was in fact a statistically significant difference in major cardiovascular events with the advatage going to niacin. Importantly, the number (and percentage) of subjects who did not complete the study (a measure of real world tolerability of the treatments) was not provided. The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. Quotes from the lead author of the study reported on and the author of the editorial written about the study were included in this story. The story does not place the study results into a context beyond a previously published study looking at ezetimibe. Millions of people in the US are taking drugs to reduce their cholesterol and presumably reduce their risk of a cardiovascular event. There are a number of options available for drug treatment that should have been mentioned. It also would have been valuable to note that ezetimibe does not work in the same way to lower cholesterol as do the statins. It is clear that both ezetimibe and niacin are available as prescription drugs. The story accurately depicted that none of the treatments were new. The story did not appear to rely exclusively on a press release.
37496	An image went viral during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, showing a family with their masked cat in a portrait taken amidst the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic.	Spanish Flu 1918 Family Portrait Shows Cat with Face Mask	true	Fact Checks, Viral Content	In early April 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised COVID-19 guidance and advised Americans to wear face masks, reviving interest in a viral photograph — purportedly a family portrait from the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic that showed a family — cat included — in face masks.The image was popular before the CDC’s advice was updated, appearing on Reddit’s r/funny on March 23 2020 with the description, “Spanish Flu, 1918. Family Portrait”:Spanish Flu, 1918. Family Portrait. from funnyThe black and white photograph portrayed six humans, all of whom wore face masks, and one cat — which was also wearing a tiny mask over its mouth and nose. No additional information about the photograph was included.It appeared on Twitter on March 30 2020:A 1918 Spanish Flu family photo…no chances taken with that cat! pic.twitter.com/NpVJnfDXpm— Myko Clelland (@DapperHistorian) March 30, 2020Among several iterations shared to Reddit, the image was also shared to r/TILI (“thanks, I love it”) on April 7 2020 (“Thanks, I Love This Cat wearing a mask too”):Thanks, I Love This Cat wearing a mask too from TILIWhen that post appeared on April 7 2020, masks in general had become a hot topic and the subject of memes, due to a shift in public habits. The image clearly captured many topical and long-term social media interests when it circulated in March and April 2020. In addition to alluding to the presence of a viral threat, it also showed a family using vintage personal protective equipment (PPE), and — best of all — it involved a cat.A January 2013 blog post by Pleasanton, California’s Museum on Main (titled “Responding to the Flu, 1920”) included the photograph. That post began with some local background about the Spanish flu pandemic:In the winter of 1919-20, the Spanish Flu epidemic that had begun in January 1918 was still rampaging around the globe; by the end of 1920 it would kill as many as 50 million people worldwide. Although Pleasanton was still a farming town with a population of fewer than 500 residing within the town limits (1100 if one counts unincorporated parts of the township), it was still vulnerable to the outbreak–in part because of the town’s position on a railway line.Underneath that image, a caption read:The Del Perugia family protects themselves against flu, 1918The image was also present in the archives of the University of California, seemingly added in 2007. It bore a much more vague title (“Image / Flu epidemic, (c. 1920s), photograph”), and did not include the name of the family depicted or a precise date:FLU EPIDEMIC, 1920. By 1919, the influenza pandemic killed between 20 and 40 million people. So great was the fear of contracting this deadly virus that people as far away as Dublin took whatever precautions they could to protect themselves. Page 75, Images of America : Dublin, by Mike Lynch and the Dublin Heritage Center.The Online Archive of California hosted the image as well, with similar identifiers. Both online archives cited Dublin, California’s city government as the source, and their site linked back to the University of California’s archive. In August 2018, the image appeared in New Zealand publication Plenty, as part of an article on the Spanish Flu pandemic titled “Black November.”The photograph often labeled “Spanish Flu, 1918. Family Portrait” is real, and was uploaded to the University of California’s archives in 2007 — well before the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. A local museum’s 2013 blog post labeled the image “The Del Perugia family protects themselves against flu, 1918,” but archival images only indicated it was taken around the year 1920, and the family was not named. Nevertheless, the image is undoctored, dated to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, and genuinely showed a family and their cat wearing protective face masks.
10721	Study finds daily aspirin cuts many cancer risks	This story presents only one view of a study of the effect of daily low-dose aspirin on cancer death rates: over-the-top enthusiasm and a single-minded group of experts. It leads with a suggestion that everyone over 40 should rely on aspirin to reduce their risk of dying from cancer and proceeds to pump up the potential benefits while almost sneering at any concerns about either the risk of bleeding caused by aspirin or questions about the way researchers took data collected from heart disease trials in order to reach conclusions about effects on cancer. Cancer prevention has taken a back seat to high tech treatments in the media. So, a story that highlights a potential low tech method of reducing cancer risk is both important and unusual. Aspirin has been one such low tech option that has been examined over the past several years with studies producing conflicting results. This sort of unbalanced report may well prompt some readers to begin taking aspirin daily in hopes of preventing cancer, although even the authors of this study note that more research is required.	false	Cancer,Reuters Health	Although the story does not discuss costs, the price of aspirin is low and well-known. The story reports only the relative reductions in cancer deaths rates and not the absolute reductions. Relative rates generally appear to magnify the differences. For example the story referred to reductions in cancer death rates of 21 percent in the short run and 34 percent after five years. The story did not report that when you look at the absolute rates of cancer deaths, the largest difference observed was 7 percent. The story dismisses concerns about ulcers and other bleeding caused by aspirin. Indeed, the last sentence of the story in fact says the risk is trivial. Based on the description in this story, readers would likely believe that the data came from experiments designed to examine the effects of aspirin on cancer rates when actually the data was taken from heart disease trials. The story fails to address the methodological concerns of taking data collected to look at one health threat (heart disease) in order to draw conclusions about a completely different category of disease (cancer.) The story also leaves out other questions about the study population, including the very low numbers of women, a notable omission given that the Women’s Health Study failed to show any cancer-related benefit to regular use of low-dose aspirin. The story highlights suggestions that everyone over 40 begin taking aspirin in order to reduce the risk of many types of cancer, while minimizing concerns about the limitations of this study and the risks associated with aspirin. The voices included in this story form a cheering section for the universal use of aspirin. Technically, this story meets a strict interpretation of the first part of this criterion by including independent experts, even as it grossly violates the spirit. All of the comments are from cheerleaders for aspirin. Experts with a different perspective are left out. The story also fails to report the consulting relationships that some of the study authors have had with pharmaceutical companies. The story presents daily low-dose aspirin as the way to go… without any serious consideration of alternatives available to people concerned about their risk of dying from cancer. The story notes that aspirin is widely used to relieve pain and reduce fever. Oddly, it does not highlight the use of aspirin by certain people to reduce their risk of heart attacks even though it was trials looking at those effects that provided the data for this analysis. While this story technically meets this criterion because aspirin is indeed available on store shelves and home medicine cabinets, the drug is specifically intended for use as an analgesic and, in certain individuals, to reduce the risk of certain heart-related problems; notwithstanding this one study, aspirin is not widely recognized or officially approved as a cancer prevention agent. The story fails to distinguish between previous reports (that were based on either observational studies of people or experiments in animals) and this report that uses data from human experiments on heart disease prevention, so it is not clear to readers what is new about this latest report. The story does not appear to rely on a news release.
9249	Concussion can now be diagnosed with 95 percent specificity	I-Portal® 4D Eye Tracking System. Image: Neuro Kinetics This news release by the University of Miami describes results from a study involving a head-mounted goggle that may diagnose concussions with more accuracy than a physical exam. Called the I-Portal goggle, the device gauges eye movement through video cameras and computers to assess balance, eye movement and reaction time in individuals who may have mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The release suffers from frequent lapses into jargon and misleading statements regarding the new technology. For example, it states that it is “not inconceivable” that the I-Portal will be used on every sideline in the “near future,” even though this PLoS One study was the first clinical, peer-reviewed trial of the device. The news release also uses technical terms, such as sensitivity and specificity, without defining what these words mean or explaining their significance. Although it mentions the sensitivity and specificity figures, it doesn’t provide any other quantitative data or information on the study design. Furthermore, the news release does not disclose funding sources and conflicts of interest — a point we find serious, since the principal investigator is employed by the goggle’s manufacturer. Mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI), also known colloquially as concussions, are a short loss of normal brain function in response to a minor head injury and are a common type of sports injury. Although most symptoms resulting from a concussion go away on their own, some concussions can result in lasting effects on thinking, attention, learning and memory. They also increase the risk of having a second, more serious injury — although it’s not clear why. The current recommendation is to avoid physical activity until all symptoms have resolved. However, concussions are also hard to diagnose, since most symptoms are self-reported and vary in intensity over time. Researchers also say there is not a distinctive threshold for diagnosing mTBI. If a medical device facilitates the process and more accurately makes diagnoses, that would certainly be newsworthy to the public, since more than 1 million cases of mTBI occur each year in America.	false	concussion,University of Miami Miller School of Medicine	The news release mentions that researchers made diagnoses by running tests with the I-Portal goggle, which gauges eye movement through video cameras and computers. But there is no discussion on what the costs for a session with the I-Portal goggle may be. This sounds like a new technology, and it would have been helpful to know the ballpark range of what it may cost for consumers. For this reason, we give the news release a Not Satisfactory rating here. Besides stating the sensitivity and specificity figures, the news release does not provide any additional information on the meaning behind these numbers. These are technical terms that can easily be confused with accuracy. Sensitivity, also called the true positive rate, refers to the rate at which the test correctly identifies those who do have the condition. Specificity, also called the true negative rate, identifies the correct proportion of negatives in a test (i.e. its ability to rule out those who do not have the condition). Although 89% sensitivity and 95% specificity sound as if the test is quite accurate, it misses the main point, which is that the test performs less well than looking at symptoms. The study compared the new “objective test” to standard criteria for diagnosing TBI. What the study showed was that compared to standard methods, this new one missed 11% of those with TBI and over-diagnosed it in 5% of the non-TBI controls. Although the sensitivity and specificity figures were given in the news release, none of these terms were explained for reporters and general readership. This is why we give it a Not Satisfactory rating here. The news release did not mention any potential harms that may be associated with the goggles. Almost every health care intervention carries risks, although the severity may vary. The main potential harms are those arising from a false positive or false negative test. This could lead to unnecessary treatment or exclusion from play in the first case or no treatment for an injury in the second and potential for much more severe effects from a second head injury. Since harms weren’t even addressed, we give the news release a Not Satisfactory rating here. The news release does not elaborate on the research methods and quality of evidence, including the length and size of the study, its design and limitations. The reader is only given the sensitivity and specificity figures without any explanation. The study looked at two cohorts of 50 participants with mTBI and one cohort of 100 participants without mTBI to serve as controls. Subjects were given a series of tests looking at their balance, eye movement and reaction time within 166 hours of an injury. They were then followed up for two weeks. Researchers named two study limitations in the paper. Firstly, they defined the criteria for the TBI diagnosis themselves, since there is not a standard, objective threshold to diagnose mTBI. This may have included some individuals who may not show other “objective signs” on further examination, they wrote. Secondly, researchers relied on medical history and self report for the control population, as these subjects did not undergo baseline testing. As a result, this may have introduced recall bias into the study and chronic, asymptomatic individuals into the control cohort. Since none of these details on the study was disclosed in the news release, we give it a Not Satisfactory rating here. There is no disease mongering in this news release. There was no mention of funding sources and conflicts of interest in the news release. We find this highly problematic, since the principal investigator of this study is employed by Neuro-Kinetics, the manufacturer of the I-Portal google. Not only is he paid by Neuro-Kinetics, but the company is his sole affiliation (meaning he has no other hospitals or university affiliations), as listed on the PLoS One research article. The news release also did not disclose the funding sources for the study – which included the National Football League (NFL), Underarmor, General Electric and the Department of Defense – through the Head Health Challenge II grant. For these reasons, we give the news release a Not Satisfactory rating here. The news release says that mild traumatic brain injury is usually diagnosed through physical exam findings. One of the study authors adds the goggle does not require baseline testing — which includes assessments to gauge reaction time, memory capacity, speed of mental processing, and executive functioning of the brain, according to the Sports Concussion Institute. It would have been interesting to compare the sensitivity/specificity numbers of the goggle to those of the physical exam (with baseline testing). Sure, 95 percent specificity sounds pretty good itself, but what accuracy can physicians achieve the traditional way (aka through the physical exam)? Although the news release doesn’t address this, we feel it did a Satisfactory job here by mentioning the alternative. The news release hints the goggle is not in widespread use — at least not yet. One of the study authors says, “It is not inconceivable that in the near future you will see the I-Portal goggle used on every sideline in America.” It is our understanding that this PloS One article was the first peer-reviewed paper on the only clinical study of this product. We feel it is misleading and too early to claim that this goggle could be on “every sideline” in the “near future.” Not only that, the wording is also vague. What does the “near future” mean anyway? Until that happens, researchers need to collect more data and gain FDA approval for the device, which all take time. As a result, we give the news release a Not Satisfactory rating here. The news release makes it clear that this is a new technology, since one of the study authors had only been evaluating the goggle for two years. An Internet search shows that University of Miami received a NFL grant to test the new I-Portal goggle only in November 2014. A researcher also comments in the news release that the PLoS One paper is the first to demonstrate “an objective method of diagnosing mTBI that relies on physiologic parameters.” Therefore, we suggest the news release merits a Satisfactory rating here. The news release does not use sensational language. While the statement “It is not inconceivable that in the near future you will see the I-Portal goggle used on every sideline in America” is over-the-top we addressed our concerns about that under the novelty criteria.
41014	Tulsa County's first positive Covid-19 case has recovered. This individual has had two negative tests, which is the indicator of recovery.	Correct, this patient has recovered according to official Tulsa County sources. Two negative tests is one of three official indicators of recovery among people with Covid-19 (who showed symptoms).	true	online	Doctors in India have been successful in treating coronavirus with a combination of drugs (Lopinavir, Retonovir, Oseltamivir along with Chlorphenamine) and are going to suggest the same medicine globally. India’s ministry of health has advised that the anti-HIV drugs, Lopinavir and Retonovir, are used in some groups of Covid-19 patients. But it is unclear how successful this treatment has been. The other two drugs from the claim are not mentioned in their guidance. Researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center claim to have found an antibody against coronavirus. Researchers in the Netherlands have released research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, on an antibody against the new coronavirus. A 103 year-old Chinese grandmother has made a full recovery from Covid-19 after being treated for 6 days in Wuhan, China This has been widely reported in the media. Apple has reopened all 42 China stores. Correct. On 13 March 2020, Apple announced that it had reopened all 42 stores in mainland China after a closure of almost six weeks. Cleveland Clinic developed a Covid-19 test that gives results in hours, not days. The number of new cases in South Korea is declining. Italy is hit hard, experts say, only because they have the oldest population in Europe. Whilst it is true that an older population has contributed to a high number of deaths in Italy, it may not be the sole reason. Scientists in Israel are likely to announce the development of a coronavirus vaccine. Scientists in Israel and elsewhere are working on developing a vaccination to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, but it won’t be ready for the public for over a year. Three Maryland coronavirus patients fully recovered and are able to return to everyday life. Correct. On 13 March 2020, Montgomery County, Maryland confirmed that three residents who previously had the virus no longer tested positive. A network of Canadian scientists are making excellent progress in Covid-19 research. At least one group of Canadian scientists has recently announced some progress in understanding Covid-19. A San Diego biotech company is developing a Covid-19 vaccine in collaboration with Duke University and National University of Singapore. Tulsa County's first positive Covid-19 case has recovered. This individual has had two negative tests, which is the indicator of recovery. Correct, this patient has recovered according to official Tulsa County sources. Two negative tests is one of three official indicators of recovery among people with Covid-19 (who showed symptoms). All seven patients who were getting treated for Covid-19 at Safdarjung hospital in New Delhi have recovered. There is a news story reporting that seven patients in this hospital in New Delhi had recovered. However, these were not the only Covid-19 patients in the city. Plasma from newly recovered patients from Covid -19 can treat others infected by Covid-19. This is being used as a treatment in some countries, but clinical trials have not yet proved that this is effective. Claim 1 of 15
35280	"A photograph shows a ""Your Health Is Not More Important Than My Liberties!"" message displayed on an automobile window at a protest calling for the loosening of COVID-19 social-distancing restrictions."	Demonstrators in many different U.S. cities protested that COVID-19 social-distancing restrictions were unnecessary or had continued for too long.	true	Fauxtography, COVID-19	Over the weekend of April 17-20, 2020, protesters in cities across the U.S. turned out to demonstrate for the loosening of social-distancing restrictions enacted to deal with the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic, holding that that restrictions were unnecessary or had continued for too long. Those protests encompassed the display of numerous signs and messages that seemed so outrageous in their sentiments as to leave many viewers who encountered them afterwards on social media wondering whether they were real. (Most were in fact real, although a few were fake.) One such example of this phenomenon was the following, an image of an automobile displaying a message on its rear window reading “Your health is not more important than my liberties!” The license plate on the car appears to be the “Keep Kids Safe” variant of vehicle plates issued in Connecticut, and the state capital of Hartford was the scene of a “Rally to Reopen” protest on April 20, as reported by the Hartford Courant: Hundreds of Connecticut residents paraded around the state Capitol [on the afternoon of April 20] in their cars, honking horns, flying American flags and displaying signs demanding the state reopen businesses and services that have been shut down during the coronavirus pandemic. The long line of protesting drivers snaked around the Capitol grounds and Frog Hollow neighborhood shortly after Gov. Ned Lamont announced deaths associated with the virus have topped 1,300 and that restrictive measures, including a new order to wear masks in public, should continue for weeks. The loud but socially distant protest in Hartford followed similar large, in-person rallies in state capitals around the country, including in Pennsylvania earlier Monday and in Michigan, Virginia and Texas over the past few days. The protesters nationwide claim Lamont and other governors’ unprecedented orders to shut down businesses, close schools and order millions to stay at home to stem the spread of the virus infringe on civil liberties and do more harm than good for society at large, said Dan Reale, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Connecticut, which organized the rally. One slightly different aspect of the Hartford protest was that it primarily comprised demonstrators driving around in their automobiles rather than gathering in person: This Hartford rally has been a very different affair than those we’ve seen in other states, including Pennsylvania earlier today, where large groups congregated in person. This has been almost exclusively in cars and therefore within the social distancing rules they’re protesting https://t.co/XaInuKby4x — Zach Murdock (@zach_murdock) April 20, 2020
9073	Good long-term improvement after 'reverse' shoulder replacement in patients under 60	This release explains the results of a very small retrospective study that looked at the long-term results of reverse shoulder replacement (RSA) surgery in adults under 60 years old. Previous studies had suggested that such surgeries weren’t recommended for younger adults, but this release claims the new study shows that they are. It provides numerical data showing improvement among study participants, although much of that is subjective and points out the negative outcomes from the study. It makes no mention of the cost of such procedures, which can range from $7,000 to more than $20,000. It also omits who funded the study and doesn’t state that the corresponding author has received payment from replacement joint manufacturers. Shoulder injuries among adults, especially the elderly, can severely affect their quality of life and ability to participate in some activities. In general, those adults who remain active tend to be in better health so any procedures that may support that active lifestyle should be encouraged, assuming these results are borne out in subsequent larger studies. Rotator cuff pathology will eventually affect almost everyone, but a very small percentage of people will develop unrepairable massive tears and have severe pain. The problem is especially unusual in the younger population, because the tears are related to degenerative tissue failing which usually occurs in an older population. In addition, progression to massive unrepairable tears occurs over time. RSA is a viable option in the over 60 group only when other soft tissue repairs to help stabilize the shoulder and resolve pain are not possible due to the nature of the residual rotator cuff tissue.	mixture	reverse shoulder replacement surgery,rotator cuff,Wolters Kluwer Health	There is no mention of the cost of this surgical procedure in this news release. A quick search online reveals that such procedures can range in cost from $7,000 to $21,000 while an average cited by a study from Johns Hopkins placed the typical cost at around $10,000. Joint replacement operations are typically expensive and their costs should be provided in any story or news release promoting their use. The release does provide some numerical data on the benefits participants gained from the procedure: “Patients’ ratings of ‘subjective shoulder value’ improved from 20 percent to 71 percent (compared to 100 percent for a normal shoulder).” It also provided the following: “The average Constant score–a standard assessment accounting for shoulder motion, strength, daily activities, and pain–at the time of final-follow-up improved from 24 to 59 (out of a possible 100).” But what readers don’t know — beyond the subjective views of participants — is how their shoulder movement improved in a practical sense. Could they reach items on high shelves? Could they play tennis, bowl or other athletic activities? We have no way of knowing from the release if their quality of life improved, besides of course, the elimination of pain, which is itself an improvement. The bigger picture is that with such a small group of patients, a 39 percent complication rate was very high. Twenty-five percent of the volunteers rated results as only fair. Further, range of motion deteriorated over time in all participants. The study results warrant further analysis with a prospective study to more accurately understand if this is a safe and effective procedure for the under-60 population. The release states, “However, complications occurred in 39 percent of the shoulders. Further surgery was required in six shoulders; in two cases, the RTSA procedure was considered a failure.” It adds that, “When complications occurred, long-term shoulder functioning was not as good but even with the high complication rate, 72 percent of patients rated their satisfaction level as excellent or good.” Again, this a borderline judgement. To its credit, the study does include the evaluation of patients for a long time, “between eight and 19 years after surgery” or an average of 11.7 years.” However, the study only involved 20 patients (23 shoulders) and its findings conflict in some fashion with previous studies looking at long-term efficacy of using this surgical procedure. The headline and the lede of the release claim “good long-term improvement” and “lasting improvement in shoulder function” for patients less than 60 years old. That seems to be a very broad claim for a study based on only 20 patients. This is a classic example of a small retrospective study being publicized as a justification for routine use of a procedure. The results were worth reporting simply because there has been general consensus that this procedure would not be appropriate for this younger population. The only applicable information that should be culled form this study is that RSA may be a successful procedure in the under-sixty patient population, but further prospective study needs to be performed to objectively determine the success before wide spread acceptance of this procedure. The release does not commit disease mongering. The news release never mentions funding for this study, nor does it mention that the corresponding author has been paid by two joint replacement manufacturers, information that was readily available in the scientific paper. There’s no mention of any alternatives to this surgery in this release. This is surely something that should have been discussed. Alternative treatments such as superior capsular reconstruction should be considered prior to RSA, particularly for the patients with massive tears of the rotator cuff without signs of shoulder arthritis. Failures of RSA in a younger individual can be devastating, at times leaving individuals with no good options when the implant fails and the patient has lost a significant amount of bone related to the implantation of the prosthesis and destruction of bone that sometimes occurs with failure of the implant. Since the study is reporting the long-term results of this form of surgery in patients, readers can assume that it is available. The implant is widely available to be used at the surgeon’s discretion. The news release established novelty and earned a Satisfactory rating with this statement: “When first introduced, RTSA was performed mainly in elderly patients who placed low demands on the shoulder. With refinements in technique and components in more recent years, the procedure has been used in younger, more active patients. But there are concerns about how well the results of RTSA will hold up over time in this group of patients.” However, with the limited number of patients involved in this study, and the fact its results conflict with some earlier research, this may not be a case where the findings warrant a news release, even though it is based on a peer-reviewed paper. The release doesn’t make use of unjustifiable language.
9930	Deep Brain Stimulation Might Ease Tough-to-Treat Hypertension	This story describes the experience of an individual who had a deep brain stimulation (DBS) device surgically implanted for the treatment of pain following a stroke, and subsequently found that the device had a beneficial effect on his high blood pressure. It’s an interesting finding — no doubt about it — but results from a single person don’t amount to much from a scientific standpoint, and they don’t mean much to other patients. And so we question why this report would be considered newsworthy for anyone outside of this field of research. To its credit, this story did spend some time drawing attention the limitations of this evidence. However, the story failed to provide information on costs and harms that would have provided a counterweight to enthusiastic talk of benefits. The story also didn’t identify financial relationships between the case report authors and manufacturers of DBS devices–information that readers deserve to have as they ponder the merits of these very preliminary findings. If a friend tells you that he was able to sleep better at night because he ate six raw eggs before going to bed, you might: A. Be doubtful, or B. Try it yourself. You probably would not turn around telling someone that “eating six raw eggs might ease your insomnia.” Yet this is what stories about case studies do, especially ones that present the findings in as optimistic a tone as this one does.	mixture	deep brain stimulation,hypertension	The story speculates that DBS might become a treatment for hard-to-control high blood pressure. But it didn’t offer any estimates as to what it might cost to treat patients with this technology. At the very least, the story could have pressed the authors of the case report to discuss the cost of the device and the price tag for a typical implantation procedure. In this 2008 Chicago Tribune blog post, the cost of DBS was estimated at $150,000 or more per patient. There would also be additional costs for ongoing monitoring and follow-up once the device was implanted. The story never actually describes how high this patient’s blood pressure was prior to DBS, or how much it was reduced after treatment. Providing this data — limited though it may be — would have given readers a better idea of DBS’s effects on blood pressure, at least for this particular patient. The story makes passing reference to risks, but it doesn’t mention any specific problems and doesn’t discuss how commonly they occur with DBS. This is, after all, brain surgery, and there are a host of things that can go wrong, ranging from obvious problems such infections, bleeding, and strokes, to more subtle effects such as cognitive impairment. The story should have explored these. The competing WebMD story, while failing to quantify the harms, at least listed quite a few of the potential problems. The fact that this story is based almost entirely on a single case is a major flaw that deserves to be flagged. With that being said, the expectation for this criterion is that the story will provide an evaluation of the evidence — no matter what kind of evidence it is — and this story did provide a forceful disclaimer about the extremely preliminary nature of the research. We’ve commented previously about how the closing paragraph can be an important tool for framing a story, and in this case the coverage wrapped up strongly with an expert who said, “This is a case report, and not a treatment for anything.” The story also deserves credit for including the fact that the study was on just one patient in the lead. This matters more than ever, we think, because of RSS feeds, Twitter and the like where people often see just the first sentence, or less, of a story. The story did a nice job here. It doesn’t exaggerate the risks associated with hypertension, and it is careful to provide statistics about the smaller subset of individuals (about 10%) who might conceivably be candidates for treatment because they don’t respond to or can’t tolerate medication. The story also avoids including individuals with “pre-hypertension” (a recently coined term for people who are at risk of developing hypertension — i.e. a risk factor for developing a risk factor) in its statistics. Although the story seeks out independent perspectives, it should have alerted readers to the fact that several authors have received speaking honoraria and other financial support from companies that make DBS devices. According to coverage of the study at MedPageToday, these disclosures were included in the published article. While we can’t award a satisfactory, this story did a better job than WebMD of talking with people who provided a less optimistic take on the implants. For example, the first independent quote in the WebMD story says, “What their case report shows is that blood pressure can be reduced in a sustained fashion in a patient with unsuccessful deep brain stimulation for pain….“I think that’s important because it paves the way for potentially studying patients without chronic pain and offering the treatment sometime in the future to reduce blood pressure.” That is much more supportive of the technology than the first quote in the HealthDay story, which says, “It’s a really interesting paper. … I thought it was compelling, though single cases are always questionable” to generalize. Although the story mentions that multiple drugs may be needed to control blood pressure in individuals with treatment-resistant hypertension, it never mentions the lifestyle factors that contribute to the problem and can help alleviate it if addressed. These include obesity, high sodium intake, and heavy alcohol use. Readers will come away from this story understanding that DBS is not currently available for the treatment of high blood pressure — and probably won’t be any time soon. That satisfies the main expectation of this criterion, so we’ll award a satisfactory. The story could have provided more information about which conditions DBS currently is used to treat. (DBS is FDA-approved for the treatment of several movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, and is sometimes used to treat other conditions, including chronic pain and depression.) It also could have explained that DBS is available primarily at large urban medical centers, and that doctors’ experience with the procedure can vary widely. The observations discussed in the story about DBS and hypertension are apparently quite novel. The story’s characterization of the results is appropriate. The story also mentions another novel surgical technique known as renal nerve ablation that might be effective for hypertension that doesn’t respond to medication. The story includes interviews with two independent experts, so we can be sure it wasn’t based on a news release.
29113	"A transcript reproduces radio commentator Paul Harvey's essay entitled ""If I Were the Devil."	An essay that postulates what steps the devil might take in order to corrupt human civilization was popularized by radio commentator Paul Harvey.	mixture	Politics Soapbox	If I Were the Devil” is a form of social criticism, an essay that postulates what steps the devil might take in order to corrupt human civilization (and the United States in particular) and lead it down the path of darkness — before delivering the catch that all the steps listed are phenomena that are already taking place in the world today. It was written and popularized by national radio commentator and syndicated columnist Paul Harvey, who from the mid-1960s onwards featured it in both media many times over the course of his long career, periodically updating it to incorporate current trends: If I were the devil … I would gain control of the most powerful nation in the world; I would delude their minds into thinking that they had come from man’s effort, instead of God’s blessings; I would promote an attitude of loving things and using people, instead of the other way around; I would dupe entire states into relying on gambling for their state revenue; I would convince people that character is not an issue when it comes to leadership; I would make it legal to take the life of unborn babies; I would make it socially acceptable to take one’s own life, and invent machines to make it convenient; I would cheapen human life as much as possible so that the life of animals are valued more than human beings; I would take God out of the schools, where even the mention of His name was grounds for a lawsuit; I would come up with drugs that sedate the mind and target the young, and I would get sports heroes to advertise them; I would get control of the media, so that every night I could pollute the mind of every family member for my agenda; I would attack the family, the backbone of any nation. I would make divorce acceptable and easy, even fashionable. If the family crumbles, so does the nation; I would compel people to express their most depraved fantasies on canvas and movie screens, and I would call it art; I would convince the world that people are born homosexuals, and that their lifestyles should be accepted and marveled; I would convince the people that right and wrong are determined by a few who call themselves authorities and refer to their agenda as politically correct; I would persuade people that the church is irrelevant and out of date, and the Bible is for the naive; I would dull the minds of Christians, and make them believe that prayer is not important, and that faithfulness and obedience are optional; I guess I would leave things pretty much the way they are. In an odd twist, though (and the reason this item is rated as a “mixture”), one of the most widely Internet-circulated versions of “If I Were the Devil,” as reproduced above, is not from Paul Harvey. Although it is clearly inspired by and in the spirit of Paul Harvey’s essay of the same name, it bears virtually no textual resemblance to the original — while it is similar in structure and theme, not one of its lines appears in any of various forms of the essay which Paul Harvey presented to his audiences over the years. The oldest genuine Paul Harvey version of this piece we’ve found so far appeared in his newspaper column in 1964: If I Were the DevilIf I were the Prince of Darkness I would want to engulf the whole earth in darkness. I’d have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree. So I should set about however necessary, to take over the United States. I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whispers to you as I whispered to Eve, “Do as you please.” To the young I would whisper “The Bible is a myth.” I would convince them that “man created God,” instead of the other way around. I would confide that “what is bad is good and what is good is square.” In the ears of the young married I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you. I would caution them not to be “extreme” in religion, in patriotism, in moral conduct. And the old I would teach to pray — to say after me — “Our father which are in Washington.” Then I’d get organized. I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull, uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies, and vice-versa. I’d infiltrate unions and urge more loafing, less work. Idle hands usually work for me. I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could, I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction, I’d tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the Devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions; let those run wild. I’d designate an atheist to front for me before the highest courts and I’d get preachers to say, “She’s right.” With flattery and promises of power I would get the courts to vote against God and in favor of pornography. Thus I would evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, then from the Houses of Congress. Then in his own churches I’d substitute psychology for religion and deify science. If I were Satan I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg And the symbol of Christmas a bottle. If I were the Devil I’d take from those who have and give to those who wanted until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. Then my police state would force everybody back to work. Then I would separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines and objectors in slave-labor camps. If I were Satan I’d just keep doing what I’m doing and the whole world go to hell as sure as the Devil. Contrasting that 1964 version of the essay with Paul Harvey’s 1996 newspaper version, we find that although the concept and structure of the essay remained the same across the decades, its content evolved quite a bit over the years: If I were the prince of darkness, I would want to engulf the whole world in darkness.I’d have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree — thee. So, I would set about however necessary to take over the United States. I’d subvert the churches first, and I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.” To the young, I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince the children that man created God instead of the other way around. I’d confide that what’s bad is good and what’s good is square. And the old, I would teach to pray after me, “Our Father, which are in Washington …” Then, I’d get organized, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the devil, I’d soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves and nations at war with themselves until each, in its turn, was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings, I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellect but neglect to discipline emotions. I’d tell teachers to let those students run wil. And before you knew it, you’d have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door. With a decade, I’d have prisons overflowing and judges promoting pornography. Soon, I would evict God from the courthouse and the schoolhouse and them from the houses of Congress. In his own churches, I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I’d lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and church money. If I were the devil, I’d take from those who have and give to those who wanted until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. What’ll you bet I couldn’t get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich? I’d convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun and that what you see on television is the way to be. And thus, I could undress you in public and lure you into bed with diseases for which there are no cures. In other words, if I were the devil, I’d just keep right on doing what he’s doing. The following clip (often mistakenly identified as a broadcast from 3 April 1965) captures Paul Harvey’s radio equivalent of his 1996 newspaper version referenced above:
8093	Australia widens coronavirus testing as death toll rises.	Australia will expand coronavirus testing, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday, as Canberra struggles to contain an outbreak that it said has killed nine people in the country.	true	Health News	After a gradual spread in January, the number of cases in Australia appears to be tracking sharper spikes seen elsewhere, prompting warnings that hospitals could be overwhelmed. As the number of cases topped 2,500, Morrison said Australia will expand testing to include people if they present with fever or an acute respiratory infection, as part of a move to help hospitals ready for an expected influx of new patients. Australia had previously limited testing to people displaying symptoms who had recently returned from overseas. This has been widely criticized and the expansion of testing came as authorities signaled a more aggressive approach. Morrison said high-risk groups to be tested include health workers, employees in care facilities for the elderly, prisoners, boarding school pupils and military base personnel. Doctors will also be allowed to test hospital patients who display coronavirus symptoms. “Every extra bit of time allows us to better prepare our health system and put measures in place to protect Australian lives,” Morrison said in an emailed statement. Australia also said it would force passengers on a ship into quarantine and refused entry to another vessel amid concern that cruise ships have been a breeding ground for many of the new coronavirus cases in Australia, including it ninth fatality. Queensland state said on Wednesday a 68-year-old man had become Australia’s youngest person to die from coronavirus. The MV Artania, owned by Germany’s Phoenix Reisen, was scheduled to dock in Perth and called ahead for medical assistance after 25 of its 800 passengers reported respiratory problems, the West Australian state government said. The authorities refused to let it dock and sent local health professionals onto the ship, which had no Australians onboard. Another cruise ship, the Vasco da Gama, was due in Perth on Friday with 800 Australians and 109 New Zealanders on board. It will now be forced to dock at Rottnest Island, a former prison outpost, where a makeshift quarantine station was being set up. Foreigners would be flown home, while Australians would be let back into the country after 14 days of quarantine. Phoenix Reisen, the MV Artania owner, was not immediately available for comment. About 2,700 cruise passengers entered Sydney this week without health checks, and more than 130 have been confirmed as having coronavirus. Australia has extended restrictions across the country, including limiting the size of weddings and funerals and closing non-essential businesses such as bars, restaurants and cinemas. But Australian lawmakers have been frustrated that some have disregarded warnings to increase social distancing and to self-isolate if returning from overseas. Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews said 500 police officers will be checking to ensure people are complying. In neighboring New South Wales (NSW), police will fine people A$1,000 ($604) for breaching rules that include limits of 10 people in outside gatherings, spaced 1.5 meters apart. Western Australia will impose a limit on alcohol home purchases to lighten the law enforcement load for alcohol-related offences and minimize any health impact.
11410	Lab-grown mouse sperm could spawn fertility treatments for men	While the story might have been clearer about potential problems and obstacles that may be ahead for turning this laboratory work in mice into something of potential value in humans, it was an interesting story about a novel laboratory outcome. The goals of cancer treatment have broadened beyond simply reducing deaths from cancer to preserving quality of life, including the potential for future fertility. This work reports initial success with a laboratory procedure that could be a first step in a novel strategy to protect reproductive potential in boys treated for cancer prior to puberty.	mixture	animal research,Los Angeles Times	Not applicable. This was a story about a laboratory result and while it did not contain information about costs, discussion about cost would have been premature. The story didn’t explain how often the experiment was done in mice, the rate of success, etc. The story mentioned that additional work assessing safety was needed without going into the potential harms to young boys who might have biopsy samples taken, sample viability issues that might arise from the long term frozen storage, or the possible legal morass about ownership of the samples (patient only?, parents or other family members of the patient?). It would have only required another line or so to help readers think more deeply about the unknown potential harms. The story used the term ‘breakthrough’ to describe the experiment but did not provide sufficient framework to back that up. We didn’t learn how often the work was successful, in how many mice, etc. The story did state: “The commentary authors wrote that further work on the technique’s safety would be needed before it would be ready for clinical use.” But it didn’t say anything about the need to replicate the results in other labs. More than just safety, the efficacy of the approach in mice must be replicated. And it could have reminded readers of the tremendous leap that may be necessary in making the jump from sperm development in vitro in mice to anything that has value in boys undergoing cancer treatment. Again, not just safety, but efficacy. The story did not engage in overt disease-mongering. The story did not include comments about the work and its implications from a related commentary in the journal Nature. The story was clear that the results reported were the first time that sperm development from immature testicular samples had been successful in the laboratory. The story reported on an experimental outcome in mice and though it described a population in whom the technique might be useful, it was clear that additional work was needed before it was ready for clinical application. The story was clear that it was reporting about a novel experimental outcome. The story does not appear to rely solely on a news release.
201	U.S. judge orders big drug companies to face opioid trial.	A U.S. judge on Tuesday rejected efforts by major drugmakers, pharmacies and distributors to dismiss claims that they caused the nation’s opioid crisis, clearing the way for a scheduled landmark trial even as he pushes for a nationwide settlement.	true	Health News	U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, who oversees roughly 2,000 opioid lawsuits by states, counties and cities, said the plaintiffs can try to prove that drugmakers’ deceptive marketing of the painkillers caused a harmful, massive increase in supply that pharmacies and distributors did not do enough to stop. “A factfinder could reasonably infer that these failures were a substantial factor in producing the alleged harm suffered by plaintiffs,” the Cleveland-based judge wrote. The ruling was among seven decisions and orders totaling 80 pages from Polster ahead of a scheduled Oct. 21 trial by two Ohio counties against Purdue Pharma, the OxyContin maker accused of fueling the epidemic, and several other defendants. Polster also refused to dismiss civil conspiracy claims against drugmakers, pharmacies and distributors, and said federal law did not preempt much of the plaintiffs’ case. Other defendants included the drugmakers Endo International Plc and Johnson & Johnson; pharmacy operators CVS Health Corp, Rite Aid Corp, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and Walmart Inc; and distributors AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and McKesson Corp. Polster also refused to dismiss a variety of claims against generic drugmakers Allergan Plc, Mallinckrodt Plc and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Opioid addiction claimed roughly 400,000 lives in the United States from 1999 to 2017, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Critics of the industry said opioid makers hid the addiction and abuse risks of prolonged use from consumers. Rite Aid’s lawyers declined to comment. Lawyers for other major defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Paul Hanly, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said his clients were pleased that Polster “almost uniformly” agreed with their positions on the dismissal requests and whether to admit various testimony. J&J has said it will appeal an Oklahoma judge’s Aug. 26 order that it pay $572.1 million to that state for the company’s role in the opioid epidemic. Purdue and its owners, the Sackler family, have been in talks on a possible $10 billion to $12 billion nationwide settlement of opioid claims, two people familiar with the matter said last week. That accord could include a bankruptcy filing for the Stamford, Connecticut-based company. Purdue and the Sacklers have denied the allegations. The case is In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, No. 17-md-02804.
10261	Sleep’s role in weight loss remains a mystery	The story should have connected its own dots. Why tell us that there’s no evidence supporting sleep interventions for weight loss, and then give us a prescription for sleep changes to help us lose weight? Judging the quality of evidence is critical. But the main reason to do it is to assess the quality of healthcare recommendations derived from that evidence. Obesity is a major public health issue and any weight-loss interventions, particularly inexpensive behavioral ones, are valuable.	mixture		"Costs are not directly relevant to the dynamics of sleep and weight, nor to the interventions described in the story. Again, there are no interventional trials discussed, only biological studies of hormones, so benefits shouldn’t be relevant. But by passing along Aziz and Vorona’s recommendations, the author claims that these interventions have weight loss benefits. Those benefits are not quantified. One could say that the benefits can’t be quantified because there are no studies. And that’s the point. Not applicable. Harms don’t seem to apply in this case. The story is puzzling. In the first half, the author is keen to evaluate the quality of evidence, providing strong caveats on several dimensions of the evidence base for this question. Then for some reason, in the second half it opens the corral to allow an alternative medicine physician and sleep researcher to prescribe readers detailed behavioral changes to help them lose weight. But the story just said there’s no evidence for such interventions. It even says that Michael Aziz is making a leap from the basic research, Robert Vorona has not even been able to conduct research on this question, and that Vorona is uncertain. Why question the evidence and then prescribe health changes that, we can only conclude, have no underlying evidence? The first half says that nobody knows if the recommendations in the second half do anything for weight loss. That’s why we say the story should’ve connected its own dots. Perhaps the story could’ve gotten away with this structure IF it added caution to interpreting the recommendations based on the lack of evidence. But it didn’t. There is no disease-mongering about obesity in the story. The author cites three independent sources and identifies each of their affiliations. There are no data presented on sleep extension and related approaches as interventions for weight loss. Thus it’s impossible to compare them to other interventions for weight loss. However, we give it a strike for one reason. The story attempts to put sleep into some kind of context in the overall mechanism of obesity by ending on the sleep researcher’s caveat that he doesn’t believe sleep deprivation is the root cause of the obesity epidemic. But he suspects it’s ""part of the picture, along with lack of exercise and dietary indiscretion."" The story cites no evidence or study to support his suspicion. We have no idea how big or how small a part sleep makes up in that picture. No doubt, Vorona doesn’t know either. But he is still suggesting that sleep deprivation has a role in obesity. The vague point, without evidence or relative qualification, will for some readers elevate the role of sleep deprivation relative to the other contributing factors. It’s relevant because each factor is associated with a weight loss intervention, and diet and exercise interventions have a warehouse of studies behind them. A brief discussion about the roles of calorie restriction and exercise for long-term weight loss and maintenance would have put the role of sleep interventions in perspective for readers. The criterion is not applicable. The story’s focus is on the connection between sleep and weight, and the lifestyle interventions mentioned are available to everyone. The story makes it clear this is not a new question, and that it reviewed ""a handful of studies, including a 2008 analysis of the existing research on the subject of sleep and obesity."" The article does not appear to rely on a news release."
28164	In a dying act of defiance, Polish dancer and Holocaust victim Franceska Mann shot and killed SS officer Josef Schillinger.	What's true: Multiple accounts document that in October 1943, SS officer Josef Schillinger was shot and killed by a female prisoner believed to be Franceska Mann. What's undetermined: Some details of the event vary or are unconfirmable in the absence of an official record.	true	History	Many social media users have encountered posts about the claim that in May 1945, Auschwitz prisoner Franceska Mann seized the gun of an unnamed Nazi guard and shot him dead as he attempted to lead her to a gas chamber: Mann’s story was most prominently reported in Filip Müller’s 1979 book Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers. An October 2016 text described Müller’s testimony as the only bystander account of what has become a much-storied event in the intervening decades: In actual fact, this woman’s name was Franziska Mann, stage name Lola Horovitz (Amann/Aust 2013). She was born in 1917, was a dancer and began her career in Warsaw before the war. She was among the best dancers of her generation in Poland. She was imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto, and later, like other prominent Jews, internet in Hotel Polski and in Bergen-Belsen. Rumours that she was a Nazi informer have never been confirmed. Her killing of SS man Schillinger in Auschwitz was described by the only surviving eyewitness of this scene, the Slovak Jew Filip Müller, a member of the Sonderkommando (Müller 1979; in English Eyewitness Auschwitz – Three Years in the Gas Chambers, 1979). Although Lustig could not know Müller’s report in the sixties, when A Prayer for Katerina Horovitzová was written and edited, his description of this event is much more authentic and impressive than later iColette. In January 2015, Holocaust survivor David Wisnau provided an eyewitness account of Mann’s act of rebellion to a Philadelphia news outlet in the course of a broader interview about his experience in the camps. Wisnau also provided a firm date for the incident: “I sang in German for the cell-block leaders and entertained the SS in the main guard houses in Birkenau. It saved my life … I got a cushy job after the first year … I sorted the clothes. I was supposed to look for money.” Wisnia was sorting clothes on Oct. 23, 1943, when he witnessed the unthinkable – the deadly revolt at Crematorium 4. A group of prisoners, including the Polish Jewish dancer Franceska Mann, were taken into a room next to a gas chamber and ordered to strip. Mann apparently grabbed the roll-call officer’s pistol, fatally wounding him in the stomach, according to some accounts. She also reportedly fired a shot that wounded an SS sergeant. A revolt by the other prisoners was broken up when guards mowed them down with machine guns. In 2012, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency‘s “Revenge at Birkenau” cited I Found It In The Archives‘ discovery of a corroborating document. Associated Press journalist and researcher of the National Archives Randy Herschaft reported on that find among documents declassified roughly two years prior (i.e., in 2010): It was one of the most celebrated acts of resistance by a Jewish woman at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp: an actress stripped naked and about to be gassed pulled a gun from a notoriously brutal guard and shot him dead. A 33-year-old Polish timber merchant who was in charge of a filing system in his barracks told British intelligence about the woman’s act in a May 31, 1945 secret report, four months after the camp was liberated. To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, we are posting here a copy of a rarely viewed 10-page report found in a U.S. Army intelligence file. The guard was identified in the document as SS Sergeant Josef Schillinger, who was named in a U.N. War Crimes Commission report. The basic facts in the story have been validated by other scholars. The Jewish woman has not been unequivocally identified, but different accounts have said she was Franceska Mann. However, it may never be known who she was since she was killed after the shooting. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) hosted transcripts and footage from the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann. The incident was mentioned in passing in June 1967 testimony at the war crimes trial of German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann: “00:03:35 Describes Schillinger as committing the worst atrocities in Birkenau. Schillinger was murdered by a woman in transport [Note: accounts of his death vary].” Eichmann was found guilty and subsequently hanged in Israel on 1 June 1962. The variability of accounts of Schillinger’s death was highlighted in a 2010 book about sexual violence against Jewish women during the Holocaust: This is what was supposed to have happened: Schillinger, eager as always, was assisting that night on the ramp during the reception of a new transport of Jews, in the company of his crony Hauptscharführer Emmerich. Both of them, slightly drunk, accompanied the transport to the crematorium. They even entered the changing room, guided either by thoughts of a little stealing or in anticipation of the sadistic enjoyment of watching the timid, defenseless, undressed women who moments later were to die a painful death in the gas chamber. The latter version seemed to me to be the more likely, if one considered Schillinger’s predilections, particularly when he was drunk. His attention was drawn to a young and reputedly beautiful woman who refused to undress in the presence of the SS men. Incensed, Schillinger went up to the woman and tried to pull down her brassiere. In the struggle she managed to snatch his pistol, with which she shot Schillinger dead and injured Emmerich, who had come to Schillinger’s aid, in the leg. Simultaneously, the other Jews tried to lock the doors from the inside. Upon hearing shots, the SS men who had been standing outside rushed into the changing room and, realizing what had happened, began to massacre everybody. Of this group of Jews, none died in the gas chamber; the enraged SS men shot them all. The tale of Mann’s defiant act made its way into a 2004 profile of University of Utah Professor Jacqueline Osherow. Osherow described her surprise at hearing Mann’s story from a source other than her former father-in-law, a Holocaust survivor who was unnamed in the piece: [Osherow] asked her father-in-law, a Holocaust survivor in charge of delousing at Birkenau (an extermination camp annex of Auschwitz, the Nazi’s largest concentration camp), if he knew any of the SS. He told the story of Josef Schillinger, an SS officer. In the tale, a woman brought to the gas chamber grabs Schillinger’s gun, killing him and three other guards before being gunned down herself. The story haunted Osherow until she wrote the poem. Since then, “Brief Encounter” has taken on a life of its own. Last year, Susan Gubar released Poetry After Auschwitz: Remembering What One Never Knew, in which she discusses “Brief Encounter.” Gubar then mentions another account of the same incident: a Tadeusz Borowski story, “The Death of Schillinger.” Osherow was stunned—and incredibly thrilled—to discover the story had a history beyond her father-in-law’s account. Merely searching online, Osherow found various accounts of the incident: It occurred in October 1943, and the woman was most likely a Polish dancer named Franceska Mann. “My mind exploded,” Osherow recalls, still astonished. “I thought it was something that only existed in my father-in-law’s head and my head. Suddenly, there was external proof.” It also lends insight to the way Osherow writes poetry: It’s about conversations, stories and experiences, not historic research. The same year, an account of Schillinger’s death at the hands of an unnamed female prisoner was published in the book We Wept Without Tears: Testimonies of the Jewish Sonderkommando from Auschwitz. Multiple accounts (at least three separate ones from male purported eyewitnesses) told the story of a woman (sometimes not identified by name) who shot and killed Schillinger as he led her to a gas chamber. The earliest of the accounts was gathered in May 1945 from a Polish timber merchant and witness after the liberation of Auschwitz and Birkenau. Discovered in the National Archives in 2012, it matched contemporary claims about Franceska Mann. Although many versions of the tale varied in detail or failed to provide Mann’s name, numerous separate accounts exist that date as far back as 1945 and 1961. All of them indicated a female prisoner at Birkenau gained possession of a revolver (most likely Schillinger’s) and shot him dead and wounded one other Nazi guard as she was led to her death in a gas chamber. In accounts where the woman is described by name, she was identified as “Franceska Mann” or “Franciska Mann.” Of the Holocaust records initially kept, many were destroyed at the end of the war to conceal crimes committed, and as such, details of eyewitness accounts were often difficult to firmly corroborate. But numerous men attested at different times and places to witnessing the death of Schillinger at the hands of a woman most frequently described as Mann. Descriptive elements of the incident (such as how the struggle began or how Mann obtained the gun) varied, but the basic details of the tale were consistent.
37821	After images of U.S. President Donald Trump holding up a Bible circulated, a photograph of Adolf Hitler in a similar post was unearthed.	Hitler Holding a Bible, Trump Holding a Bible	false	Disinformation, Fact Checks	After United States President Donald Trump controversially posed for photographs at a Washington, DC church while he held up a Bible, the following photograph of Trump juxtaposed with Adolf Hitler in a purportedly similar pose appeared and quickly went viral:We encountered the image primarily in comments sections, typically without any explanation or other discourse, and occasionally on Twitter:Was trump waving a #Bible today ? pic.twitter.com/4gkjz889QE— AltBlueOhio (@StickerDeep) June 2, 2020Trump’s visit to St. John’s Church on June 1 2020 was controversial in and of itself for a variety of reasons:Law enforcement dispersed a peaceful protest with tear gas and rubber bullets at a park next to the White House, as the president vowed to deploy troops, if necessary, to “dominate the streets”.Moments later Donald Trump walked out of the executive mansion to a nearby historic church, where he held up a Bible.In media accounts, Trump was described as stilted and “awkward,” admitting he did not own the Bible he held:He wielded the Bible like a foreign object, awkwardly adjusting his grip as though trying to get comfortable. He examined its cover. He held it up over his right shoulder like a crossing guard presenting a stop sign. He did not open it.“Is that your Bible?” a reporter asked.“It’s a Bible,” the president replied.Even by the standards of Donald Trump’s religious photo ops, the dissonance was striking. Moments earlier, he had stood in the Rose Garden and threatened to unleash the military on unruly protesters. He used terms such as anarchy and domestic terror, and vowed to “dominate the streets.” To clear the way for his planned post-speech trip to St. John’s Church, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowd of peaceful demonstrators.To determine whether the photograph of Hitler with a Bible was authentic, we first used reverse image search tools. Google was not initially helpful in this endeavor, suggesting the caption “hamster with a broken arm” for the isolated Hitler panel of the image:However, it didn’t take very long to find the source image in Getty Images’ repository. Titled “Nazi leader Adolf Hitler waves to the crowd as he is given the Nazi salute by thousands of supporters,” the image showed Hitler with his left hand up (sans the Bible or any book) in a crowd of supporters:The photo of AH on left in the original post is photoshopped. But still, there are a lot of similarities between these unhinged sociopaths..unfortunately. pic.twitter.com/PILuya6FCE— HilaryG 🦋 #PresidentPelosiNOW (@Hilarygjones) June 2, 2020Although the image of Trump is real and not in dispute, the image of Hitler holding up a Bible was doctored to fit the moment. In the original archival photograph, Hitler’s left hand is open and empty, and no Bible is displayed.Comments
37399	"Anyone is authorized to create holy water by the Catholic church in exigent circumstances, and a quantity of holy water can be increased by adding less than half as much ""secular water."	‘My Favorite Catholic Lore’ Holy Water Facts Meme	false	Fact Checks, Viral Content	On January 15 2020, a Tumblr screenshot featuring purported facts about holy water (“my favorite Catholic lore”) was shared to Imgur with the title “How to get +1 holy damage”:A multi-party Tumblr exchange began with claims from users starfleetacademy and animonaut, who said:“My favorite catholic lore is that anyone can make holy water in a pinch but the church puts dumb restrictions on us like ‘do this only if someone needs their last rites’ like I WILL bless this McDonald’s sprite and I WILL enjoy the crispiness of our lord and savior[. ]”“Another bit is that holy water cannot be diluted. When I went to the Vatican the tour guide was explaining this, if you put any amount of holy water into any amount of normal water, the whole bunch becomes holy. This is how they sell Pope Holy Water in the gift shop. This is how I’ve been drinking only holy water for two months now. I am immune to demons..”In the first comment in the conversation, “starfleetacademy” stated that in Catholicism, laypeople (i.e., the unordained) maintained limited authority to create holy water — with the caveat they only do so for a pressing matter such as the Anointing of the Sick (formerly known as “last rites.”) However, the user expressed their inclination to sanctify “McDonald’s Sprite” and, presumably, chicken nuggets.In the second, “animonaut” asserted that “holy water cannot be diluted,” and that “if you put any amount of holy water into any amount of normal water, the whole bunch becomes holy.” Furthermore, they (perhaps jokingly) claimed they had been drinking only holy water for two months.Next up in the screenshot was “kaijutegu,” with a purported clarification and an anecdote about their mother’s use of a Catholic “loophole” to create nearly limitless amounts of holy water sanctified by Pope Benedict XVI himself:It’s not actually any amount of holy water- according to the Church, the water has to be more than half holy water by volume. So if you take a half gallon+a few drops of holy water and a half gallon of secular water, you get one gallon of holy water, plus a few drops. You can then add a gallon of secular water to that and then you have two gallons of holy water. We’ve got a couple jugs of Pope Water in the linen closet at my parents’ house, because my mom used the heck out of this loophole after a trip to Italy in 2008. It was more than a decade ago at this point and we still have Pope Water. We no longer have that Pope, but by god do we have his water.According to kaijutegu, Catholics could use holy water to make holy water as animonaut described, but kaijutegu said that the “secular water” (as opposed to holy water) was required by volume to be less than half — even if just slightly less. Therefore, they maintained, a half gallon and a few drops of holy water combined with a half gallon of tap water resulted in a gallon of holy water.As seen in the screenshot, kaijutegu returned to the thread with pictorial evidence of their family’s stash of neverending holy water. Visible on the image on the left side was a gallon jug of water with a black magic marker cross, a line marked “fill,” and the letters BXVI (for Pope Benedict XVI):Here’s what a jug of Pope water looks like. Mom measured a fill line on them so that we never accidentally run out and just have old jugs of secular water lying around.In the screenshot’s final exchange, user “corvidbone” contributed two hashtags (with spaces.) The first was “#catholicism is a hell of a ride,” and the second was “#pope water is gamer girl bathwater but for jesus stans.” The second hashtag was a reference to Belle Delphine‘s controversial sale of her bathwater.Although the thread was primarily amusing to its participants, it also contained claims that seemed to be news to sharers and commenters. There were two primary claims, each with a stipulation:First was a question of whether laypeople retained the official ability to sanctify water and “make holy water” without the presence of a priest, and further, if laypeople might only do so if the circumstances were pressing.Brittanica.com defines holy water as it applies to Catholicism and related faiths, but no mention is made of laypeople making holy water holy:Holy water, in Christianity, water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy and is used in baptism and to bless individuals, churches, homes, and articles of devotion. A natural symbol of purification, water has been used by religious peoples as a means of removing uncleanness, either ritual or moral. Holy water is used in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, certain Lutheran synods, Anglicanism, and various other churches.Ability of laypeople to create holy water in exigent circumstances seemed a fairly relevant detail that ought to have some dispersal on the internet. Discussions about the ability of laypeople to bless water sometimes came up in the context of the ability of laypeople to baptize others; the ability of laypeople to baptize might be the source of confusion regarding holy water.Over on Quora, Father Peter Francis Joseph DeFazio twice answered questions about laypeople and the creation of holy water in July 2018. To the first — “Can a layperson bless water and make it into holy water?” — he said:No. Ordinary water (H2O) becomes holy water via the prayer of an ordained minister (bishop, priest or deacon.) Another way of saying it is God, the Holy Spirit, sanctifies the water upon the invocation of the ordained minister. There are many variations of the prayer of confecting holy water. [Source. ]In a subsequent response (to the question “Can you bless/create your own holy water if you need it desperately and there is no priest present? If not, why?”), DeFazio specifically addressed exigent circumstances like the ones referenced by the first Tumblr user. In his answer, DeFazio indicated it might be possible — but it did seemed to be far from canonical certainty:Ordinarily, no. As I previously wrote:[Quoted above excerpt. ]I do not know if it would work or not on an emergency basis—say during times/places of fierce persecutions of Christians, and in the absence of ordained men. God can certainly do anything. If there were no bishops, priests or deacons available, perhaps God would honor the prayers of a non-ordained person in blessing water. Note: This is speculation not official teaching.My guess is that were laypeople to bless water in such circumstances God would impart a blessing over the water, but it would not be “Holy Water,” per se. Just blessed water, like the blessing of other food and drink.But under ordinary circumstances, what I wrote [above] applies[. ]DeFazio addressed the question in terms of God’s ability to intervene and make water holy, not the layperson’s emergency ability to do so. He again stated no familiarity with Church doctrine deputizing laypeople to create holy water, but mused that “perhaps God would honor the prayers of a non-ordained person in blessing water.” DeFazio immediately followed up by saying that his comments constituted “speculation,” rather than “official teaching,” indicating that the practice described was not formally recognized by the Catholic Church. (Which was, in turn, perhaps the case due to laypeople being inclined to sanctify Sprite and chicken nuggets. )A second claim made in the post involved the claim that holy water could be added to unblessed water, to create a far greater quantity of holy water. Similar claims appeared on a Catholic discussion forum in 2008, with the same general features of the claims on Tumblr:“I was told by a layperson that we could just mix a bit of blessed water with a gallon of tap water and it would make a gallon and a bit of holy water. How can I show this to be incorrect?”“It is incorrect that you can mix a “bit” of Holy Water with additional water. You can mix up to 51% Holy Water with 49% regular water to replenish it when necessary. there must always be more Holy Water then regular water.”A Reddit user published a similar question to r/Catholicism in June 2019; users responded and referenced a “general dilution rate” with respect to holy water, but no one seemed sure of the amount:Adding water to holy water, plus another question. from CatholicismAlthough the 49 percent to 51 percent ratio was common in discussion among laypeople on Catholic forums, once again, priests didn’t seem to view the technicalities quite the same way. When asked by a congregant whose holy water font was beset by a crust due to high levels of consecrated salt, the priest suggested that “in a pinch” holy water could be diluted.However, he stopped very short of saying it could or should be diluted by nearly half:I suppose you could add a little… a very little bit of water to your Holy Water.But this brings us to the issue of dilution of Holy Water for the sake of extending it.Please, don’t do that. Get more Holy Water.It is possible, in a pinch, to add a small amount of water to Holy Water or Baptismal Water if there isn’t a sufficient quality for the task for which it is needed. However, that should not be the usual practice and only a small amount, proportionally, should be added. And, frankly, I can’t think of many circumstances in which you would urgently need a lot more. I can conjure some… I guess, if I try.It is better simply to ask Father to bless more Holy Water and make sure it is in sufficient supply.Overall, the priest above’s stated view seemed to match commonly shared church guidance on holy water, inasmuch as dilution was possible but not advised. UCatholic.com explained:According to the “Rules for Administering Baptism” under the Rituale Romanum, if Holy Water is not of sufficient quantities, more may be added provided it does not exceed the original quantity of water.“If the baptismal water has so diminished that it is foreseen it will not suffice, unblessed water may be added even repeatedly, but in lesser quantity than the blessed each time this is done. If it becomes contaminated or has leaked out or in any way is deficient, the pastor will see to it that the font is thoroughly cleansed and replenished with fresh water, and proceed to bless it according to the form given below.”In short, this means Holy Water can be diluted 49% and still retain its sacramental properties. The 49%/51% ratio has precedent in the Church: the Sacred Congregation of Rites prescribed in 1904 that liturgical candles must be comprised of at least 51% beeswax i.e in maxima parle.“and at least 51% for the other candles.” — Liturgical Law p. 37What about adding water for a second time? In almost all cases, this never happens. Safeguards are in place that properly diluted Holy Water is not diluted again and thus retains its sacramental properties.On a separate forum, a former seminary student made what was essentially the same observation, noting that the 49 percent and 51 percent proportions were something of a Catholic urban legend. Indicated was limited basis in Church doctrine, as well as a lack of understanding among laypeople about the relevance of the dilution rate:Although these rules are from the 1962 rubrics, they still show that ordinary water may be mixed with holy water and retain its blessing. In other words, it is important to realize that to maintain its sacramental blessing in force, the water added to the original volume is not to exceed 49%. The water added to the holy water must be less than the original volume. Any more than that the holy water looses its sacramental qualities and is to be considered ordinary water.When adding water a second time to the previous amount of holy water, the water added to that must also be 49% or less of that volume. It should be noted that this is rarely done and that safeguards are generally in place to make sure this does not happen. This should be avoided if at all possible.Most graduates of a Catholic school are familiar with priests and nuns “debunking” common claims about their belief system, possibly imparted by well-meaning but ill-informed parents and relatives about Church rules and practices. Based on our findings regarding laypeople blessing holy water and the dilution rates of holy water, that tendency seemed to be in play here.The Tumblr screenshot’s main claims held that laypeople could make holy water but only in exigent circumstances, and that holy water could be essentially doubled so long as the quantity of holy water was slightly more than half the quantity of “secular water.” Based on somewhat mortified answers by priests, neither claim was quite true. When pressed, one priest said it was certainly possible God could intervene and enable a layperson to create holy water — but he seemed unaware of any official Church doctrine recognizing the practice. Similarly, a priest when asked said a tiny amount of holy water dilution was okay, but the 49 percent to 51 percent ratio was not what he described. A former seminary student explicated the Church’s stance on diluting holy water from doctrine, emphasizing that it was advisable and preferred to obtain more 100 percent holy water over diluting holy water with unblessed water.
6381	UK says ex-spy poisoned with Soviet-developed nerve agent.	The use of Russian-developed nerve agent Novichok to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter makes it “highly likely” that Russia was involved, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday.	true	Chemistry, Cold War, Health, Soviet Union, Science Says, Chemical weapons, Treaties, Science, Theresa May, Europe, Russia, International News	Novichok refers to a class of nerve agents developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War. The agents were ostensibly created in an attempt to avoid the international chemical weapons treaty that had just been signed; any new substances wouldn’t be subject to past treaties. Novichok behaves slightly differently than other nerve agents, with some reports that the class of substances is deadlier than similar chemicals like sarin or VX and harder to identify. “Novichok agents significantly extend the range of possibility for nerve agents,” said Andrea Sella, a professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London. There are five known nerve agents, which are mostly colorless liquids that can kill within minutes, if ingested. “With Novichok, you have the potential for a slower-release agent, which gives you much more control,” Sella said. “Using Novichok makes it pretty clear that it was likely Russia that was behind this.” Gary Stephens, a pharmacology expert at the University of Reading, noted that the component ingredients of Novichok nerve agents aren’t on the banned list. “It means the chemicals that are mixed to create it are much easier to deliver with no risk to the health of the courier,” he said. Nerve agents are typically inhaled or absorbed through the skin. They work by blocking a key enzyme that controls communication between nerve cells and muscles — inhibiting the enzyme causes muscles and glands to be overstimulated. That results in symptoms including contracted pupils, vomiting, breathing difficulties and convulsing muscles. While the raw materials needed to make a nerve agent are cheap and relatively accessible, transforming them into a deadly weapon requires specialized expertise and the kind of safety precautions normally only found in government laboratories. But trained chemists with access to secure facilities would theoretically be able to produce nerve agents, which have been described by some scientists as the most deadly invention humans have ever made, after the atom bomb. “With these kinds of substances, they are just so dangerous that no fly-by-night terrorist group is going to cook this up,” Sella said. “It really smells like a government outfit,” he said, adding that nations other than Russia would also be capable of producing Novichok. Alastair Hay, a professor emeritus of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds, said it was possible the Skripals’ food was contaminated or the nerve agent was absorbed through the skin, which could take an hour or longer if the substance was administered using something similar to a nicotine patch. People attacked with Novichok can potentially be treated with compounds called oxines, but recovery would depend on how quickly doctors are able to pinpoint the right compound, according to Hay. Since nerve agents affect the respiratory center in the brain and reduces the amount of oxygen in the body, the primary worry for people exposed to nerve agents is brain damage, he said. “All of the evidence is that for people who are this severely poisoned, is that a full recovery is far from guaranteed and they may have residual problems as a result of damage to the brain,” Hay said. Scientists will likely be analyzing any trace amounts left of the Novichok to determine which lab might have produced it. Experts said any remaining bits of the substances used to make the nerve agent or impurities left by the chemical reaction used in the manufacturing process could be revealing. “Those might give you a clue where it was made,” Hay said. “Intelligence agencies and governments have a reasonable idea about the different processes that have been used and which countries use specific methods of manufacturing.” Still, he said this wasn’t an exact science and that police would have to gather evidence beyond the laboratory to narrow down where the nerve agent originated. Any samples of the Novichok left in the environment could also be useful as police construct a timeline of the attack — analyzing where the agent was left in the highest concentrations will help determine where Skripal, his daughter and the police officer who first responded were exposed. Hay said that among the crime’s biggest mysteries is why the perpetrators even chose to use Novichok. “If you wanted to kill someone, there are much more effective ways to do this than to go to these lengths with something that’s so identifiable,” he said. “But maybe that’s part of the message,” he said. “Maybe this is just somebody saying, ‘we don’t care if you identify us as the attackers and we don’t care if you know.’” ___ This version has been corrected to show that compounds used in treating nerve agent exposure are “oxines,” not oximes. ___ This Associated Press series was produced in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
10676	Breast Cancer Drug Good Later Than Thought	"The story notes that starting a second hormonal therapy, namely, letrozole (brand name Femara), years after stopping tamoxifen is a new finding which may affect current clinical recommendations for adjuvant treatment for post-menopausal women with ER-positive, early-stage breast cancer. Current clinical practice guidelines state that letrozole may be appropriate treatment when started 3 months after finishing a 5-year course of tamoxifen. The story provides positive relative and absolute data for the reduction of breast cancer recurrence in women who took letrozole compared with women who took a placebo. The story claims the drug is a ""lifesaver"", which may not be accurate. While continuation therapy with letrozole does appear to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence in women who might be at higher risk, the study notes that only very short-term survival data is available, and information about long-term survival benefits should be interpreted cautiously. Since this study was not a randomized controlled trial, the women who chose to take letrozole may have had fewer health problems, and those who did not take the medication may have died from health problems other than breast cancer. The story could have explained this. The story does not mention the potential harms of taking hormone therapy for many years, which is a great oversight. Letrozole can cause joint or bone problems, and in other studies it increased “bad” cholesterol (also called LDL, or low-density lipoproteins). The story does not mention that women who took letrozole in the study were more likely to experience osteoporosis and bone fractures than women who took a placebo. The story also notes that the ""side effects start to pile up"" after taking tamoxifen for more than five years, but these side effects are not discussed, nor is there a comparison with the potential benefits of continued hormone therapy. Common side effects of tamoxifen are menopausal symptoms, which may become less bothersome with time. Rare, but more serious side effects may include an increase chance of developing endometrial cancer, deep vein thrombosis, stroke, pulmonary embolism (about 1/2 and 1 extra case for every 100 women who take tamoxifen for 5 years). Lastly, the story does not cite any authors of the Journal of Clinical Oncology paper, nor do reporters talk with oncologists who could put the study results in context. We are not told how results could alter clinical practice guidelines for women with early-stage breast cancer who have taken tamoxifen for 5 years. The cost of the drug is also not mentioned. Cost is an important consideration for women considering an additional multi-year therapy."	mixture		"The story does not mention the cost of taking letrolzole for many years after tamoxifen, nor does it mention if this drug is covered by health insurance. The story provides the relative and absolute numbers for the reduction in recurrence; however, the study notes that there is currently only very short-term survivial data and the women who chose to take letrozole may have had fewer health problems, so information about long-term survival should be interpreted cautiously. To claim the drug is a ""lifesaver"" is not correct; it does appear to reduced the risk of breast cancer recurrence in women who might be at higher risk. Because the story didn’t include appropriate caveats. The does not mention the potential harms of taking hormone therapy for many years, which is an oversight. The story mentions that the ""side effects start to pile up"" after taking tamoxifen for more than five years, but we are not told what side effects or how these compare to the potential benefits of continued hormone therapy. Common side effects of tamoxifen are menopausal symptoms which may become less bothersome with time. Rare, but more serious side effects may include an increase chance of developing endometrial cancer, deep vein thrombosis, stroke, pulmonary embolism, (about 1/2 and 1 extra case for every 100 women who take tamoxifen for 5 years) . These risks increase with age. We are also not told the risks of letrozole. Letrozole can cause joint or bone problems, and in other studies it increased “bad” cholesterol (also called LDL, or low-density lipoproteins). Women who took letrozole in the study cited were more likely to experience osteoporosis and bone fractures than women who took a placebo. The story presents some positive recurrence data and discusses the study briefly. However, the story does not mention that this was not a randomized controlled trial. Women in this study, a continuation of a longer RCT, chose to take letrozole or palcebo following a standard course of tamoxifen. The story also does not report side effects of the continuation therapy. The story notes that using letrozole as continued hormonal treatment only applies to post-menopausal women with early-stage breast cancer who have estrogen-sensitive tumors. This is important information in the context of this study; however, letrolzole is sometimes used for ER-sensitive women with more advanced cancers. The story does not site any authors of the Journal of Clinical Oncology paper, nor do reporters talk with oncologists who could put the study results in context. We are not told if the results will alter clinical practice guidelines for women with early-stage breast cancer who have taken tamoxifen for 5 years. The story lists typical treatment options offered to women with early-stage breast cancers: surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and hormone therapy. The story does not mention that women with early-stage breast cancers may not need all of these treatments; this is important as some treatments may pose more harms than benefits, depending on the type of breast cancer. While the story discussed results from a large clinical trial, the story also noted current clinical practice guidelines for continued hormonal treatment with letrozole (brand name Femara) after 5 years of tamoxifen. Letrozole is available and FDA approved as a hormonal therapy for the extended adjuvant treatment of early breast cancer in postmenopausal women who had received five years of adjuvant tamoxifen therapy. The story notes the benefit of starting a second hormonal therapy years after stopping tamoxifen is a new finding and may affect current clinical recommendations for adjuvant treatment of ER-positive early-stage breast cancer. We can’t be sure if the story relied solely or largely on a news release because no one is interviewed in the story."
11455	Not exactly what the doctor ordered: Trasylol may be a killer	This short piece (163 words) reports on the publication of a study in JAMA about the potential harms of a drug, Trayslol (aprontin), that is used to control bleeding in patients who have just undergone bypass surgery. This study raises serious concerns about the safety of this drug, however it also may contradict other studies that have not shown the drug to be as harmful. The reality is that the contention that aprotinin may contribute to excess morbidity and mortality as compared to aminocaproic acid and transexamic acid is not new. The authors of this cited study published an analysis of the short term outcomes in this same population a year ago. The original findings prompted a meeting of the scientific advisory committee of the FDA on the safety of aprotinin. The story of aprotinin has many twists and turns, a fact that is ignored in the story. This story leaves out important information for the consumer, such as the magnitude of the harms and the strength of the available evidence. Furthermore, this story does not mention that this study was based on people participating in a registry of patients who had bypass surgery. Because they were not randomly allocated to treatment, there may be important differences in patients who got the different medications. This limits the conclusions that can be drawn from this study. The story does not attempt to quote any independent sources. Instead, the story quotes from the original article and the accompanying editorial. The story should have quoted other experts who could provide some additional perspective. Again, we want to point out the inherent weaknesses in such a short story. In 163 words, this story leaves the reader with an incomplete understanding of the cited study and fails to provide adequate context.	false		"The story does not mention costs of the drug. Because this story is about the risks of the drug, the story should have quantified those risks, and the quantification should have been in context with other available drugs. While the study does note some of the potential harms of using the drug, the unsubstantiated number of deaths quoted by the lead author potentially exaggerates the extent of the problem. In addition, by not providing a context (bleeding risks during surgery, comparative risks associated with other drugs, etc.) a reader is unable to evaluate the harms of treatment based on what's given in the story. The story does not describe the strength of the available evidence. Specifically, the story does not mention that the results of this study may contradict what has been shown in other studies, including several randomized trials. Furthermore, this story does not mention that this study was based on people participating in a registry of patients who had bypass surgery. Because they were not randomly allocated to treatment, there may be important differences in patients who got the different medications. This limits the conclusions that can be drawn from this study. The limitations of the study design and the contradictory conclusions of several studies are not provided. The story quotes the senior author claiming, ""The bottom dollar is 10,000 deaths over five years."" Such an alarming statistic may exaggerate the true impact of the use of the drug in question. However, there was some attempt at balance by inserting a comment from an editorial writer that patients on Trasylol may have been much sicker, contributing to the higher death rate. The story does not attempt to quote any independent sources. Instead, the story quotes from the original article and the accompanying editorial. The story should have quoted other experts who could provide some additional perspective. Another knowledgeable source might have told the reporter that the authors of ths cited study published an analysis of the short term outcomes in this same population a year ago. The original findings prompted a meeting of the scientific advisory committee of the FDA on the safety of aprotinin. The story of aprotinin has many twists and turns, a fact that is ignored in the story. The story mentions two similar drugs, but does not name them, nor does the story attempt to explain the advantages or disadvantages of the other drugs in relation to Trasylol. The story does not mention if the drug is available or if so, how widely it is used. The story implies that this is not a new drug. We can't be sure if the story relied solely or largely on a press release as the sole source of information. It could have taken material straight out of the Journal of the American Medical Association, because only a lead author and an editorial writer in that journal are cited."
5133	Massachusetts reports 3rd death linked to vaping.	Massachusetts health officials say a third state resident has died from a vaping-related lung illness.	true	Health, General News, Worcester, Charlie Baker, Massachusetts, Vaping, Public health	The state Department of Public Health announced Wednesday that a man in his 50s from Worcester County died, after telling officials he vaped both nicotine and the marijuana compound THC. Officials say more than 200 suspected cases of vaping-associated lung injury have been reported to the health department since September. The agency reported the first two deaths last month — a woman in her 40s from Middlesex County and a woman in her 60s from Hampshire County. Federal health officials have tallied nearly 1,900 cases of vaping-related lung illness nationwide, including nearly 40 deaths. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker issued an emergency ban on vaping products in September in response to the lung illnesses.
7345	Minnesota eases restrictions; honors victims of COVID-19.	Minnesota took further steps Friday to turn the dial on easing its restrictions meant to slow the coronavirus pandemic and to honor the victims of COVID-19.	true	Health, General News, Minnesota, Infectious diseases, Pandemics, Virus Outbreak	While restrictions ease, the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise. The Minnesota Department of Health on Friday reported 20 more COVID-19 deaths, raising Minnesota’s death toll to 683, and a new one-day high of 808 confirmed cases, raising the total count to 14,240, which officials say is a big understatement of total infections. The state’s infectious disease director, Kris Ehresmann, told reporters in the department’s daily briefing that it’s important with the state’s stay-at-home order expiring Monday and some businesses reopening to continue to follow social distancing guidelines. “We want you to enjoy the weather, we want you to look forward to Monday, but we want you to stay 6 feet apart, wear a cloth mask when you’re outside of your home, and don’t gather in groups any larger than 10,” she said. Gov. Tim Walz ordered that flags at state and federal buildings in Minnesota to be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Tuesday and on the 19th of every month through 2020 “to remember, mourn, and honor lives lost due to COVID-19.” He encouraged individuals, businesses, and other organizations to join in. “I think this is a wonderful way to remind us that these are not just numbers,” Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm told reporters as she reviewed the health department’s updated statistics. “Going through these numbers every day, one can almost become numb to the fact that they represent — every one of them — a loved one and a family member and a neighbor.” Young drivers will once again be able to take their license tests and other residents will once again be able to access most driver and vehicle services, the Department of Public Safety announced. The department is opening 16 exam stations statewide beginning Tuesday and resuming standard road tests May 26, with priority going to those who had their appointments canceled during the stay-at-home, though it’s not taking new appointments yet. People whose driver’s licenses or official state ID cards expired during the shutdown will now be able to renew them. But the department said the stations will look different because of measures to protect customers and staff. While campgrounds at Minnesota state parks remain closed, the federal Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness will open Monday for both day and overnight use. “We ask that visitors please continue to follow local, state and federal guidelines on staying safe and practice good hygiene and social distancing wherever they choose to visit,” Connie Cummins, supervisor of the Superior National Forest, said in a statement. Other parts of the Superior and Chippewa National Forests in northern Minnesota will also open Monday for overnight camping at dispersed sites. Voyageurs National Park will reopen to overnight camping and houseboat mooring on Monday, thought visitors centers will remain closed, so visitors must print their permits at home.
37527	Images show the Spanish Army in the process of locking the country down to prevent the spread of coronavirus strain COVID-19.	‘Spanish Army Locked Down the Country Due to Coronavirus’ Image Set	mixture	Fact Checks, Viral Content	During global responses to a coronavirus pandemic, a March 19 2020 Facebook post “for the ladies” purportedly showed the “Spanish Army” enforcing a country-wide lockdown to prevent the spread of SARS-nCoV-2:Above a gallery of just over a dozen images, poster Joe Campbell wrote a caption (later adding a link to a GoFundMe campaign):One for the ladies… Spanish Army that have locked down the country keeping everyone off the streets looks more like a Dior aftershave advertI didn’t expect this little fun post to go so crazy, glad it can bring some fun in such crazy times, I’ve put together a go fund page to give something back to the front line services here in my area. Donate €1 or €10 it doesn’t matter I’m sure they’ll appreciate the donation once this all blows over keep smiling worldCampbell’s caption described the images as showing the “Spanish army,” likening the photographs to “a [Christian] Dior aftershave” advertisement. One of the men depicted bore a striking resemblance to Channing Tatum:An equally popular version of the rumor was shared to Twitter:Spain is deploying its army to help manage their coronavirus outbreak and not to be insensitive at an anxiety-inducing time but uh… I think I speak for all New Yorkers when I say, Spain, hi, can you deploy some of that in our direction? We will comply with your orders. pic.twitter.com/LyxIPsGu3g— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) March 22, 2020Next to two of the same images, that tweet read:Spain is deploying its army to help manage their coronavirus outbreak and not to be insensitive at an anxiety-inducing time but uh… I think I speak for all New Yorkers when I say, Spain, hi, can you deploy some of that in our direction? We will comply with your orders.Videos were also shared, dated October 2018:Spanish Legion.Am I meant to believe that;1. The uniforms.2. Marching stylesWeren't designed/created by gays?https://t.co/EOJgyijyDe— Onye Nkuzi (@cchukudebelu) March 23, 2020Several of the images were shared in November 2018 to a not-safe-for-work, adult content blog called “Real Boys” (in a post titled “The Hottest Cops / The most hot policeman.”) One appeared in an article from January 2018, titled “Too fat to fight: Spanish Legion soldiers put on diet.” Another was available via Getty Images, dated in December 2018 and captioned:40th Anniversary Of Spanish Constitution Celebrated In MelillaLegionaries of the Spanish Legion on parade during the solemn monthly act of Lowering the Flag at the monument of the Heroes of Taxdirt of Melilla, carried out within the framework of the 40th Anniversary of the approval of the Spanish Constitution. On Wednesday, December 5, 2018, in Melilla, Spain.Another one of the photographs was shared to an undated site around May 2018, well before the novel coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan in December 2019:Similar images circulated in 2017, along with commentary about the uniform’s lack of a top button. Another was shared to Reddit’s r/polandball in 2015, several appeared in a January 2014 YouTube video, and the “Channing Tatum” image dated back to at least 2013 (as did others):The Spanish Foreign Legion's uniform doesn't have a top button, which makes them the fruitiest killers in Europe pic.twitter.com/F7CADFWCFS— Huw Lemmey (@huwlemmey) July 5, 2017It was apparent after a reverse image search that the images were not taken as part of an effort to “lock down” Spain during the coronavirus pandemic, and the photographs — which are real — do not show the “Spanish Army,” but the Spanish Legion. However, the images date back to at least 2013 and have nothing to do with Spain’s efforts to lock down the country during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
35440	NAIAD director Dr. Anthony Fauci warned in January 2017 that the Trump administration would face a surprise infectious disease outbreak.	During a forum on pandemic preparedness at Georgetown University, Fauci said the Trump administration will not only be challenged by ongoing global health threats such as influenza and HIV, but also a surprise disease outbreak.	true	Politics, COVID-19	In the spring of 2020, as debate raged over the timeliness and effectiveness of U.S. President Donald Trump’s response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, some critics pointed to an article dating from shortly before Trump’s January 2017 inauguration, in which Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), seemingly warned that the incoming president would “no doubt” be faced with a “surprise infectious disease outbreak”: This image did reflect a genuine article, published on Jan. 11, 2017 (nine days before Trump’s inauguration), headlined “Fauci: ‘No doubt’ Trump will face surprise infectious disease outbreak.” That article read (in part): Anthony S. Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there is “no doubt” Donald J. Trump will be confronted with a surprise infectious disease outbreak during his presidency. Fauci has led the NIAID for more than 3 decades, advising the past five United States presidents on global health threats from the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s through to the current Zika virus outbreak.
7960	Washington, D.C. needs 3,600 hospital beds for coronavirus peak: mayor.	Washington, D.C. needs an estimated 3,600 hospital beds within the next two weeks as it braces for a coronavirus outbreak, the mayor wrote in a letter to hospitals in the U.S. capital.	true	Health News	The federal district is asking hospitals to consider repurposing unused clinical spaces, cafeterias and meeting rooms and reopening medical office buildings and medical towers to create room for more hospital beds, Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote. The estimated peak for cases in the city is April 15, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. New York is at the center of the pandemic in the United States, struggling to treat or bury casualties and the state’s governor has grimly predicted that the rest of the country would soon face the same misery. Washington, D.C. has about 700,000 permanent residents, but just one delegate in Congress, instead of two senators, lawmakers and a governor as the states do. Bowser is the district’s top official. It is planning to reopen closed healthcare facilities, repurpose “commercial, residential and educational facilities” and build temporary centers, according to the April 1 letter. “We are working aggressively with local and federal partners to meet the deadline of making the first 1,000 of the additional 3,600 estimated medical surge beds in the District available to meet your medical surge needs by April 15,” the letter said. Of the more than 230,000 people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the United States, 653 are in the capital; 12 people in the district have died. Click tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in a separate browser for a GRAPHIC tracking coronavirus cases in the United States. The district has fewer hospital beds per capita than many other U.S. cities, including New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles, according to analysis by Medbelle, a healthcare technology firm. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been slow to respond to the coronavirus’s spread when compared to some other governments, including South Korea. Washington, D.C., which is home to the White House, is also short of requested medical supplies, according to documents released by the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee. They show that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided only a fraction of the supplies requested by multiple states. Washington, D.C. received 5,520 of the 1.1 million N95 respirators it had requested and 13,500 of the 814,600 surgical masks it had sought from the strategic national stockpile, according to the documents. Of the thousands of coveralls, bottles of hand sanitizer, safety goggles and face shields, test kits and ventilators Washington, D.C. had requested from the stockpile, it had received zero. Officials in the district have also publicly criticized the move to classify Washington, D.C. as a territory rather than a state in the congressional stimulus package that passed last week, saying it deprives them of $700 million worth of funds.
9234	Using a patient's own words, machine learning automatically identifies suicidal behavior	A news release from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center touts a new artificial intelligence algorithm that is “up to 93 percent accurate” in classifying people who are suicidal, compared to non-suicidal mentally ill and control patients, at three different hospital emergency rooms in the Midwest. The release provides some details of the structure of the study. But the release overreaches, as readers don’t get a hint of crucial context and caveats — including the limitations, alternatives, possible harms, potential conflicts of interest, and more. Unfortunately, being able to predict “when someone will commit suicide has been nearly impossible,” state the authors of the new study. What researchers can and have probed, however, are spoken and written evidence (e.g. suicide notes) to assess the risk of someone killing himself or herself. Reviewing all the evidence in real-time, where minutes or hours can count, is no simple task, so researchers have turned to artificial intelligence for help. Speech recognition and text analysis has grown extremely advanced in recent years, providing an interesting target to help identify suicidal risk and prevent deaths — though there is a lot more work to be done here before practical and minimally invasive screening tools can be put into the real world. To date, no evidence exists yet that this program can actually decrease suicides or attempted suicides.	false	mental health	No costs are presented. We’re told the algorithm can identify someone who is actually suicidal with “great accuracy.” And it also throws out a few numbers, including that it’s “up to 93 percent accurate” (from a read of the study, this is in a combined group of kids and adults when assessed on speech) and “85 percent accurate in identifying a person who is suicidal, has a mental illness but is not suicidal, or neither.” But, these numbers in and of themselves don’t provide enough information to make sense of the findings: What are they being compared against? How has it been decided that these measurements are correct? This isn’t covered in the release, but a look at the study leaves open a concerning question for us. Suicide prevention work is sensitive work: It’s tricky for caregivers and stressful for patients, and while the study notes an institutional review board approved the study, it doesn’t make clear how or whether the patients were counseled or debriefed before or after the study intervention (i.e. asking them a bunch of open-ended questions and recording audio of them speaking). This should have been made clear in the study as well as the release. There is also the potential harm of a false negative result — in which case caregivers may receive false reassurance regarding someone who is, in fact, suicidal. Readers get a pretty solid overview of how the study was done, including the recruitment of 379 people at three different hospitals, and the procedure each patient went through. But some important strengths and limitations of the work aren’t noted here. One strength the release missed was noting how the hospitals ERs chosen gave a decent sampling of patients across economic, age, and environmental lines. Weaknesses it failed to mention included how the fused text-speech algorithm couldn’t satisfactorily distinguish adult suicidal patients compared to mentally ill, non-suicidal patients. Simply noting there was a risk of false-positives in mental health patients and false-negatives in adults would have made this release stronger. We’ll also note that the urban hospital had a much lower participation rate (only 123 out of 530 people approached in the ER chose to take part), which leaves open the question of whether or not some important data and context is missing in this study’s analysis and, by extension, the release. We didn’t see any problematic descriptions of suicide here, which is of special concern given the evidence for contagion. This isn’t made clear in the release, but it also isn’t clear in the study itself. As one saving grace, though, the lead author — who is a professor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center — is clearly identified. The release notes standardized behavioral rating scales, and the fact that clinicians and caregivers are involved in screening patients for suicide risk. But it lacks details on what those screenings are called, how and when they are done, and what qualitative and health record-related risks they look for (e.g. mental health conditions, acute stress, history of suicide attempts, behavior changes, and more). Having at least a basic description of how patients are typically screened for suicide risk and subsequent observation would have made this release a lot stronger. Availability of the algorithm isn’t made clear in the release, though the study notes that an “unexpected” lack of predictive power means “additional research” is required. The release touts novel applications, such as screening in schools and other public places — but that’s a notional, anticipated use of the research. But it does establish novelty pretty clearly here: “When you look around health care facilities, you see tremendous support from technology, but not so much for those who care for mental illness. Only now are our algorithms capable of supporting those caregivers.” Also, another novelty here, per our reading of the study, is combining promising speech and text machine-learning algorithms in hopes of classifying a more diverse group of people, including age and mental health status. Nothing in this release raised a red flag for us.
15212	More Americans have died from guns in the United States since 1968 than on battlefields of all the wars in American history.	"Kristof wrote, ""More Americans have died from guns in the United States since 1968 than on battlefields of all the wars in American history."" Even using a significantly higher estimate for Civil War deaths than we did the last time we fact-checked this claim, the comparison still holds up. The number of gun deaths since 1968 — including, as Kristof was careful to note, both homicides and suicides — was higher than war fatalities by roughly 120,000 deaths, or almost four years’ worth of gun deaths in the United States."	true	Military, PunditFact, Guns, Nicholas Kristof,	"In a column published shortly after the on-air slayings of two TV journalists in southwestern Virginia, the New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof offered some ""data points"" about the pervasiveness of gun violence in the United States. One of them was: ""More Americans have died from guns in the United States since 1968 than on battlefields of all the wars in American history."" That sounded familiar. Really familiar. As it turns out, the web version of Kristof’s column sourced a PolitiFact article from Jan. 18, 2013, that fact-checked commentator Mark Shields’ claim that since 1968, ""more Americans have died from gunfire than died in … all the wars of this country's history."" (Shields used the year 1968 because it was the year presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated by gunman Sirhan Sirhan.). Two and a half years later, we wondered whether the statistic still held up, so we took a new look at the data. Deaths from warfare We found a comprehensive study of war-related deaths published by the Congressional Research Service on Feb. 26, 2010, and we supplemented that with data for up-to-date deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan using the website icasualties.org. Where possible, we’ve used the broadest definition of ""death"" — that is, all war-related deaths, not just those that occurred in combat. The one change we’ve made since our initial fact-check is to revise upward the number of Civil War deaths. As several readers pointed out after we published our earlier fact-check, the CRS report cited 525,000 Union and Confederate dead, but a subsequent study revised that estimate upward to 750,000. The study’s author acknowledged a great deal of uncertainty about the proper figure, and some experts later questioned whether it’s wise to include so many deaths from disease — perhaps two-thirds of the 750,000 figure — since disease in an era of relatively primitive medicine was so widespread that it’s unclear what share of fatal disease during that period was really a result of the war. Still, we’ll err on the side of the higher estimate and use the 750,000 figure this time. Here’s a summary of deaths by major conflict: War Deaths Revolutionary War 4,435 War of 1812 2,260 Mexican War 13,283 Civil War (Union and Confederate, estimate) 750,000 Spanish-American War 2,446 World War I 116,516 World War II 405,399 Korean War 36,574 Vietnam War 58,220 Persian Gulf War 383 Afghanistan War 2,363 Iraq War 4,492 Other wars (includes Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Somalia and Haiti) 362 TOTAL 1,396,733 Gunfire deaths As we did in our previous fact-check, we used a conservative estimate of data from a 1994 paper published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to count gun-related deaths from 1968 to 1980. For 1981 through 2013, we used annual data sets from CDC. Finally, for 2014 and the first eight months of 2015, we estimated that the number of gun-related deaths were equal to the rate during the previous three full years for which we have data — 2011 to 2013. Here is a summary. The figures below refer to total deaths caused by firearms: Years Firearm-related deaths 1968 to 1980 377,000 1981 to 1998 620,525 1999 to 2013 464,033 2014 (estimated based on rate from 2011-2013) 33,183 2015 (estimated based on rate from 2011-2013) 22,122 TOTAL, 1968-2015 1,516,863 So the statistic still holds up: There have been 1,516,863 gun-related deaths since 1968, compared to 1,396,733 cumulative war deaths since the American Revolution. That’s 120,130 more gun deaths than war deaths -- about 9 percent more, or nearly four typical years worth of gun deaths. And that’s using the most generous scholarly estimate of Civil War deaths, the biggest component of American war deaths. We’ll offer some added thoughts for context. These figures refer to all gunfire-related deaths, not just homicides. In fact, homicides represent a minority of gun deaths, with suicides comprising the biggest share. In 2013, according to CDC data, 63 percent of gun-related deaths were from suicides, 33 percent were from homicides, and roughly 1 percent each were from accidents, legal interventions and undetermined causes. There’s a risk in using a statistic like this to decry mass homicides carried out with guns. Using total firearm-related deaths makes the case against guns more dramatic than just using homicides alone. However, in our view, Kristof framed this comparison with care. He mentioned suicides not once but three times in his column, and he referred broadly to the ""unrelenting toll of gun violence,"" not specifically to the toll of gun homicides. Indeed, at one point, Kristof specifically referenced the impact that stricter gun laws can have on gun suicides, writing that in 1996, after a mass shooting in Australia, lawmakers tightened gun laws. ""The firearm suicide rate dropped by half in Australia over the next seven years, and the firearm homicide rate was almost halved,"" according to data published in the Journal of Public Health Policy, Kristof wrote. Finally, we’ll note that Kristof’s wording differed ever so slightly from the claim by Shields that we checked previously. While Shields said that ""more Americans have died from gunfire,"" Kristof wrote that ""more Americans have died from guns."" Some may argue that guns don’t kill people, people do. However, that’s a philosophical judgment and beyond our ability to fact-check. Here, we’ll stick to the numbers, and we find they’re on Kristof’s side. Our ruling Kristof wrote, ""More Americans have died from guns in the United States since 1968 than on battlefields of all the wars in American history."" Even using a significantly higher estimate for Civil War deaths than we did the last time we fact-checked this claim, the comparison still holds up. The number of gun deaths since 1968 — including, as Kristof was careful to note, both homicides and suicides — was higher than war fatalities by roughly 120,000 deaths, or almost four years’ worth of gun deaths in the United States."
9088	Sleep deprivation is an effective anti-depressant for nearly half of depressed patients	This release summarizes a meta-analysis of 66 studies on sleep deprivation as a therapy for depression that suggests deprivation had an antidepressant effect roughly half the time. The sleep deprivation varied in length and the precise way it was provided to patients. Partial sleep deprivation, or sleeping for three to four hours, followed by forced wakefulness for 20 to 21 hours appeared equally as effective as total sleep deprivation (being deprived of sleep for 36 hours). The release says that the analysis provided very helpful details on effectiveness in “many populations” but it does not give us any examples of the populations grouped by gender, age or ethnicity that were studied. Most importantly, it doesn’t note that measured benefits were extremely short-term in most patient volunteers who found their gains were reversed after the next full night’s sleep. This key finding wasn’t missed in a Philadelphia Inquirer story on the same study which we also reviewed. Depression is a major cause of disability in the US and around the world, with estimates that 16.1 million adults in the US had an episode in 2015, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The most common treatment for depression are anti-depressant drugs which don’t work for everyone and carry many side effects. If sleep deprivation was a practical solution for more patients it could relieve suffering and disability. But is it practical? It’s counter-intuitive that sleep deprivation can act as a clinical treatment for depression. After all, a hallmark of depression is the inability to sleep. Conversely, many patients with depression start to feel better for the long term when they can start getting a good night’s sleep. It’s also important to note that forced sleep deprivation is known to affect mental and physical health. In the published study, authors noted that the benefit of sleep deprivation is “transient in most individuals and reversed following a subsequent night of sleep.” This does not seem like a durable treatment. More research is needed, as the authors say in the release.	mixture	anti-depressant,Sleep deprivation,University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine	The release does not mention costs. One may assume there is no cost to sleep deprivation but the release notes that the deprivation in the studies was mostly monitored in inpatient facilities. That has a cost. However, if the intervention is not done in an inpatient facility there would not be a directly attributable cost so we’ll rate this Not Applicable. The release does not provide any numbers putting the benefits in context. It uses the phrase “roughly half” to describe how many patients benefit from sleep deprivation, but does not provide more numbers. Here is one of the statements about benefit. (Italics added.) “These studies in our analysis show that sleep deprivation is effective for many populations,” said lead author Elaine Boland, PhD, a clinical associate and research psychologist at the Cpl. Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center. “Regardless of how the response was quantified, how the sleep deprivation was delivered, or the type of depression the subject was experiencing, we found a nearly equivalent response rate.” These statements about effectiveness lack the numbers and nuance needed to make this helpful for readers. The study itself includes this clarifying statement: “Sleep deprivation can be a useful clinical tool for depressed patients if the effects can be sustained: more research must be done to explore ways of extending the antidepressant effect and/or preventing depressive relapse.” We wish the release had included that information. The release should also have noted the temporary nature of relief from sleep deprivation and that the inability to sleep well — sleep deprivation — is also a very common symptom of depression. There are many harms associated with sleep deprivation and these are not mentioned. Johns Hopkins has an info-graphic identifying some of them which include adverse effects on mood, memory and health. The release provides sufficient details on how this large study of studies was conducted: “Reviewing more than 2,000 studies, the team pulled data from a final group of 66 studies executed over a 36 year period to determine how response may be affected by the type and timing of sleep deprivation performed (total vs early or late partial sleep deprivation), the clinical sample (having depressive or manic episodes, or a combination of both), medication status, and age and gender of the sample. They also explored how response to sleep deprivation may differ across studies according to how “response” is defined in each study.” There was no disease mongering. The release listed the federal grants and two medical device companies that provided funding for the study. One of the device companies manufactures devices for sleeping and respiratory care. There does not appear to be any direct conflict, but we would have liked a statement saying that. The release mentions that depression is most typically treated with anti-depressant drugs. We would have liked a little more context for readers on other non-drug treatments such as exercise and cognitive behavioral therapy. The release does not say whether sleep-deprivation therapy is available as an alternative for most patients. In fact, sleep deprivation is not used as a treatment — only in research studies — and has been for decades. The release states it is “the first meta-analysis on the subject in nearly 30 years.” This may be true, but there are other peer-reviewed journal articles on sleep deprivation in conjunction with other treatments as a therapy for depression so the idea of using this therapy far from novel. There was no unjustifiable language.
6211	EPA: Dredging begins at Indiana Harbor Ship Canal.	Dredging of a ship canal in northwest Indiana has begun as environmental regulators continue to study off-site disposal options for highly contaminated sediments, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.	true	Environment, U.S. Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Dredging, Indiana, Canals, Harbors	U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractors began dredging work at the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal in East Chicago on Monday, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported . Removing the 120,000 cubic yards (91,750 cubic meters) of sediment will likely finish in the fall, the Corps said. Sediment containing more than 50 parts per million of polychlorinated biphenyls won’t be dredged until off-site disposal is finalized, said Natalie Mills, project manager for the Army Corps. PCBs are cancer-causing chemicals once used in a wide range of products, from electrical appliances to fluorescent lighting The Army Corps has applied for a Toxic Substances Control Act permit to store the material at a confined disposal facility near East Chicago Central High School and the new Carrie Gosch Elementary School. Environmental activists and residents fought the proposal, arguing the city is already overburdened with toxic industrial contamination. The EPA and the state Department of Department of Environmental Management are conducting a feasibility study and remedial design for removal of the sediment. The study is ongoing, the EPA said. The TSCA permit application is pending, according to the Army Corps. Dredging the most contaminated sediments would likely begin next year if the study determines that off-site disposal is feasible, the EPA said. The Grand Calumet River and Indiana Harbor Ship Canal were first labeled as an area of concern in 1987. The area has sediments with toxic and cancer-causing substances, such as heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are also cancer-causing compounds. ___ Information from: The Times, http://www.nwitimes.com
10605	Busy lives demand at-home dialysis	This story discusses in-home dialysis, an option for some patients with kidney failure. The article does not provide information on the risks of this form of dialysis, nor does it compare the cost of in-home dialysis with other forms of treatment. Transplantation is not mentioned, though it can be a viable long-term option for some patients, especially for the younger, active patients whom the article claims are “demanding” the home machines. Quality of life may be improved with in-home dialysis, but we only can extrapolate this from the anecdotal portion of the article (N=1). The article refers to in-home dialysis as “having been shown to be better for patient health”, but it is more the frequency of dialysis, not the type of machine that has been shown to reduce some of the complications of kidney disease. Additionally, physicians may be reluctant to advocate in-home dialysis as they want to carefully monitor kidney disease patients who often have other health conditions. The story provides no quantitative results of studies of in-home machines, nor is there a comparison with other forms of renal replacement therapy such as peritoneal dialysis or kidney transplants. Renal failure in diabetics is greater in people of lower socioecomonic status. This form of therapy is not yet approved by Medicare and the story makes no mention of payment by managed care companies. Without Medicare or insurance coverage, home dialysis may be cost prohibitive for many, which would further increase health care disparities. This story appeared in the Globeâ€™s business section, and, as seems to happen sometimes with health stories in a business section, it reads like an unbalanced promotion taken from a company news release in some ways. While investors may be interested that the company “says it has developed an economic model that will work,” people with kidney disease would appreciate more evidence-based fact.	mixture		Mention of cost and that it is not approved by Medicare. No mention if it is approved by managed care. No quantitative estimates at all. Information not balanced. Discounts potential risks. No mention of any clinical evidence that in-home dialysis is superior to dialysis in the clinic. The claim that in-home machines are the only form of daily treatment is implied. It is the frequency of the dialysis, not the type of device, that has shown to improve health in some patients. In-home dialysis may be more convenient, but there is no mention of clinical studies or established guidelines which would guide physicians to advocate for in-home machines over in-clinic dialysis. No mention of risks involved with in-home dialysis, only that it may improve quality of life for patients. Mentions possible conflict of interest of the head of a noNPRofit foundation that receives funding from companies in the dialysis industry Mentions hemodialysis in the clinic as other option, however, peritoneal dialysis (another home option) and transplantation not mentioned. Downplays and pretty much omits any real discussion of the potential risks or side effects of home dialysis. No controlled studies to determine if this is a viable, safe option for many dialysis patients. Mentions availability and that the NxStage model recently won FDA approval. Mentions that this is not a new treatment. It is just not widely adopted.
36244	Evangelical activist Franklin Graham was more forgiving of reports of U.S. President Donald Trump's alleged infidelity than he was of past U.S. President Bill Clinton.	China will tighten regulations on the use of plastic film by farmers to boost crop yields, which has become a major source of soil contamination throughout northern and western regions, according to a draft policy document published on Friday.	true	Fact Checks, Politics	The new rules, which have been opened to the public for consultation, will involve the establishment of a comprehensive “management system” covering the production, sale, utilization and recycling of thin plastic film in the countryside. Chinese farmers, mostly in the arid north and west, cover fields with vast amounts of “plastic mulch” to help maintain soil moisture and protect against pests. The technique has played an important role in boosting yields and raising the quality of crops, the agriculture ministry said in a notice. “But because of excessive use and inadequate recycling, agricultural-use plastic film pollution in some regions has been getting worse and worse, and it has already become a major environmental problem holding back the green development of agriculture,” the ministry said. In areas of northwest China that made use of plastic mulch, contamination rates stood at an average of 36 kilograms per hectare, with the figure as high as 138 kilograms in some regions, it said. The new rules would force farmers to use only film that meets quality standards, and they must also collect plastic waste from fields before its expiry date and deliver to approved recycling outlets. They will also be encouraged to reuse old film. China is said to use about 2 million tonnes of plastic film every year to cover around 200,000 square kilometers of farmland, an area the size of Belarus. But government researchers say the recycling rate stands at just 180,000 tonnes. If uncollected, the plastic waste eventually degrades the soil and could also infiltrate crops, with one parliamentary delegate from Shandong warning in March that some of the province’s exports of ginger and spinach had been contaminated. Beijing is aiming to make around 90% of its total farmland safe for agriculture by the end of next year, part of its efforts to guarantee food security.
3781	White House urgently ramps up push for drug cost legislation.	The White House is ramping up its push to get a bill through Congress that curbs prescription drug costs, feeling a new urgency as the impeachment investigation advances amid the 2020 election campaign.	true	Prescription drug costs, General News, Legislation, Elections, Impeachments, Election 2020, Prescription drugs, Medicare, Bills, Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump	The effort has progressed beyond anything seen in years, says President Donald Trump’s top domestic policy adviser. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to confront these issues in a nonideological fashion,” adviser Joe Grogan said in a recent session with reporters. “Unfortunately,” Grogan explained, “there are some current complications.” After months of dialogue, the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have parted ways on Medicare price negotiations that Pelosi advocates and Trump — unlike most Republicans — once supported in principle. Instead Trump is backing a compromise bipartisan bill in the Senate, which does not give Medicare bargaining authority, but forces drugmakers to pay rebates if they raise prices too high. Grogan said the administration is working to line up Republican support for the Senate bill while trying to sweeten its impact by plowing more of the government’s savings from reduced drug prices into benefits for seniors. “We’re really at a stage on a bipartisan basis of dialing in on the final specifics,” he said at a recent event sponsored by the Alliance for Health Policy. The pressure is on Trump. A Gallup-West Health poll finds that 66 percent of adults don’t believe the Trump administration has made any progress, or very much progress, in limiting the rising cost of prescription drugs. “If I were the president of the United States, facing a very difficult reelection campaign, I would want to have something to show people in this area,” said political scientist Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution. Democrats “will be very reluctant to give the administration a win,” he added. “If they are going to do that, they are going to need something pretty solid and substantive to show their troops.” People in the policy debate say a deal must be sealed this year or by early next at the very latest, before election season goes into overdrive. Medicare enrollees would be the biggest winners under either bill. The bipartisan Senate legislation would cap what Medicare beneficiaries pay out of pocket for medicines and require drugmakers to pay rebates to Medicare if they hike prices above the inflation rate. Its lead authors are Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has made no public commitment to bring it to the floor. The more ambitious House Democratic bill would build on the Senate’s foundation but also authorize Medicare to negotiate prices for the costliest drugs. That would limit high launch prices for new drugs, not just price increases. Medicare’s discounts would be provided to privately insured people as well. Pelosi is driving toward a floor vote, but right now neither bill has a clear path to Trump’s desk. Some Democrats contend they’d be better off taking Pelosi’s bill into the election campaign rather than giving Trump a bipartisan bill he’d claim credit for. But Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, says his party should think carefully before going to the voters empty-handed. “I think it’s critically important for the country for us to get a bill done — a drug-pricing bill is long overdue,” said Bennet. “It’s always better to get a result,” he added. “And if we don’t get a result, we need to draw the lines very clearly, so people can see it’s the administration that prevented us from getting a result.” Bennet is backing the Senate compromise and also pursuing his own legislation allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Most pro-business Republicans see government-negotiated drug prices as unacceptable interference in the private market. But not Trump. In 2016, he campaigned on giving Medicare the power to negotiate. Pelosi’s bill is a not-so-gentle reminder to Trump the 2020 candidate of his politically popular 2016 promise. “House Democrats are taking the bold action to negotiate lower drug prices that President Trump always claimed was necessary and working people won’t like it if he sells them out on one of the most important kitchen table issues in America right now,” said Pelosi spokesman Henry Connelly. With weeks until the end of the year, impeachment is draining the political energy in Washington. If nothing happens, the clearest winner will be the drug industry lobby, which has poured millions of dollars into a fight seen as an existential threat to its political influence. “We think it’s going to be very hard,” said Frederic Isasi, executive director of Families USA, a liberal advocacy group calling for action this year. “It would be completely short-sighted for people not to deliver what can be done now for American families.”
5411	Wisconsin health mission celebrates 25 years.	Sandy Brekke turns to a famous definition of success when she reflects on the achievements of St. Clare Health Mission in La Crosse on the occasion of its 25th anniversary.	true	La Crosse, Health, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wisconsin	“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded,” wrote Bessie Stanley, more than a century ago, words often ascribed to essayist and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. “That’s what embodies this place,” said Brekke, a critical care nurse by profession who has been the mission’s executive director for a dozen years. “You get to see what you do can lift a burden for someone. That’s what life is all about.” “I get to see it in the volunteers — to see people who do that as their life’s mission,” Brekke said during an interview with the La Crosse Tribune in the long, one-story facility. The volunteers — totaling about 300 now and tallying 2,000 to 3,000 over the life of the mission — have undertaken a monumental mission. Since the first crew cared for eight patients during the mission’s first evening on June 24, 1993, other corps have welcomed almost 18,000 medically underserved people. The clinic has charted more than 86,200 clinic visits for treatment of ailments ranging from abrasions to warts. “We hold very strongly to the Franciscan tradition” of ministering to those in need, Brekke said. The mission operates on St. Francis and St. Clare’s virtue of poverty — relying almost solely on individual donations and organizations’ fundraising events to cover its budget of about $300,000 a year, Brekke said. It also receives county disbursements to help pay for medications for outpatient mental health clinic clients, as well as in-kind services from the hospitals, she said. “About 80 percent of our budget goes to medications that we provide for our patients who are unable to pay for their prescriptions,” she said. Sandy Locher is a retired nurse. She’s been a volunteer from the outset, as have several others. “The mission is just a jewel — a wonderful thing to have,” the 82-year-old said. The clinic on the perimeter of Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare is open for walk-ins from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as appointments at follow-up clinics for people with chronic conditions from 8 a.m. to noon on alternating Wednesdays. At the mission’s peak, the volunteer corps saw as many as 65 patients a night, often staying as late as 11 p.m., Locher said. “That was not sustainable, especially with professionals who had to go to work the next day,” she said. Reduced hours dropped the patient load to about 35, and even that began declining after President Barack Obama’s signature health care legislation, the Affordable Care Act, expanded coverage to poorer people. However, the patient count has begun to increase again amid the uncertainty about Obamacare under President Donald Trump and the GOP Congress’s efforts to repeal the law, Brekke said. St. Clare was established in 1992, after representatives of health and social service organizations huddled and developed a vision to provide free health care for poor and uninsured individuals and families. The mission founder, the late Sister Leclare Beres of the La Crosse-based Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, also established the facility’s predecessor, the Indochinese Screening Clinic, in 1984. That clinic was created to serve the waves of Hmong people who settled the region in the 1980s, especially to provide immunizations for children who never had been vaccinated. St. Clare and the screening clinic operated jointly for a time, until the screening clinic closed in 1998 and the mission became the sole occupant of the building. What now are Mayo-Franciscan Healthcare and Gundersen Health System were key elements to setting up the mission, said Joe Kruse, the southwest Wisconsin regional administration chairman of the Mayo system who was on the planning committee. “We were kind of nervous” about starting the mission, Kruse said, but “people were incredibly helpful, and both health systems were equally supportive. We were pretty confident of the staffing, with volunteer doctors and nurses, that it was doable.” They were less certain about what might happen if a patient needed a referral for a chronic illness, he said. The anxiety dissipated when Gundersen and Mayo agreed to handle some referrals as charity care, he said. The mission has access to specialists in virtually every medical field for patient appointments at the clinic, which is one of two facets that set St. Clare apart from free community clinics elsewhere, he said. The other is the clinic’s pharmacy, which can fill many prescriptions but does not carry narcotics. “It doesn’t do any good to see a provider and not be able to get medicine,” Kruse said. Virtually everyone connected with the mission — both then and now — insists they are standing on the shoulders of Beres, who retired as director in 2003 and died at 88 in November 2014. So revered was she in the community that she was named the Tribune’s inaugural person of the year in 2002. Mayo-Franciscan dedicated a resource center in its La Crosse hospital in her honor in April 2016, an occasion during which Kruse became choked up and said, simply, “I miss her.” Brekke recalled, with a reflective smile, that Beres had organized the clinic so well that “the main thing I had to do was not screw it up.” These days, volunteers credit Brekke with being the St. Clare Health Mission’s anchor — even on days when the organized chaos in the clinic hints that the volunteers have taken over the building. The narrow hallway echoes with their banter and teasing during patient lulls. The usual staffing level is two doctors and two or three nurses, along with a lab tech, social worker, intake workers and lay people in a variety of roles. Those roles sometimes include maintenance, such as the time several volunteers and even a few clients showed up with smiling faces on a November Saturday in 2012 to grab paint brushes — Brekke herself concentrated on neat trim lines — and other tools to put the finishing touches on a yearlong renovation of the clinic. “At my age, I have to talk myself into coming in,” Locher said, adding jokingly that she had practiced her profession “when they poured burning boiling oil in the wounds and used leeches. But when I get here, I’m energized.” A few feet away, Dr. Michael Garrity was reviewing paperwork as he observed that the volunteer vitality in the clinic is infectious disease. Motioning toward the 86-year-old Garrity, Locher said with a laugh, “We’re gonna pickle him, prop him up in the corner.” “How do you know I’m not pickled already?” countered Garrity, a retired Prairie du Chien family practitioner who has been a fixture at the mission for 16 years. He once traveled the 120 miles back and forth once a week but now does so twice a month for the Wednesday morning continuity care hours. Locher and Garrity jousted about his age — he said it’s the same as his IQ, and Locher parried that it actually is higher than his IQ. “See the abuse I take?” Garrity said, with mock indignation. “The Wednesday group here is pretty much a group. The people here — it’s a happy place to be.” The repartee is a spirit-booster when a patient takes a turn for the worse or an especially sick person comes through the door, Garrity said. “One of the main things is that most volunteers are still actively practicing,” Garrity said. “If I see a patient who seems to need an orthopedist or a neurologist, I know they will see somebody in person. If it’s an emergency, they can get it. Many clinics don’t do referrals for evaluation.” Garrity, who signed on as a volunteer on the advice of niece Sheila Garrity, the retired director of the La Crosse Community Foundation, is such a clinic advocate that he persuaded one of his former nurses to volunteer too. “Now we’re back working together,” said the nurse, Nancy Stuart, a retired diabetic educator. “He loves this place, and I get to keep teaching about diabetes.” Garrity agreed, saying, “Patients I have now I’ve had for years.” The caring nature of the volunteers impresses Garrity, who told of a young man who was living in substandard conditions and subsisting on a poor diet. “Two gals went to the apartment he shared with two other guys and found that there was no refrigerator and he was sleeping on the floor,” the doctor said. “They got him a refrigerator and a futon. The care people get here is meaningful and personal.” Dr. Kathryn “Kitty” Howells, a La Crosse family practitioner, said she volunteers at the clinic because “I think everybody should be able to have health care, and our system doesn’t always allow that.” Howells, who works in Mayo’s Women’s Health Center and was seeing patients at the mission Wednesday, was too tight-lipped to tout herself, so Brekke did, saying, “This is what Kitty illustrates about medical care: It needs to be a relationship, and Kitty spends a lot of time with her patients.” “I like to work chronic care follow-up because I like having relationships with people,” Howells said. Howells will leave Mayo-Franciscan at the end of July in anticipation of a new job with Indian Health Service, which provides health care for the Navajo Nation in the Southwest. She noted the irony that she is moving from a location with plenty of doctors but insurance gaps to one with ample insurance benefits but not enough doctors. Some mission clients with vision problems, particularly diabetics, are able to receive care from the Family Vision Center in La Crosse, which began offering exams and eyeglasses several years ago in cooperation with the La Crosse Lions Club’s eyeglass initiative. Family Vision contacted the mission about putting a vision clinic in the mission, said owner Dick Foss, who is active in Lions International. There was no room, so Family Vision agreed to see a limited number of patients a month at the office, he said. Richard Cody was the Lions Club’s sight chairman, Foss said. After Cody died, the club continued the service as a memorial to him. Initially, the program accommodated eight or nine people one night a month, with Family Vision optometrists rotating exam duty, he said. The number of patients slowed with the Affordable Care Act, so now Foss handles the exams, which are worked into his schedule. “It’s worked out well,” he said. “I don’t even know if they are St. Clare patients until we’re almost done.” The Lions cover just basic glasses in the program, and people with glaucoma receive eye drops, he said. “St. Clare’s a really nice place, and a lot of nice people are involved,” Foss said. Two needs that Brekke and volunteers long to accommodate are dental and psychiatric care, they said. Having not only survived but also thrived for a quarter-century despite uncertainty at the beginning, the mission “is a great success story, showing creative thinking and the value of working together,” Kruse said. ___ Information from: La Crosse Tribune, http://www.lacrossetribune.com
34181	A Wisconsin woman involuntarily lost her hair in July 2019 after she used conditioner that had been tampered with by someone at a Walmart store.	Although not definitive, Walmart’s internal investigation into many hours of surveillance footage yielded no evidence of product tampering at its New Richmond store, but it did reveal evidence that cast doubt on Timm and Robinson’s version of events. It is noteworthy that the company has decided not to withdraw any items from sale at that store, despite widely publicized allegations that product-tampering took place there.	unproven	Viral Phenomena	In late summer 2019, multiple news accounts reported that a Wisconsin woman had endured a frightening encounter with a supermarket product tamperer who, the articles said, had added hair remover to a bottle of conditioner, causing the woman’s hair to fall out. On Aug. 1, the website Distractify published an article under the headline “Woman Loses Hair After Buying Tampered-With Conditioner That Was Mixed With Nair,” reporting that: Taffy Jo Trimm [sic] and her daughter Ashley Rose recently bought this bottle of Pantene from a Walmart in New Richmond, Wisconsin. In a now-viral Facebook post, Taffy explains that the bottle must have been tampered with. Someone must have mixed in Nair or some other hair removal product with the conditioner because, when Taffy’s daughter Ashley used the conditioner, her hair started falling out. In clumps. How horrifying is that? ‘Attention New Richmond Wisconsin Walmart shoppers,’ Taffy’s Facebook post reads, “be aware of shampoo and conditioner you buy there as my daughter Ashley Rose bought some two days ago and someone mixed Nair in her conditioner bottle!!!! As I speak she is losing hair and crying!! Conditioner below this conditioner [sic] is supposed to be white. It is an ugly pink color.” Other reports went beyond the parameters of that single purported incident, claiming without evidence that it was part of a broader trend. The websites Popbuzz and Rare.us both published articles using headlines that stated “People are Putting Hair Removal Cream in Shampoo,” while one Twitter user posted a viral tweet that claimed “people” were mixing Nair into shampoo and conditioner bottles: Please check your hair products before you buy them, people are mixing Nair into shampoo & conditioner in the store smh pic.twitter.com/iCuDpZLpmL — 𝖏𝖔𝖉𝖎 𝖆𝖗𝖎𝖆𝖘🔪🖤 (@shandiditbetter) July 30, 2019 We have been unable to verify the claim that the woman in question lost her hair involuntarily as a result of exposure to a substance deliberately added to a bottle of hair conditioner before she purchased it from Walmart. The details follow. The narrative began on July 28, when Taffy Jo Timm wrote on Facebook that her daughter, 21-year-old Ashley Robinson, was “losing her hair and crying” after using conditioner she had purchased two days earlier from the Walmart in New Richmond. Timm’s post was accompanied by a photograph of a bottle of Pantene conditioner and a photograph showing what appeared to be black hair deposited in a shower: Later that night, Robinson herself posted the same photograph of black hair, along with a brief account of what had happened earlier that evening: “… Got in shower, shampoo [sic] and conditioned my hair, got out, something was different and didn’t smell the greatest. I carried on sat down for a bit and then decided to go blow dry my hair, I took my hair out of the towel and it smelt terrible, got back in the shower used my other shampoo and rubbed that in, as I took my hands out of my hair it was covered in hair and just kept on falling out.” Robinson said she visited the emergency room due to a burning sensation and was later discharged. The following evening, she wrote on Facebook that she had undergone a “consultation” but had resigned herself to having to shave her head. On July 30, Robinson posted a photograph of herself bald, and on Aug. 1, Minneapolis television station WCCO interviewed her: On Aug. 1, the New Richmond Police Department announced they had opened an investigation into potential product tampering after having received a formal complaint about Robinson’s experience. Their news release on the subject stated that: Due to the significance of this offense, New Richmond officers and detectives have been working with Wal-Mart staff to identify potential suspects and review video surveillance. The New Richmond Police Department will continue to follow the facts of this case. While this appears to be an isolated case at this time, the New Richmond Police Department is asking anyone in this area that has been a recent victim of this type of activity to please report it immediately to your local police/sheriff’s department. The New Richmond Police Department is also reminding people to be diligent in checking products for safety seals and prior to any use to make sure it is consistent with the product you are expecting. We have so far been unable to independently verify that Ashley Robinson’s hair loss was involuntary and came about as the result of her using conditioner tainted with Nair (or some other hair-removal product, or any other substance) following an act of product tampering at the Walmart in New Richmond. If or when we receive evidence that would verify that sequence of events, we will update this article accordingly. We do know that Robinson experienced hair loss, and that she did indeed visit the emergency room at Westfields Hospital and Clinic in New Richmond on July 28, 2019. Her mother provided Snopes with a photograph of part of Robinson’s after-visit summary. We have redacted certain personal details, but the doctor’s summary clearly establishes that Robinson had experienced hair loss and suffered chemical burns on her scalp: “If [she] develops further burning sensation please … re-rinse her hair. You can follow up in your clinic regarding hair regrowth. Based on the appearance of her scalp, that will likely grow back normally. However, follow-up may be necessary if you’re [sic] hair is not coming in as expected.” The doctor listed the diagnosis as: “Chemical burn of scalp, unspecified corrosion degree, initial encounter.” However, beyond this documentation, we have found no evidence that corroborates the claim that Robinson’s conditioner was deliberately contaminated with hair-removal cream by a third party. Furthermore, we have discovered certain details that subtract, rather than add, support to that theory. Dispute over dates First, significant confusion exists over when Robinson actually purchased the conditioner that she believes caused her hair loss. In her original Facebook post, Timm said her daughter had bought it from Walmart around two days earlier, which would be July 26. However, Timm later told Snopes that Robinson bought it on July 23. And in its Aug. 1 news report, WCCO said she Robinson bought it on the same day as her hair began to fall out, July 28. When we asked Timm to clear up those discrepancies, she insisted that her daughter had indeed purchased the conditioner on July 23 and said she had asked WCCO to correct its reporting. However, a spokesperson for Walmart told us that a team of employees had extensively reviewed video surveillance footage from the company’s New Richmond location and found evidence that a customer who appeared to be Robinson had, in fact, purchased what appeared to be similar conditioner two weeks before the onset of her hair loss, not five days before it. Walmart found no evidence of Robinson’s purchasing conditioner there at any other time in the ensuing two weeks. Walmart also reviewed footage of the same aisle from before Robinson’s visit and saw no evidence of an individual’s tampering with shampoo or conditioner bottles. We again put this discrepancy to Timm, who told us she could not explain it and said she had been told by her daughter that July 23 was the date on which her daughter bought the conditioner in question. We also asked Robinson about this discrepancy, checking whether it was possible she had misremembered either the date of the purchase or the location of the Walmart. She told us she was certain she made the purchase at the New Richmond Walmart and was “almost positive” she did so on July 23. Robinson also told us that July 28 was the first time she had used the conditioner, meaning it would have been sitting unused in her home for either five days (by her account), or around two weeks (based on Walmart’s surveillance footage). We asked Robinson whether any possibility existed that a visitor to her home during that time might have contaminated the conditioner before she first used it, and she told us she had not had any visitors during that time. The smell test Furthermore, Walmart’s review of the surveillance footage found evidence that the customer who resembled Robinson had unscrewed the pump-top cap from several bottles of conditioner, smelling each item before settling on one for purchase. This is potentially a significant finding. Robinson, in her July 28 Facebook post, asserted that she quickly realized something had gone awry in washing her hair because she could detect the odor of another substance in her conditioner (“something was different and didn’t smell the greatest,” “I took my hair out of the towel and it smelt terrible”). If the conditioner did contain a contaminant (whether hair removal cream or some other substance) which smelled strongly enough at the time that it struck Robinson as “terrible,” it stands to reason that she would have detected it in the first place if she were “sniff-testing” conditioners in Walmart before she chose the one she purchased. We put this question to Robinson, who claimed that she had opened bottles of shampoo when she visited the store, but not bottles of conditioner. In a statement, Walmart told us they had “inspected all products in our store, reviewed surveillance footage and found no evidence of tampering.” The company removed no products from its shelves, despite Robinson and Timm’s claims of product-tampering, and according to their statement, Walmart employees have “attempted to reach out to the customer to discuss this further and have received no response.” Robinson told us she had not yet contacted Walmart because she was waiting to meet with her attorney. Two different colors Significant difference appears to exist between the look of the hair shown deposited in the shower in Robinson’s original July 28 photographs, and that of the hair shown in photographs posted later. The hair in the photograph below appears to be black in color, and some strands look to be relatively long: By contrast, Robinson later posted three photographs of herself on Facebook, which appeared to show her with brown or even blonde hair, apparently shorter than the black hair shown deposited in the shower. Timm told us that these photographs had been taken in the hospital on July 28. This means that, according to Timm and Robinson’s version of events, her hair appeared black when she washed it on the evening on July 28, but had significantly lightened in color within a matter of hours: Timm also sent us a fourth photograph, which she said was taken on the day after the event. It even more clearly illustrated the change in apparent hair color that, according to the two women’s account, took place: We put those discrepancies to Timm, who told us that her daughter had dyed her hair and speculated that whatever substance was purportedly added to the conditioner removed the dye from her hair, as well as removing portions of the hair itself: “I feel whatever was put into [the] conditioner stripped the hair color and removed big clumps of hair.” Robinson told us she had dyed her hair dark brown two months earlier, but her roots sometimes appeared “medium brown” and “even a little blonder-looking.” The hair shown in the shower appeared darker than it really was, she told us, because it was wet. And the hair shown in the subsequent Facebook photographs appeared lighter than it really was due to the effect of the camera’s light. Robinson later posted to Facebook a photograph of herself with dyed hair, which she said was taken the day before her hair loss began, and various photographs on her Facebook account demonstrated that she did indeed periodically dye her hair. We haven’t been able to verify that any substance was added to Robinson’s conditioner in the first place, or that the conditioner was the cause of her hair loss, placing doubt on Timm’s hypothesis that a contaminant added to the conditioner removed the dye from her daughter’s hair and led to a significant difference in hair color across the photographs. Furthermore, the difference between the apparent color of the hair in the first photograph and its appearance in the other four remains significant enough that, while we are by no means dismissing it, Robinson’s explanation remains open to reasonable doubt. Finally, other elements are absent that would add credibility to the “Walmart tampering” account of Robinson’s hair loss. For example, New Richmond police Chief Craig Yehlik told us that his department had received no other recent reports of product tampering of any kind in the New Richmond area. This absence of reports of similar incidents does not destroy the credibility of Timm and Robinson’s version of events, but neither does it enhance it.
35720	"A photograph shows a family and their cat wearing masks during the 1918 ""Spanish flu"" pandemic."	What's true: This is a genuine photograph of a family wearing masks during a flu epidemic, circa 1920. What's undetermined: Whether the cat is wearing a mask, or just has a white face.	unproven	Fauxtography, COVID-19	In the summer of 2020, as many city and state officials urged citizens to wear masks in order to slow the spread of coronavirus, a photograph supposedly showing a family (and their cat) wearing masks during the 1918 flu epidemic started to circulate on social media: This is a genuine photograph of a family wearing masks during a flu epidemic, circa 1920. However, we’re not entirely convinced that this cat is also wearing a mask. This photograph comes from the City of Dublin California Heritage Center. While specific details about the image are unknown (such as the identity of the pictured family), this image is accompanied by a caption noting that the photo was taken in Dublin, California around 1920, and shows a family taking precautions to protect themselves from a flu that had already killed millions of people: By 1919, the influenza pandemic killed between 20 and 40 million people. So great was the fear of contracting this deadly virus that people as far away as Dublin took whatever precautions they could to protect themselves. While it may appear, at first glance, as if this cat is wearing a mask, a closer inspection introduces doubt to this claim. When we zoom in on this image, it appears that the cat’s nose and mouth are both visible, indicating that this may just be a cat with white fur on its face. We spoke with Tyler Phillips, the coordinator who oversees Dublin’s Heritage Park & Museums, in the hopes of putting an end to cat-mask-gate, but Phillips informed us that it was difficult to discern any additional details from the physical photograph, as it was too small and old. Phillips told us that there was much debate among the staff at the museum over whether or not the cat was wearing a mask, or if this was just a sort of optical illusion: That picture has been getting a lot of attention lately. Unfortunately this photo did not come with much information when we acquired it. All we know about this picture is that it is of a family in Dublin California, taken between 1918-1920 during a flu outbreak. The fun thing about this photo is that it does appear that even the cat is wearing a mask, but unfortunately we cannot prove that. The staff here at our museum go back and forth on that same question. My personal belief is that it is an optical illusion. I cant imagine any cat staying that calm with a tight fitting mask on their face. Also if you zoom in real close you can start to see the faint features of the cats face (nose and mouth). Since the original photo is pretty small and very old its not much easier to tell looking at it. Either way, it’s a fun picture to look at and hopefully it is making people smile worldwide! While we can’t say for certain if this cat is wearing a mask, it wasn’t entirely unheard of for people to put masks on their animals during the 1918 flu epidemic. A 1919 article published in the Los Angeles Evening Express, for instance, noted that several people put masks on their dogs after the city of Pasadena issued an ordinance requiring the precautionary measure. This article also noted that people put masks on their cars, which may indicate that these pet owners were more focused on making a statement about the mandatory mask ordinance than they were about public health. The article read: Shall a dog wear an influenza mask in a city where an ordinance requires the wearing of “flu” masks? Pasadena dogs were not taking any chances today. A number of canines appeared on the Pasadena streets in formal mask dress. Owners of automobiles, who did not want their machines “pinched,” also attached masks to the hoods of their cars.
8348	U.S. death toll from coronavirus hits 19, New York declares emergency.	Two more people succumbed to the novel coronavirus in Washington state, officials said on Saturday, bringing the nationwide toll to 19, while the number of confirmed cases in New York rose to 89 and a cruise ship with infected passengers remained stranded outside San Francisco.	true	Health News	More than half of all U.S. states have reported cases of the coronavirus, which originated in China last year and causes the sometimes deadly respiratory illness COVID-19. As the outbreak takes root, daily life has become increasingly disrupted, with concerts and conferences canceled and universities telling students to stay home and take classes online. Organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference, a high-profile annual gathering that took place in Maryland last month, said on Saturday one of their attendees had tested positive for the virus after exposure prior to the event. The person had no interactions with President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence, who were in attendance, the American Conservative Union said in a statement. The two latest deaths were in Washington’s King County, the hardest hit area in the United States after the virus spread among residents at a nursing facility in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland. The first deaths on the East Coast were announced late Friday, with two people succumbing in Florida. In New York, the number of confirmed cases rose by 13 on Saturday to a statewide total of 89 people, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. He issued a declaration of emergency. “It allows expedited purchasing and expedited hiring, which is what we need right now,” Cuomo told a news conference. Kansas, Missouri and Washington DC announced their first cases. In international waters off California, passengers on a cruise ship that was barred from docking in San Francisco after some aboard tested positive for the novel coronavirus did not know on Saturday when they might be able to step ashore. Trump said on Friday he would prefer the Grand Princess’s 2,400 passengers and 1,100 crew remain out at sea, but that he would let others decide where she should dock. After 19 crew and two passengers out of 46 tested on the Grand Princess were found to have the virus, Pence said the ocean liner will be taken to an unspecified non-commercial port where everyone on board will be tested again, and that those “who need to be quarantined will be quarantined” and those who need medical care will receive it. U.S. officials also began tracking another cruise ship that may have shared crew with the Grand Princess or the Diamond Princess, another ship where the coronavirus spread onboard, Pence said. One Grand Princess passenger described a dull and sometimes queasy wait for news of when their limbo would end. “It bugs me that my relatives in the Bay Area know what’s going to happen with us before I do,” Elizabeth Aleteanu of Colorado Springs said in an interview conducted via Facebook. She turned 35 on Wednesday in a small, windowless cabin shared with her husband and two young children, where the rocking of the vessel sometimes left her nauseated. “The cruise director and staff called my phone and sang happy birthday,” she wrote. “They delivered a princess notebook, birthday card, set of dominoes and a flower arrangement to my cabin. I’m not sure that we’re getting off today. It’s a big flower arrangement ... makes me think we’ll be on board for a hot minute.” The ship’s captain had addressed passengers earlier to say he did not know when they could dock, and that one guest who was critically ill on Friday was taken off the ship, Aleteanu said. The ship has increased its offering of television programs to help passengers pass the time, she said. The predicament of the Grand Princess was reminiscent of the Diamond Princess cruise liner, also owned by Carnival Corp, the world’s leading cruise operator. It was quarantined off Japan in February and was for a time the largest concentration of coronavirus cases outside China. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, told a news conference at the White House on Saturday that a total of 2.1. million coronavirus tests will have been shipped to non-public labs by Monday, as the Trump administration aims to counter criticism that its response to the disease has been sluggish. Hahn said the focus is on getting tests to the highest risk areas in Washington state and California. Multiple manufacturers will soon send millions more tests, he said. “What they told us is they believe they could scale up by the end of next week ... for the capacity for 4 million additional tests that could be shipped,” Hahn said. The respiratory illness has spread to more than 90 countries, killing more than 3,400 people and infecting more than 100,000 worldwide. The economic damage has also intensified and stock markets have continued to tumble. To mitigate against the virus, some banks in New York are dividing their teams of traders between central locations and secondary sites in New Jersey and Connecticut, according to sources familiar with the matter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc had a scare this past week when an employee at its Lower Manhattan offices told the bank he had been at a temple service in a city suburb with a lawyer who later tested positive for the coronavirus. The bank said the employee was sent home and has been under self-quarantine since then “out of an abundance of caution.” The employee, however, did not have contact with the lawyer at the service and has not shown any signs of illness, the bank said. He is expected to return to work next week when it would have been two weeks since he attended the service. Goldman also cleaned the floor on which he worked at its headquarters. All floors remained operational, though Goldman let employees who felt uncomfortable work remotely, it said. “We have no confirmed cases of employees who have contracted COVID-19 and all our buildings are fully operational,” the bank said. GRAPHIC: Tracking the spread of the novel coronavirus - here
11314	Most U.S. women face heart, stroke risk	This story reports on new American Heart Association guidelines to help women lower their risk of cardiovascular disease. But the story story sensationalized the incidence of heart disease and stroke by casting them as something nearly all American women are in danger of. While it is true that heart disease and stroke combine to be the most common cause of death of US women, the story failed to point out that although the same is true for men, women die, on average at older ages. This is not to say that women ought not take their cardiovascular risk seriously, but to be most helpful to the reader, that risk needs to be placed in an understandable context. No attempt was made to quantify the possible benefit in risk reduction. The story did not mention how the guidelines were compiled, the nature of the clinical trials that were included or how these guidelines differ from those presented in 2004.	mixture		"There was no mention of the costs of aspirin, but those costs are common knowledge. Although this story did a comprehensive job of reporting the recommendations presented in the guidelines, it did not quantify the benefits to be obtained from the various means mentioned for lowering cardiovascular disease risk. While this is somewhat understandable because of the number of recommendations mentioned and space constraints, there did not appear to be any attempt to estimate the risk reduction to be gained from the various recommendations to better enable a reader to determine how to prioritize their efforts. Harms of aspirin use, such as bleeding requiring transfusion and problems for individuals with uncontrolled hypertension were mentioned. The evidence presented in this story derived from the newly published guidelines from the American Heart Association for heart disease prevention in women. The story did not mention how the guidelines were compiled, the nature of the clinical trials that were included or how these guidelines differ from those presented in 2004. The story was clear about the guidelines' strong recommendation for daily aspirin intake for women at high risk. The story stated, ""All other women should consider 81 mg. of aspirin daily"", but then went on to say that this was controversial. The guidelines, however were clear, stating that ""Routine use of aspirin in lower-risk women is not recommended pending the results of ongoing trials"". The story sensationalizes the incidence of heart disease and stroke by casting them as something nearly all American women are in danger of. While it is true that heart disease and stroke combine to be the most common cause of death of US women, the story failed to point out that although the same is true for men, women die, on average at older ages. This is not to say that women ought not take their cardiovascular risk seriously, but to be most helpful to the reader, that risk needs to be placed in an understandable context. The story included quotes from two of the American Heart Association guideline authors and several additional experts in the field without overt ties to the new recommendations. The story included a comprehensive list of things that women can do to lower their risk of cardiovascular disease. The story mentions that aspirin is available at drug stores. This story reported on a set of guidelines about cardiovascular disease prevention in women; similar guidelines for cardiovascular disease prevention in men have been presented. It neglected to mention that this is an update of the guidelines issued in 2004 and failed to highlight what is new. It is unlikely that this piece relied solely or largely on a press release."
11243	New ways to plump up those wrinkles	"This story described a product called ArteFill, and said it was “billed as the first permanent filler.” But the story never challenged that claim, and didn’t quantify potential benefits or harms. It said ""known side effects are minimal."" But on the FDA website, it’s easy to see that side effects include: * Lumpiness at injection area more than one month after injection* Persistent swelling or redness* Increased sensitivity* Rash, itching more than 48 hours after injection And several contraindications for use are listed. Perhaps consumers should judge if those sound ""minimal"" or not. The story also never mentioned that one of the conditions of FDA approval last fall was that a five-year study for safety be done after approval, a clear sign that reviewers were not convinced that all the evidence on safety was yet in. The story also profiled only one woman who had the injections, saying that “she thought she looked fresh” and “was sold” “in less than 30 minutes.” That is hardly a balanced testimonial, especially when the FDA website makes clear that “In a clinical study most patients needed more than one injection to achieve optimal wrinkle smoothing. The average number of treatment sessions was 2.28. There was some caution provided by a second source, from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, and some useful background given by the reporter at the very end of the piece. But Dr. Gupta’s joking summary about whether he or the reporter had a “need” for the product only tends to promote its use and promote the disease-mongering idea that wrinkles, indeed, are a disease that must always be treated. Such a parting comment can undo any balance that may have existed in the piece prior to that point."	mixture		"The story said ""One visit can cost hundreds, even thousands, of dollars."" And it explained that insurance won't cover it. But it didn't explain what is clearly available on the FDA website, that ""In a clinical study most patients needed more than one injection to achieve optimal wrinkle smoothing. The average number of treatment sessions was 2.28."" There is no quantification of benefits in the story. One could assume from the story that it has a 100% success rate after one use, as with the patient profiled, who, the story said, ""thought she looked fresh"" and ""was sold"" ""in less than 30 minutes."" The story said ArteFill was billed as a permanent wrinkle filler but never challenged that claim of permanence. The story says that known side effects are minimal. But the FDA offers this list: Side effects of ArteFill® include: * Lumpiness at injection area more than one month after injection * Persistent swelling or redness * Increased sensitivity * Rash, itching more than 48 hours after injection When should it not be used? ArteFill® should not be used in patients who have: * A positive response to the ArteFill Skin Test * Severe allergies with a history of anaphylaxis or presence of multiple severe allergies * Allergies to bovine collagen or lidocaine * Susceptibility to form keloid or hypertrophic scars Perhaps these side effects and contraindications are not ""minimal"" issues for some people. And there is no quantification of these potential harms. The story also never mentioned that one of the conditions of FDA approval last fall was that a five-year study for safety be done after approval, a clear sign that reviewers were not convinced that all the evidence on safety was yet in. The story didn't make it clear what the product is approved for. Is it for all wrinkles? The FDA says it is intended to be injected into the nasolabial folds around the mouth to smooth these wrinkles. No sense is given of the labeled approved use of the product. Indeed, the lead-in and the first line of the story refer to face-lifts, which have much broader application than this product. No sense is given of the quality of the evidence in the clinical trials. Any such story about a cosmetic procedure can tend to medicalize a normal variant of health – wrinkles that come with age. This story crosses a line in the summary when Dr. Gupta jokingly refers to whether his colleague or he himself ""need"" the procedure. Such a parting comment can undo any balance that may have existed in the piece prior to that point. The story included the perspective of one physician who uses the product, and added a brief perspective of a spokesman for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. The reporter's summary seemed to include the perspectives of other sources, although they were not named. The story did mention many other products used as wrinkle fillers. The story stated that ""We've even heard now that dentists and gynecologists are getting into the act of giving people these shots."" And it advised, ""What you want to look for is a certified plastic surgeon or a cosmetic dermatologist. You want someone who gives these shots all the time, not just as a side business. You also want to ask if the facility where you're going to be getting the shots can handle emergencies, because sometimes things do happen, and you want to make sure that you're at a place that can handle something happening."" But it gave no idea of how difficult it may be to find such ideal professionals or settings. The novelty of this product and its place among competing approaches is clear in the story. We can't be sure if the story relied solely or largely on a news release."
1299	Britain plans for opt-out organ donation scheme to save lives.	Britain plans to increase the number of organ donors by changing the rules of consent and presuming that people have agreed to transplants unless they have specifically opted out.	true	Health News	Legislation to introduce the new framework for organ and tissue donation will be debated in parliament later this year, with the system expected to come into effect in spring 2020, the health department said on Sunday. “We believe that by making these changes, we can save as many as 700 more lives every year,” Jackie Doyle-Price, parliamentary under secretary of state for mental health and inequalities, said in a statement. There will be exceptions to the presumed consent system, including those aged under 18, individuals who lack the mental capacity to understand the changes and people who have not lived in England for at least 12 months before their death. In Wales, a system of presumed consent is in operation and Scotland has also published a plan for an opt-out donation system. Around 6,000 people in Britain are on the transplant waiting list and more than 400 patients died while waiting for a transplant last year, the public health service said.
34016	Drug-laced suckers are being handed out to children in Arkansas.	What's true: Law enforcement has found lollipops that contain drugs. What's false: Someone is handing out drug-laced suckers to school children.	mixture	Horrors, Drug Horrors	In mid-October 2004 this warning came to our inbox scant weeks before Halloween: North Little Rock Police Department put out a warning. Someone is giving middle school & high school kids suckers that look like: Maple Leafs; Pumpkins & Santa Claus that are laced with three different TYPES OF VERY STRONG DRUGS THAT ARE HALLUCINOGENIC, and this is STRONG ENOUGH TO KILL a child or teenager. The Police station received a tip from the Memphis, TN police. Some arrest in Memphis have been made. These suckers have turned up in Blytheville. Officials’ fears that these suckers will begin to show up throughout the state. If you have children, or know someone with children, PLEASE inform them of this possible threat to our children. At first blush, it looked like a standard expression of parental anxiety typical to a season centered on children taking candy from supposedly altruistic strangers: worry about the safety of one’s own trick-or-treaters was finding voice in the form of a rumor about villains handing out drug-laced suckers to kids. Yet, while baseless concern over a crime that isn’t happening is certainly part of this hearsay about lollipops, it is not the all of it. This rumor is a bit of an odd duck to classify in that while the lollipop-profferring knaves pressing their drug-laced confections onto unsuspecting children in hopes of corrupting the tots are naught but fanciful imaginings, the candies as described in the alert are real. It appears that a valid report about drugs confiscated by the police has fallen into the hands of someone whose imagination added the bit about the lollipop-disguised hallucinogens being given to children. The e-mailed warning makes it appear the information has come from the North Little Rock Police Department, which was not the case. That branch of law enforcement has made it abundantly clear that it had nothing to do with the matter. On 11 October 2004, the North Little Rock Police Department posted this denial on its web site: The North Little Rock Police Department has been falsely mentioned in a circulating email about tainted Halloween candy. The North Little Rock Police Department has been the subject of a recent email making false claims about “hallucinogenic suckers” that supposedly originated from Memphis, TN. These suckers are described in the email as being tainted and strong enough to kill a child. THIS EMAIL STATES THAT THE NORTH LITTLE ROCK POLICE DEPARTMENT IS WARNING PARENTS AND CHILDREN ABOUT TAINTED SUCKERS IN THE SHAPE OF MAPLE LEAFS, PUMPKINS AND SANTA CLAUS. THE NORTH LITTLE ROCK POLICE DEPARTMENT HAS NEVER RECEIVED ANY INFORMATION OF THIS NATURE FROM ANY POLICE AGENCY AND HAS NEVER PROVIDED SUCH A WARNING. We are investigating the origins of this email in order to determine if any of this information is based on fact. Likewise, police in Blytheville have disavowed the claim of the adulterated suckers having turned up there. “We have gotten several phone calls about the e-mailed information,” said Royce Carpenter, that town’s Police Chief. “But there have been none of these suckers found in Blytheville.” Similarly, the Memphis Police Department denied any such lollipops having being found by them or their having made arrests on such cases. Okay, so these sinister pops haven’t been found in Blytheville, and there haven’t been any lollipop-associated arrests in Memphis. There have also not been any reports of children in Arkansas being given suspect lollys. Those parts of the rumor are pure embroidery. However, while the candies have not shown up in Arkansas, they do indeed exist. While there aren’t diabolical types lurking in anticipation of pressing them into the eager hands of treat-seeking tots, there are drug dealers selling them to customers. And there have been lollipop-related arrests in the parts of the nation where the candies have been found. The information that forms the basis of the e-mailed alert about pharmaceutical-laced suckers came from a June 2004 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) publication. The article in question detailed a number of drug finds around the country, including the discovery in Philadelphia of large electronic capacitors loaded with heroin, and in Nogales, Arizona, of fire extinguishers packed with cocaine. Getting illegal drugs past U.S. Customs by disguising them as innocuous items is business as usual in the drug trade. Although the more typical method is to conceal outlawed pharmaceuticals inside hollow items, sometimes what is being smuggled is incorporated into foodstuffs. The lollipops reported on by the DEA were the maple leaf and Santa head of the e-mailed caution. According to that agency, each of these bonbons weighed approximately 10 grams and were green, red, or amber in color. One cache of the candies had been confiscated by the Chicago Police in early January 2004 and another in March. These THC- and PCP-enhanced sweets known as “dro pops” were being sold in that city for $10 to $30 each. There were no reports of any unsuspecting parties having been made ill by the disguised drugs, let alone of any children harmed by them. (THC is the main substance in marijuana. PCP, which also goes by the name “angel dust,” is known for inducing violent behavior in those who take it.) We noted earlier the Memphis Police Department denied having found such lollipops. Yet there is a Memphis connection with this rumor, because in March 2004 Captain Bill Rasco with the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department said of the corrupted sweets, “These are going around the schools now. These things are dangerous.” Rasco was commenting on the finds in Chicago (none of the suckers had turned up in DeSoto schools), but his remarks appeared in the Commercial Appeal, the major newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee. That article also contained something very much in line with the e-mail’s “Officials’ fears that these suckers will begin to show up throughout the state” — it said of the pops, “The department believes they may be here in the next few days or weeks” (which, as it turned out, was not the case). Also in the DEA article about disguised drug finds was a report of heroin-filled lollipops being seized at LaGuardia airport. In the accompanying photograph of three of the sweets broken open to reveal the brown powder stashed therein, one of the confiscated candies appeared vibrantly orange-colored, which, along with its round shape, could make it the unaccounted-for “pumpkin” style of lollipop talked about in the warning e-mail. If so, it would bring the number of drugs up to the online alert’s three (THC, PCP, and heroin). As to why anyone would think to fashion drugs into the form of suckers for any intent other than tricking youngsters into getting high and possibly hooked, we can quickly think of three valid reasons, none of which have anything to do with luring children down the primrose path to their destruction. First, those looking to import illegal substances have a better likelihood of success if their wares can pass for something other than contraband. By concealing the drugs inside candy shells (as was the case with the LaGuardia haul), there is a far greater possibility of getting them past Customs and DEA personnel. In such instances, the lollipops are no more than temporary containers meant to be smashed open and discarded once they’ve served their purpose of hoodwinking those attempting to safeguard the borders. Second, a great many drug users are young adults who delight in fanciful shapes and markings on their drugs, possibly in appreciation of the whimsy of it all. Ecstasy tablets stamped with the likenesses of cartoon characters are routinely turned up by law enforcement. Though less common now, in the 1970s blotter sheets of LSD were also printed with cartoon characters (a circumstance that sparked a long-lived rumor about children tricked into applying drug-saturated rub-on “tattoos” to themselves). The THC and PCP Santas and maple leaves would market well among such a clientele, a fact that would not be lost on those who make it their business to vend illegal feel-goods. Third, having the ability to ingest illegal pharmaceuticals in a surreptitious manner would hold great appeal to many who use recreational drugs. Those drawn to the drug culture find at least some of its allure lies in the sense of using being a forbidden activity; by indulging in illegal substances and by so doing breaking one of Society’s taboos, they come to view themselves as living daring, exciting lives in which the normal rules do not apply. For such, the ability to suck on a candy that was getting them high while having a conversation with the boss or a parent would be almost beyond price. The sense of having gotten away with something would add that little extra spice to the experience, further underscoring their self-concept of being counter-culture darlings. So, are there drug-infused lollipops? Yes, there have been, but the last ones were seen in Chicago in March 2004. Have youngsters innocent of any desire to get high been plied with these suckers by the ill-intentioned? There are no reports of this, not so much as one recorded instance. Given the span of time since these pops last surfaced and the lack of child-related incidents, we think this warning hardly the stuff of “If you have children, or know someone with children, PLEASE inform them of this possible threat to our children.”
9258	Measuring new hormone may reduce teenagers wrongly diagnosed with PCOS	The release focuses on a study that found elevated levels of the hormone irisin in healthy teenage girls who have been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). While the release stresses that these findings are preliminary, and need to be confirmed through additional research, it suggests that testing irisin levels may be a way of determining whether teenagers have PCOS. This, in turn, would both allow for early treatment of PCOS symptoms in girls who have the condition, and limit misdiagnoses (and related treatment) of PCOS in girls who do not have the syndrome. But the detection of an association between elevated irisin level and PCOS is the first of the many steps needed to determine whether testing irisin has greater diagnostic accuracy than current tests for the condition. Even more speculative is the notion that a treatment for PCOS could be targeted to altering irisin levels. The release overstates the significance of this small, preliminary study. According to the U.S. Office on Women’s Health, as many as 1 in 10 women of childbearing age may have PCOS — and the syndrome can occur in girls as young as age 11. And PCOS is associated with a number of complications, incuding an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and infertility. In other words, PCOS is something folks should pay attention to. However, many aspects of PCOS remain a mystery. For example, it’s not clear what causes PCOS, and — according to the Mayo Clinic — “there’s no specific test to definitively diagnose polycystic ovary syndrome.” The release proposes that a hormone target — irisin — may give medical professionals a new technique for identifying PCOS in girls who are still undergoing puberty. Even though it noted that the study is preliminary, the release goes overboard stating that the test could “improve diagnosis” in the headline. The measurement of irisin and its usefulness as a treatment target have been the subject of controversy, recounted in a 2015 Science article. “Since it was first described in 2012, the hormone irisin has generated hope and controversy. In mice, the molecule appeared to be released from muscles after exercise and circulate in the blood, promoting the generation of energy-burning brown fat cells. But as other labs tried to expand on the idea that irisin is a key regulator of metabolism and a potential drug target for metabolic disease in humans, they got contradictory results. A new study throws another hitch in the irisin story by calling into question the reliability of antibody-based test kits often used to detect the molecule. Its authors claim that many of the studies measuring irisin in human blood are invalid.”	mixture	European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology,polycystic ovary syndrome	The release doesn’t address costs at all. Given how far this is removed from widespread clinical applications, that’s somewhat understandable. Then again, if a clinical application is so far away, it’s hard to understand why one would claim in the headline that this test “may reduce teenagers wrongly diagnosed with PCOS.” The researchers presumably know the general cost of measuring irisin levels in a blood test. Is it relatively inexpensive? Even a modest indication of general cost would have been welcome. The release could have acknowledged that the cost of the test in a research setting might be quite different from the cost of a clinical test. The benefit here would be identifying levels of irisin found in patients with PCOS that are distinct from irisin levels in the control group of study participants who do not have PCOS. So, what we were looking for here is quantification — what were the irisin levels in the PCOS patients? And what were the irisin levels in the control group? The release doesn’t tell us. Instead, it says only that “teenagers with PCOS had significantly higher irisin levels compared to the control group.” Establishing the superiority of a diagnostic test requires comparisons in much larger populations than were enrolled in this study. Potential harms are not discussed. While a blood test is a relatively low-risk procedure, this release could have mentioned the risk of under- or over-diagnosis leading to incorrect or no treatment based on reliance of this diagnostic test, if it makes it to the commercial stage. The release explains the study in concise terms, so it gets a borderline satisfactory rating. However, we do have one question that’s not addressed here. Some readers may have heard of irisin because it was referred to as the “exercise hormone” in some news coverage after its discovery in 2012. This is because research has found that irisin levels increase after physical exercise. Testosterone levels can also increase after physical exercise. The news release says that teens with PCOS had higher levels of irisin and testosterone, but doesn’t discuss exercise at all. The release does tell us that control and experimental groups were matched by age and BMI, but where they also matched by physical activity level? Is it possible that exercise may have skewed results, particularly given that this was a small study with only 40 participants? We don’t know, and the release doesn’t shed any light on the issue. In addition, with such a small sample of study volunteers, there is limited ability to draw any conclusions about possible associations with exercise. No disease mongering here. The release says that PCOS “is a common endocrine disorder affecting up to 12% of women” — and it’s not clear where they got the 12 percent number from. However, that’s not too far off from numbers we’ve seen elsewhere (as high as 10 percent, via NIH), and the language throughout the remainder of the release is responsible. Funding sources and conflicts of interest are not mentioned at all. Even when it’s difficult to determine what any conflict of interest might be, it’s important to note where funding for health studies came from. So, what are alternative means of diagnosing PCOS? The release doesn’t tell us. This is a particularly baffling oversight, since it would serve to place the research findings in context. A common method of diagnosing PCOS is measurement of total or free testosterone levels over time in teenagers with abnormal menstrual patterns. Measurement of testosterone levels can be challenging because of the low levels found in women and a lack of widespread access to reliable testing. The release notes that “Doctors are cautious when diagnosing PCOS in teenagers because the symptoms can be confused with normal pubertal changes” and that “the findings suggest that irisin could be a marker for PCOS allowing the condition to be diagnosed more easily.” But the release never tells readers how PCOS is diagnosed. As noted above, according to the Mayo Clinic, there is no definitive means of diagnosing PCOS. Instead, diagnosis is made based on the results of a variety of tests and symptoms. By noting this, the release could have highlighted how useful an irisin-based diagnostic procedure might be — if it ever comes to pass. The release makes clear that it is too early to say whether irisin will serve as a good indicator for PCOS diagnosis. The release refers to previous work regarding irisin and PCOS in adults, and that this is the first such study to look at irisin levels in teens. The release uses language responsibly. It doesn’t say that this will be a valuable diagnostic tool, but that it is a promising first step. As a result, we give it a satisfactory rating. However, the release ends by referring to irisin’s potential as a drug target for future PCOS treatments. This is in a quote from a researcher, and is given in the context of “future directions” for the work, but it walks very close to the edge of “unjustifiable language” — primarily because, to the best of our knowledge, there is no research to support such a statement.
9447	FDA approves better vaccine against painful shingles virus	This breaking news coverage of the FDA’s approval of a new shingles vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline’s Shingrix, does a good job of comparing the vaccine’s costs and benefits to those of an established competitor, Merck’s Zostavax. However, the story lacks perspective from independent experts. Also, it doesn’t report more meaningful data such as the absolute number of patients who would benefit from receiving the vaccine or how many patients must receive the vaccine for one patient to benefit, known as the number needed to treat (NNT). That’s information patients might consider in determining whether the vaccine is worthwhile. Also, while some aspects of the new vaccine appear to be superior, proclaiming it “better” as this headline does is too vague. Better in what way? [Editor’s note: This review has been corrected and star score changed from 4 to 3 stars. See the “Benefits” criterion below for explanation.] Almost one in three people in the U.S. will develop shingles, a painful rash that can affect anyone who’s had chicken pox, according to the CDC. The rash can lead to ulcers and scars, and a few patients develop postherpetic neuralgia, severe nerve pain that can last for months or years. Shingles can strike anyone with a compromised immune system, but about half of all cases occur in people 60 and older. Zostavax, available since 2006, was shown to be 51 percent effective at preventing shingles and 67 percent effective at preventing post-herpetic neuralgia. The availability of a vaccine with close to 90 percent reported efficacy is significant news that could prompt more patients to be vaccinated. A MedScape provider survey suggested Shingrix will likely replace Zostavax, given its higher efficacy and the fact that it can be given to more patients because it does not contain a live virus. News stories should strive to provide independent viewpoints and data that will help patients weigh weigh the costs and benefits.	mixture	FDA,shingles,vaccines	The story does a good job here: GlaxoSmithKline PLC said the price of its shingles vaccine, called Shingrix, will be $280 for the required two shots. Merck & Co.’s one-shot Zostavax costs $223. Most insurance plans cover it. A couple of caveats aren’t addressed. For one, it’s unclear to what extent insurers will cover Shingrix. Also, shingles vaccines aren’t fully covered under Medicare, which means Medicare patients often pay significant out-of-pocket costs. [Editor’s note: As pointed out in the comments section of this post, this story uses only relative risk measures to quantify the benefit of the vaccine. To earn a Satisfactory rating, news stories are typically required to describe benefits in absolute terms if possible. Accordingly, we have changed the rating here to Not Satisfactory and reduced the star score for the story from 4 to 3 stars. Learn more about the importance of reporting absolute numbers in this primer.] The story states studies found the vaccine prevents shingles in about 90 percent of people, while Merck’s product is about 50 percent effective. It also states that the vaccine “reduces the risk of nerve pain by nearly 90 percent.” It also said: “Glaxo studies also show it retains about 90 percent of its effectiveness for four years, and follow-up studies indicate it lasts years longer, according to Dr. Leonard Friedland, Glaxo’s vaccines director for North America.” The story should have stressed that the long-term efficacy is unknown. It also would have been useful to include the number of patients who would need to be treated to prevent one bad outcome. The company didn’t put that figure in its news release or published research. However, outside experts have crunched the numbers. According to shared calculations, about 34 patients would need to be given Shingrix over three years to prevent one case of shingles, and about 260 would have to receive the vaccine to prevent one case of post-herpetic neuralgia. No potential harms are mentioned. According to GSK’s news release: “The most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach.” GSK’s research reported 79 percent of those who received the vaccine, versus 29.5% of placebo recipients, reported local and/or systemic side effects, as HealthNewsReview.org reported in a 2016 news release review. The story doesn’t say anything about the reliability of the research behind this vaccine, except to say that it was company-funded. A line or two about the how many patients were in the trial and the selection criteria would have been useful. Some of that data is in our news release review. The story doesn’t engage in disease mongering, and gives useful data about the prevalence of shingles: Anyone who’s had chickenpox — nearly everyone over 40 — harbors the varicella-zoster virus that causes the disease. The virus can resurface decades later, triggering painful sores on one side of the body. About 10 to 20 percent of those who get shingles also develop debilitating nerve pain that can last for months, even years. About one-third of people who have had chickenpox get shingles. That’s about 1 million Americans a year. But once someone has recovered from shingles, it rarely reoccurs. It would have been informative to also include that only about one-third of adults 60 and older have ever received the Zostavax vaccine. The story doesn’t use any independent sources, which is a major weakness. This is a strength of the story, which states near the top that Shingrix will be the second shingles vaccine in the U.S. market. It compares available data on efficacy, duration, and cost and notes that they are “made differently.” The news here is that the vaccine was approved by the FDA, which indicates it’s going to be available soon. The story alludes to Shingrix’s two-dose requirement, but doesn’t specifically point out that it could inconvenience some patients. The lead states that Shingrix is “more effective” than the existing vaccine for shingles. Further along the story points out that unlike its competitor, Shingrix doesn’t contain a live virus, which makes it appropriate for people with compromised immune systems. We would have liked more specificity about how the vaccine is made, rather than the statement that it “is genetically engineered and includes an ingredient that boosts effectiveness.” The story does not appear to rely on the news release.
8887	US FDA Says Contaminant in Some Baxter Heparin.	U.S. regulators on Wednesday said they identified a contaminant in the key ingredient in Baxter International’s (BAX.N) recalled blood thinning drug heparin amid 15 more reports of deaths in patients treated with some version of the drug.	true	Health News	The contaminant, a large complex molecule chemically similar to heparin, was detected in samples from a Chinese and a U.S. plant, both owned by Baxter’s supplier, Wisconsin-based Scientific Protein Laboratories LLC (SPL). “At this point we don’t know how the heparin-like compound got into the active pharmaceutical ingredient,” Food and Drug Administration Deputy Commissioner Janet Woodcock told reporters on a conference call. “We don’t yet have a direct causal link between the contaminant and the adverse events.” Heparin is derived from pig intestines and is used in dialysis and heart procedures, among other surgeries, to avoid blood clots. About 200,000 doses are given a day in the U.S., according to Baxter, which supplied about half of that before its recall of virtually all its heparin products last week. The FDA said 19 deaths have been reported in patients taking a version of heparin that appears related to the drug, though it is unknown if all of those patients were on Baxter’s heparin or another company’s product. Some of the deaths date back to January 2007. The other major U.S. heparin supplier, APP Pharmaceuticals Inc APPX.O, ramped up production to avoid a drug shortage. Tests on APP’s heparin have not turned up any contamination, Woodcock said. Both FDA and Baxter officials said it is unclear whether the contaminant was added intentionally or if it occurred as part of a natural biological process. “We still don’t know whether this inadvertently got into the supply or whether it was actually added” deliberately, Woodcock said. Baxter officials said they believe only four deaths have been definitely linked with their product. It has received about 500 reports of severe reactions, compared to FDA’s 785 reports, which the agency said it has not fully reviewed yet. “We are having information emerge literally every hour almost on this situation,” Woodcock said. The FDA’s foreign inspection process has been criticized for years as inadequate and those complaints were stoked when FDA officials acknowledged recently the agency never inspected the Chinese plant in question because of confusion over the company’s Chinese name. The agency inspects about 7 percent of foreign manufacturing facilities annually, according to the Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog agency. Woodcock and Baxter both cautioned that increased attention to the problem has led to an influx of side-effect reporting and that many cases may not be related to the drug. The Deerfield, Illinois-based company gets a small portion of its revenue from heparin, which is available in generic form and has been on the market for decades. Baxter estimated recent annual sales of its Heparin at about $30 million. Baxter had total sales of $3 billion in the fourth quarter. Most of the world’s crude heparin comes from China, which has become a major supplier of raw ingredients to pharmaceutical companies. All the raw material for Baxter’s product came from China as well. Baxter released a chart showing the product’s development cycle from pig farms, to slaughterhouses, to consolidators, to the Chinese and U.S. manufacturing plants under review. The product is finalized at Baxter’s Cherry Hill, New Jersey facility. Last week, the FDA said it found “objectionable conditions” at the Chinese plant that supplied the raw ingredient. Facility owner Scientific Protein Labs in a statement said the contaminant theory is “speculation at this point” and that it is working with the FDA to determine the cause of the problems. Baxter said SPL is responsible for tracking the supply chain down to the farms where the pigs are raised. “They’ve told us they can trace to the pig level,” a Baxter official said. Severe reactions such as anaphylaxis and low blood pressure are signs of dangerous allergic reactions related to heparin use. Baxter has ruled out its Cherry Hill facility as a source of the problem.
29347	A British mother lost custody of her children because she ignored warnings about 'co-sleeping' with her children.	Transparency Project chair Lucy Reed told us by email that her organization is “concerned that inaccurate or skewed reporting of the circumstances in which children are removed in child protection cases may directly impact on the way other parents engage with child protections services, and may make it more difficult for them to ask for help when needed, or to work with services to show they are safe parents.”	false	Legal Affairs, Judge Peter Greene, the telegraph, The Transparency Project	In February 2017 dubious web sites reported that a British couple lost custody of their children for “co-sleeping” — with those sites downplaying the real mistreatment that led to the judge’s decision against the parents. The story involved a child welfare custody hearing. The judge in the case, Peter Greene, ruled that a couple’s young sons should be placed for adoption, citing concerns for their physical safety. Despite a previous hearing and court-approved supervision, the couple had not properly addressed the safety concerns, Greene ruled. A Telegraph article suggested that Greene’s ruling was linked to his determination that the mother “ignored advice against co-sleeping,” or letting the children (born in 2014 and 2015) sleep in the same bed as the couple: I accept the evidence from the hospital and the other witnesses that the mother failed to act on advice in respect of the feeding and in respect of co-sleeping. Those matters are perhaps more significant in this case than they might be otherwise simply because of the fact that it is only a year since very similar concerns were raised. One of the most important aspects of both matters are the mother’s failure to accept advice and failure to act on advice. The evidence of the health visitor seemed to sum it up by saying in so many words that the mother always thinks that she knows best. Other web sites then presented the case as an example of judicial overreach. However, those sites failed to mention this statement from the court transcript regarding the mother’s behavior concerning the older child (identified as B) and later with her younger son (identified as BJ): Despite the findings in previous care proceedings that the mother had been reluctant to take advice and had, in particular, ignored advice against co-sleeping, the hospital only two months after those proceedings had ended were reporting that they had real concerns that the mother was rejecting their advice about feeding, that BJ was losing weight as a result and also that she was continually ignoring their advice against having him in bed with her and he was found asleep in her bed on a number of occasions. Their concerns were so great that, rather than allow BJ home after two days as had been originally intended, he was kept in for some two weeks. So a number of the concerns voiced at that stage were very similar to those which had been voiced a year earlier in respect of B. The court transcript also revealed that ongoing concerns over the childrens’ welfare, rather than just co-sleeping activity, had prompted the hearing. At one point, the mother showed an observer a bruise on the BJ’s calf. Initially she blamed “a strap on his swing seat” for the bruise, but a subsequent hospital examination revealed that the 4-month-old boy had also suffered a broken wrist and a bruised shoulder. All three injuries were attributed to “non-accidental causes.” When asked about the injuries, the mother at first offered no explanation. Later, she blamed the boys’ father, and then the oldest son. However, Greene said, the father could not have been responsible because he was away from the children at the time of the infant’s injuries and was supervised whenever he was around the children. A medical expert testified that the injuries were consistent with the boy’s being “forcefully put against or slammed against something along those lines with a flat edge the top of a piece of furniture,” something that the older son could not have done. Based on the evidence, Greene ruled that the baby’s injuries were “more likely than not to have been caused by careless or negligent handling by the mother,” but that she did not deliberately mean to hurt him: I have already said that Mr. R has not put himself forward as a sole carer. I accept that both parents love the children and contact has been very good and enjoyable in many ways for the children, but, sadly, in respect of the mother, I accept the evidence of [witnesses] that the mother requires significant long term therapy to effect the necessary changes without which she will continue to be dismissive of advice and parent children in a way that is likely to cause them attachment disorders and fail to meet their needs or keep them safe. In all those circumstances and with a heavy heart, I approve the care plan with the only option being for permanency outside the family and make a care order to the Local Authority. The Transparency Project, which advocates for greater transparency in the British family court system, criticized the Telegraph for their “misleading” headline regarding the case and later called for corrections from not only that news site but also from the Daily Mail and the Independent as well.
14293	I remain one of the poorer members of the United States Senate.	South Korea’s top convenience store chain suspended the sale of flavored liquid e-cigarettes made by U.S. company Juul Labs on Thursday, a day after the government warned the public to stop using such products citing fatalities in the United States.	true	National, Candidate Biography, Bernie Sanders,	The GS25 chain halted sales of three of Juul Labs’ products including “tropical” - the equivalent of mango in the United States - and one made by South Korean company KT&G, store parent company GS Retail said. The firm would consider dropping all liquid e-vaping products if an ongoing government investigation found them to be dangerous, it added. Juul Labs said it “considers user safety as the top priority in product development” and its products provide an alternative to traditional cigarettes. “Juul Labs is hoping to have dialogue with GS25 officials continuously and provide an alternative option for adult smokers in the country,” Juul Labs said in a statement. KT&G said it would follow the government’s policy direction. Countries around the world have been pulling electronic cigarette products from markets and restricting advertising as vaping faces increased scrutiny. South Korean Health Minister Park Neung-hoo cited cases of lung injuries associated with e-cigarettes in the United States as he warned of a “serious risk to public health” on Thursday. U.S. health officials have so far reported 33 deaths and 1,479 confirmed and probable cases from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping.
36086	Cream of tartar and orange juice are effective ways to reduce or stop nicotine cravings and aids attempts to quit smoking.	Cream of Tartar and Orange Juice to Quit Smoking?	unproven	Disinformation, Fact Checks	In October 2019, a post circulated on Facebook advising smokers to use potassium bitartrate — commonly known as cream of tartar — along with orange juice as an effective and inexpensive way to quit smoking successfully.Alongside a blurry image of a jar of cream of tartar, the original poster enthused that the purported smoking cessation tool cost “$5 of Food Stamps” (a possible draw for smokers unable to afford expensive prescription medication):How I quit smoking by spending $5 of Food Stamps: #QuitSmoking #Smoking #Nicotine #AddictionI had been a smoker for many years and made several attempts to quit. First it was the patch, then the gum. Didn’t work. Tried acupressure, nope, my insurance at the time paid for Chantix so I tried that, moderate success. I quit for a period, but eventually started again. When I got divorced, I lost the insurance plan I had and my new one wouldn’t pay for Chantix, so what was I to do? When you’re poor and on limited income, being a smoker is horrible; do I want to eat or smoke, hmm. And there’s now way you can afford to buy the Patch and gum to help ween yourself off of them! So I was in between a rock and a hard place. Well, I saw a post on Facebook that sounded pretty simple, and very inexpensive. I thought, “No way this is real” but I was desperate and willing to try about anything at that point. And here’s the kicker, what I was about to try, the remedy, I could buy using $5 in Food Stamps! Why not! OK, here ya go, I did this and I quit in three days! Go to your favorite grocery store and buy Cream of Tartar Seasoning and a gallon of Orange Juice. Mix 1 teaspoon in a glass and drink 2x a day. I recommend when you get up and another glass halfway through your day. I know this sounds too simple, but it really works! The Cream of Tartar flushes the nicotine out of your system and blocks it from receiving it again! After about two days, smoking tastes like shit, you’re blocked from the nicotine rush and the desire is gone!Based on a very high share count, the idea that cream of tartar and orange juice might be an inexpensive and effective way to beat nicotine cravings proved to be immediately alluring. According to the poster, after three days of starting the combination that he had successfully quit, because the mixture purportedly “blocked” smokers from the pleasurable effects of nicotine.Some commenters said that they would try it after not successfully quitting smoking other ways:I think I’m going to try this! I have tried everything else and nothing seems to work!Others tagged loved ones to ask if they’d make an attempt to quit, offering to supply the two ingredients:if i get you the stuff will you try thisThe original Facebook post contained no links to articles, videos, or any information about the combination of orange juice and cream of tartar as a smoking cessation aid accompanied it.That specific mixture did not originate with that Facebook post either, as it was mentioned on r/stopsmoking in early 2019:Im finally quitting! from stopsmokingOn the plus side, the orange juice and cream of tartar combination to quit smoking was generally inexpensive, and there was no immediate reason to believe it was possibly harmful.Research published in 2013 in the Journal of Medical Toxicology said that tartaric acid (or cream of tartar) rarely caused adverse effects, citing two rare cases of hyperkalemia (high levels of potassium in blood) resulting from excessive consumption:Cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate) has a long history as a cooking aid and medicinal purgative. Despite containing large amounts of potassium, there are no well-documented cases of it causing toxicity. We report two cases in which intentional ingestions of cream of tartar resulted in life-threatening hyperkalemia. In addition, we briefly review the use of cream of tartar as a historical purgative.Researchers actually had to go back to 1837 to uncover a single possible fatal adverse effect:In spite of its high potassium content and its widely reported beneficial effects, a search of an academic internet database using the terms cream of tartar or potassium bitartrate revealed no cases of poisoning. However, using a generic internet search engine, we were able to find one case in the medical literature. In 1837, the London Medical Gazette included a case report of the death of an employee of a company manufacturing ‘Morrison’s Pills’. These pills were said to be a “cure for all curable diseases,” and were peddled with the philosophy that the more you take the sooner you would get better.In the two cases in the research, both patients ingested an estimated six tablespoons of the substance, which led to symptoms like diarrhea. Both patients were discharged quickly and recovered well. Overall, the research in question suggested that excess ingestion is exceedingly rare; the post recommended a single tablespoon over the course of the day. We were unable to find any additional indication the substance was either dangerous alone or dangerous combined with orange juice.However, we were similarly unable to substantiate the claim that cream of tartar and orange juice to quit smoking worked, or even was at all effective. Other YouTubers anecdotally promoted the rumor, as did uncited and unsourced blog posts.In April 2019, the television talk show The Doctors acknowledged that the claim was spreading through email, maintaining that there was no evidence of the tip’s efficacy:The Doctors share a current email making the rounds claiming that mixing cream of tartar with orange juice will help flush nicotine out of the body so you won’t have cravings. The email also says the drink will significantly change the taste of nicotine so drinking it will fight the urge.The Doctors give it a sip and it taste like… orange juice. “Just a little more tart,” adds plastic surgeon Dr. Andrew Ordon. ER physician Dr. Travis Stork isn’t sold on this tip but does acknowledge that drinking juice as well as doing anything besides grabbing a cigarette can be a distraction.A 2018 segment of the show about the mixture was also available. Overall, the hosts reiterated that the combination might serve as a distraction, much in the same way that chewing gum or eating lollipops could.An early iteration of the claim originated on an “alternative health” blog in August 2007. A reader wrote in to the site to claim that orange juice with cream of tartar was an effective way to quit smoking. Interestingly, while the site maintained an anecdote-heavy editorial style, the alternative health advice dispensed did not indicate that the combination worked as the letter writer described:The benefit of the cream of tartar in the cessation of smoking appears to be, 1) the replacement of potassium that smoking robs from the cardiovascular system, and 2) balancing body pH, which typically becomes too acidic when toxins from cigarettes are present.Each cigarette you smoke robs your body of about 25 milligrams of vitamin C. Orange juice, NOT from concentrate, helps replace this much-needed vitamin C. Actually, all toxins demand extra vitamin C to remove the toxic load found in your cells. When toxins are elevated, more vitamin C is needed to maintain health during Detox.In the letter, its author claimed that “nicotine cravings” were lessened by orange juice and tartaric acid. In response, the blogger said that the “benefits” of the combination were replacement of nutrients (primarily potassium) and “balancing body pH.” On a site extremely friendly to anecdotal and folk medicine, there was no indication that “nicotine cravings” were lessened by the combination of orange juice and cream of tartar — instead, smokers trying to quit were advised to go cold turkey, and just stop smoking entirely and immediately.Claims that cream of tartar and orange juice were effective in quitting smoking have circulated on the internet since at least 2007 and likely earlier, spiking virally in October 2019. Although we found no evidence that the tip is at all harmful, we also found absolutely no evidence it is even mildly effective. Those interested in smoking cessation might be better served by federal and state subsidized assistance, some of which fell under the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare. )Update, October 22 2019, 2:48pm: Rodney Gilstrap, author of the Facebook post, contacted us with additional information about his experience using orange juice and cream of tartar to quit smoking. He indicated that he learned of the method via word of mouth, and researched it before his smoking cessation attempt:I can tell you that it 100% worked for me and that I first learned of it from a previous Facebook post. Google shows several resources that back the claim, but I can tell you it did work for me. I had no idea the post would go Viral as it has, just sharing my experience.Gilstrap was surprised at the post’s viral popularity, adding that he subsequently heard from other former smokers who also found success using the described strategy. A fellow Facebook user reported their relief heading into their second day of the method without having smoked at all. That user said they formerly smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, that they’d “tried everything under the sun” with no success before finding the post, that they were surprised to discover they felt “no desire to have a cigarette,” and they “[didn’t] even feel like picking [a cigarette] up” after starting the regimen.Gilstrap explained that he shared the post because several people asked how he quit smoking using orange juice and cream of tartar, and emphasized that he (and other former smokers) found it to be very effective. As noted in both the Facebook post and our fact check, the method is affordable and there is no known risk associated with either ingredient or a combination of both ingredients, and social media users have reported individual success in their attempts.
26758	Facebook post Says President Barack Obama “waited six months to call swine flu an emergency after thousands died.”	The Obama administration declared swine flu, or H1N1, a public health emergency six weeks before H1N1 was declared a pandemic. No H1N1 deaths had yet been recorded in the United States. Six months after that initial declaration, when more than 1,000 deaths had occurred, Obama himself declared H1N1 a national emergency.	false	Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,	"President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus is being defended with an attack on how President Barack Obama handled the outbreak of H1N1, also known as swine flu, in 2009. The headline of an article shared on Facebook made this claim: ""Flashback: Obama waited six months to call swine flu an emergency after thousands died."" 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 article was published on Prntly, which describes itself as a conservative news website that defends Trump. The article goes on to say that ""it wasn’t until six months after"" H1N1 became a global pandemic that ""then-President Obama declared a public health emergency on what was already a pandemic. By that time, the disease had infected millions of Americans and more than 1,000 people had died in the U.S."" Not only is this timeline wrong, but the story and headline eliminate important facts and distort others, imparting a narrative that social media users are resharing. Let’s take a look. Online, fact-based news is going to be very important in the coming weeks. Please consider donating to PolitiFact today. The H1N1 influenza virus was discovered in the United States in the spring of 2009 and spread around the world. It was originally referred to as ""swine flu"" because many genes in the virus were similar to influenza viruses that normally occur in pigs in North America. It was serious. From April 12, 2009, to April 10, 2010, in the United States, there were 60.8 million cases of swine flu, 274,304 hospitalizations and 12,469 deaths, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated. Obama and his administration issued two emergency declarations, but the article refers only to one. Obama’s acting director of health and human services declared H1N1 a public health emergency on April 26, 2009. That was when only 20 cases of H1N1 — and no deaths — around the country had been confirmed. Two days later, the administration made an initial funding request for H1N1 to Congress. Eventually $7.65 billion was allocated for a vaccine and other measures. H1N1 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on June 11, 2009. In other words, the Obama administration’s public health emergency declaration came more than six weeks before the pandemic designation. Now to Obama’s second action. On Oct. 24, 2009, six months after his administration declared H1N1 a public health emergency, Obama declared it a national emergency. At that point, H1N1 had claimed more than 1,000 American lives, according to the CDC. When Obama made his declaration, the New York Times reported at the time, thousands of people were lining up in cities across the country to receive vaccinations, as federal officials acknowledged that their vaccination program had gotten off to a slow start, with some states having requested 10 times the amount they have been allotted. Millions of people in the United States had had H1N1. The national emergency declaration allowed the federal government to temporarily waive or modify requirements of the Medicare, Medicaid, and State Children's Health Insurance programs. It also permitted doctors and hospitals to bypass certain requirements as they responded to H1N1. By way of comparison, Trump declared the coronavirus a public health emergency on Jan. 31, 2020, also prior to any deaths in the United States. One effect was that U.S. citizens who had been in China's Hubei Province, the source of the outbreak, in the previous 14 days were subjected to 14 days of mandatory quarantine if they traveled back to the United States. NBC News reported March 3, 2020, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is planning for the possibility that Trump could make a national emergency declaration to bring in extra funds and personnel to assist the administration's coronavirus response. The headline of an article shared on Facebook claimed: ""Obama waited six months to call swine flu an emergency after thousands died."" In October 2009, after more than 1,000 people in the United States had died of swine flu, also known as H1N1, Obama declared a national emergency. But six months earlier, his administration declared H1N1 a public health emergency. At that point, no deaths in the United States had occurred."
28686	Cavities are contagious, primarily between intimate partners or children and caregivers.	What's true: Some research indicates that specific bacteria linked with aggressive early childhood cavities may be transmitted between caregivers and small children; at least one small study involving four couples had similar findings. What's false: The transmissibility of cavities seemed restricted only to specific bacteria and circumstances.	mixture	Medical, cavities, contagious, kissing	On 20 February 2016, ScienceDaily shared a University of Louisville press release titled “Cavities are contagious, research shows,” which said (without a link to any particular research): Dental caries, commonly known as tooth decay, is the single most common chronic childhood disease. In fact, it is an infectious disease. Mothers with cavities can transmit caries-producing oral bacteria to their babies when they clean pacifiers by sticking them in their own mouths or by sharing spoons. According to Liliana Rozo, D.D.S., assistant profesor, University of Louisville School of Dentistry, tooth decay can have a detrimental effect on a child’s quality of life, performance in school and success in life. The disease can cause pain, inability to chew food well, embarrassment about discolored or damaged teeth, and distraction from play and learning. The original press release was either deleted or removed at some point, but the original version quite explicitly made no mention of either an active or recent study: According to Liliana Rozo, D.D.S., assistant profesor, University of Louisville School of Dentistry, tooth decay can have a detrimental effect on a child’s quality of life, performance in school and success in life. The disease can cause pain, inability to chew food well, embarrassment about discolored or damaged teeth, and distraction from play and learning. These are among the tips a dentist can discuss with parents during a free dental screening for children who are first time patients of the UofL School of Dentistry. This promotion is being offered now through the end of spring. In early 2011, TIME magazine and the New York Times were among outlets reporting on the purported risks of transmitting cavities: “Particularly, the easiest way to catch a cavity is when a mother is feeding a child,” Dr. Irwin Smigel, creator of Supersmile, told AOL Health. The mother will taste the food to check the temperature and then continue feeding the child. “Immediately, that’s how kids get cavities,” he says. Kissing between couples can also cause the spread of harmful bacteria. Smigel has seen many patients, particularly women, who have clean, healthy mouths, discover a cavity or two after entering into a relationship with a man who has cavities, gum disease or hasn’t been to the dentist in several years. Infants and children are especially vulnerable to the bacteria. A 2007 study conducted at the University of Queensland’s School of Dentistry in Australia found that cavity-causing bacteria was found in the mouths of 30% of 3-month-old babies and more than 80% of 24-month-olds with primary teeth. Research conducted in 2007 indicated the presence of certain bacteria in the mouths of infants was linked with severe childhood cavities, but it didn’t detail how the purported transmission took place. Overall, that material simply concluded that “strategies for the prevention of dental caries should include timely control of colonization of the cariogenic [cavity-causing] bacteria in the mouths of young children.” The New York Times mentioned studies, but only referenced anecdotes: A number of studies have also shown that transmission can occur between couples, too. Dr. Mitchell has seen it in her own practice. “In one instance, a patient in her 40s who had never had a cavity suddenly developed two cavities and was starting to get some gum disease,” she said. She learned the woman had started dating a man who hadn’t been to a dentist in 18 years and had gum disease. In the described scenario, a change in diet, habits, or other factors presumably could have been a contributing factor. In 2010, a separate study of older children asserted that mother-to-child transmission had been “suggested” by other studies, but it was not described as necessarily definitive: Vertical transmission from mother to child has been suggested as the main pathway for mutans streptococci acquisition. Several studies reported similar mutans streptococci genotypes common to mother, father, and child … Recent studies have suggested that horizontal transmission occurs readily within families[.] Dentistry texts published in 1999 were similarly inconclusive: Dental decay has been known since recorded history, but was not an important health problem until sucrose became a major component of the human diet. When sucrose is consumed frequently, an organism known as Streptococcus mutans emerges as the predominant organism, and it is this organism that has been uniquely associated with dental decay. In 1924 S mutans was isolated from human carious lesions, but subsequently was not thoroughly studied until the 1960s when it was re-identified as the etiologic agent of a transmissible caries infection in rodent models. In these studies, all of Koch’s postulates for infectivity were fulfilled in animal models. However, it proved difficult to show that S mutans was a human dental pathogen, because S mutans appears to be a member of the normal flora on the teeth, and it was difficult to show that an increase in S mutans actually preceded and/or coincided with the earliest clinical lesion. As of 2007, studies indicated that suspected transmission from mother to child occurred “shortly after birth” and well prior to the appearance of teeth. Quite often, transmission was cited among several other factors (such as socioeconomic status, familial habits, and caretaking practices) observed in severe early childhood caries; it remained possible that transmission between individuals was one of several mitigating factors. By 2009, research remained inconclusive on the matter of cavity contagion: In 26% (7/27) of mother/child pairs, all of the child’s isolates matched the mother. In 15% (4/27), some of the child’s genotypes matched the mother, and in 59% (16/27), no isolates matched the mother. Maternal transmission was a mode of MS acquisition in 41% (11/27) of mother/child pairs, while acquisition from non-maternal sources occurred in 74% (20/27). Conclusions: MS genotypes that did not match maternal strains were identified in the majority of children (74%) within this S-ECC population. Evidence of maternal transmission was detected in 41% of mother/child pairs. As for the matter of transmission between intimate partners (with one fortunate enough to live a cavity-free life while their partner suffers with frequent decay) the sample size of the most commonly referenced research (1993) was exceedingly small: Of the 20 couples investigated, the 4 in which both spouses harbored A. actinomycetemcomitans and P. gingivalis were chosen for the transmission study. Three of these couples also harbored mutans streptococci … The spouses in 2 couples shared the same sero- and ribotypes of A. actinomycetemcomitans and S. mutans. P. gingivalis ribotypes were identical in 2 couples. The result suggests transmission of oral bacteria between spouses. Of the people originally examined, the conclusion was based on results derived from four individuals, or two couples. Ongoing research has primarily focused on severe early childhood cavities, not broad A-to-B transmission of cavities. Evidence suggesting couples were cavity vectors (via kissing) was incomplete or anecdotal, and research into caregiver-to-child transmission typically involved a host of factors such as a household’s socioeconomic profile, culture, smoking in the home, and other variables. Evidence did not disprove the idea that cavity-causing bacteria was transmitted between caregivers and children or intimate partners, but neither did it seem to be cause for alarm.
3849	Maine governor praises federal plan for prescription drugs.	Maine is ready to take advantage of a Trump administration proposal that would allow Americans to legally and safely import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said Wednesday.	true	Global trade, Medication, Health, General News, Prescription drugs, Canada, Maine	The plan reverses years of opposition from federal health authorities. It comes amid a public outcry over high prices for life-sustaining medications. It’s unclear how soon consumers will see benefits. Last month, Maine passed a bill to allow for the wholesale importation of prescription drugs from Canada. Such a plan would require federal approval, and was modeled after a law Vermont passed last year. Mills said she told the federal Health and Human Services secretary that her administration is ready to review and help shape the new rule. Mills signed Maine’s law last month. “For far too long, we have had to fight the federal government tooth and nail on the issue of safe importation of quality medication — and often unsuccessfully so — which is why I am glad to see the Administration take a positive step in a new direction today,” Mills said in a statement. This spring, Maine’s legislation drew support from several residents who said they were forgoing or taking on debt to afford medicine for conditions such as multiple sclerosis and Type 1 diabetes. Critics included the trade group representing pharmaceutical wholesale distributors and companies such as Pfizer, which raised concerns about counterfeiters in the drug industry and different drug regulations in other countries. But supporters noted that the legislation would require the state to only import prescription drugs that meet FDA safety standards.
35856	U.S. President Donald Trump tried to deflect attention from his response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic by repeatedly comparing it to President Barack Obama's handling of the H1N1 pandemic.	Laboratory tests for H1N1 available in 2009 could take up to a week to produce a diagnostic and were only recommended for individuals who were hospitalized with the suspected flu, pregnant, or had weakened immune systems.	true	Politics, 2020 election, COVID-19	For much of 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump tried to shift the spotlight on his response to the COVID-19 pandemic by criticizing former President Barack Obama’s handling of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, which Trump claimed resulted in the deaths of as many as 17,000 people. Also known as the “Swine Flu,” the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus was first detected in the U.S. in April 2009 and quickly spread around the world, eventually prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a global pandemic. Trump launched his first Twitter attack criticizing “Sleepy Joe Biden” (Biden was vice president under Obama) and the Obama administration’s response to the H1N1 pandemic on March 12, 2020, eight months before the presidential election in which Biden would be the Democratic challenger. As of this writing, at least 11 similarly phrased tweets had been posted by the president’s account, the most recent of which was shared on Sept. 3, 2020. (An archived review of Trump’s posts related to H1N1 can be found here.) He didn’t just criticize Obama on Twitter. During a July 13 roundtable with law enforcement officers, a reporter asked Trump if the number of coronavirus cases was increasing because testing was also increasing. In his response, the president falsely claimed that the U.S. had one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates before pivoting the conversation to the Obama administration’s response to the 2009 H1N1 flu. If you know, Biden and Obama stopped their testing; they just stopped it. You probably know that. I’m sure you don’t want to report it. But they stopped testing. Right in the middle, they just went, “No more testing,” and on a much lesser problem than the problem that we have, obviously with respect to — this is the worst thing that’s happened since probably 1917. This is a very bad — all over the world. It’s 188 countries right now. At a news conference the following day, the president further defended his actions during COVID-19. His claims about H1N1 testing are misleading, and some news publications have posited that the president’s criticism of the Obama administration’s response to H1N1 was an attempt to pivot attention away from the Trump administration’s contentious response to COVID-19, while simultaneously taking jabs at then-presumed U.S. Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden. In an April 24, 2009, interview with Fox News, Trump had actually praised Obama’s response to the H1N1 pandemic. The Obama administration didn’t “totally” stop testing, as Trump claimed. Rather, leading health officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) halted some — but not all — forms of testing around the nation and revised the methods for how confirmed cases were reported in the months leading up to Obama’s Oct. 24 national emergency declaration. Human H1N1 infection was first detected in California on April 15, 2009, prompting WHO to declare a global public health emergency just 10 days later on April 25. The following day, Kathleen Sebelius, then-U.S. Secretary Department of Health and Human Services under the Obama administration, declared a public health emergency, a 90-day declaration that frees up additional funding for significant outbreaks of infectious disease. At the time, the U.S. had 20 confirmed cases, but no deaths had been reported. It wasn’t until June 11 that WHO declared a pandemic. According to a timeline compiled by the CDC, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands had reported confirmed cases by June 19. During a July 24 press briefing, the agency announced its controversial decision to halt some H1N1 testing and to no longer require states to report H1N1 cases. The decision was made in large part due to the limited capabilities of testing available in 2009. Rapid influenza diagnostic tests at the time were incapable of distinguishing between H1N1 and the seasonal influenza A viruses, and by September 2009, it was estimated that more than 99% of flu viruses circulated in the U.S. were H1N1, making rapid testing for H1N1 an obsolete burden on the healthcare system. According to historical archives, the CDC concluded that the high likelihood of multiple strains of seasonal influenza viruses co-circulating with H1N1 made it nearly impossible to accurately determine the total case count and would ultimately result in a “vast underestimate of the true number of cases” of H1N1 that could exacerbate biases throughout the pandemic as more people became ill.
34777	"Johnson & Johnson ""admitted"" that their brand baby products contain formaldehyde, which is a known carcinogen."	What's true: In January 2014, Johnson & Johnson products announced the completion of a reformulation to remove formaldehyde from their baby products due to consumer fears. What's false: The level of formaldehyde contained in products such as baby shampoo has not been proved to pose a cancer danger to humans.	mixture	Politics	On 14 August 2015, the blog Healthy Food House published an article titled “Johnson & Johnson Admits: Our Baby Products Contain Cancer-Causing Formaldehyde,” whose text proclaimed: Although [Johnson & Johnson] claims that the amount of formaldehyde isn’t large enough to be detrimental to humans — even infant humans — the fact is that it still has allowed this chemical for as long as they have been making the No More Tears shampoo. But now, the company has announced the removal of formaldehyde from that shampoo and they are removing it from one hundred other products that they manufacture as well. It could be seen as a sign of good intentions that the company is removing it from their products. But the real question is: why hasn’t it been removed before now? Actually, the “real question” about removing formaldehyde from their shampoo products had been addressed by Johnson & Johnson nearly two years earlier, as noted in a 17 January 2014 New York Times article titled “The ‘No More Tears’ Shampoo, Now with No Formaldehyde”: What’s different about the shampoo, and 100 other baby products sold by Johnson & Johnson, isn’t so much about what’s been added; it’s what’s missing. The products no longer contain two potentially harmful chemicals, formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane, that have come under increasing scrutiny by consumers and environmental groups. In response to consumer pressure two years ago, the company pledged to remove both chemicals from its baby products by the end of 2013, and this month, it said that it had met that goal. The reformulated products are making their way to store shelves around the world and will replace existing products over the next several months. The push for removing formaldehyde to which the Times referred was not a recent occurrence: it had occurred as early as 2012, according to a Scientific American article. Moreover, Johnson & Johnson expressed at the time that the reason behind their reformulation was entirely rooted in implicitly baseless consumer fears: Johnson & Johnson pledged last August [2012] to eliminate formaldehyde, parabens, triclosan and phthalates from all baby products. For adult products, it has removed triclosan and phthalates, but will keep using three parabens, and use formaldehyde in exceptional cases where other preservatives wouldn’t work, according to the company’s new policy. Driving Johnson & Johnson’s initiative is the consumer. In recent years, its customers have been asking questions about chemicals in the products, said Samantha Lucas, a corporate spokeswoman, in an interview from its New Brunswick, N.J., headquarters. “We’ve been replying with evidence of the science that ensures safety. Now we have to go beyond science and be responsive to our consumers because it’s really about their peace of mind,” she said. A Slate piece on “chemophobia” titled “No More Formaldehyde Baby Shampoo: How Chemophobia Made Johnson & Johnson Reformulate Its Product” examined how social media users spread outsized fears about common and non-harmful ingredients, including formaldehyde, in consumer products So why did Johnson & Johnson remove quaternium-15 if it’s safe? … [E]very minute of every day on every inch of this planet, formaldehyde is all around you and inside you. Always. Yet we’re not all dropping dead from cancer. That’s thanks to one of the most fundamental principles of toxicology: The dose makes the poison. “Unfortunately, all molecules are potentially toxic,” says American University chemist Matthew Hartings. “Toxicity is not just about the molecule but is about both the molecule and its concentration.” The concern about formaldehyde in personal care products reveals a bit of chemophobia, which Dartmouth chemistry professor Gordon Gribble defines as “an irrational fear of chemicals based on ignorance of the facts.” He says, “people don’t know how small molecules are, and they believe that single molecules of some chemical pose a health threat.” The article also noted that formaldehyde occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables, and that any link between formaldehyde and cancer hinged on exposure that included inhalation and involved both long-term and large-quantity usage: In fact, the only studies that link formaldehyde to cancer are related to humans inhaling it, and inhaling large amounts of it. Funeral industry professionals with more than 34 years of experience or who had performed more than 500 embalmings and factory workers who spent years working around formaldehyde before the 1990s had higher risks for leukemia and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The amount of exposure required to cause cancer is so high that other studies of factory workers have been inconclusive. Formaldehyde occurs naturally in common fruits and vegetables (even organic ones). “Unless people calling for removal of quaternium-15 are also keeping their children from eating apples and french fries,” Hartings says, “I think their activism might be misplaced.” Finally, a larger point of diminishing returns exists when it comes to “chemicals” (primarily of the preservative type) and consumer safety. Personal care products formulated without the use of common preservatives are not without attendant health risks of their own, as grooming formulations of that type are more susceptible to becoming compromised (such as by the growth of mold) in the absence of preservatives. So while it’s true Johnson & Johnson reformulated its products due to growing consumer “chemophobia,” the decision was driven by a marketing initiative and not a proven health safety issue. Moreover, the reformulations were announced in 2012 and completed in late 2013; they are not at all a recent occurrence.
10942	Experimental drug could replace burdensome anti-stroke treatment warfarin	Cost information is discussed inadequately, incompletely or not at all in 70% of the stories we review. It is an interesting paradox that this story didn’t provide an estimate of how much consumers will have to pay for the drug, but it did estimate the size of the market for such drugs. Indeed, we identified the cost of rivaroxaban to consumers in Canada within seconds and wonder why this important consideration was not included in this – or any of the stories we reviewed. The cost of the drug alone needs to be placed in context and comparison to the cost of coumadin and the requisite laboratory testing. The average reader, especially those undergoing treatment with coumadin would likely be more interested in purchase price than in revenue to the manufacturer. While the story was well done overall, the things that were missing were vital, and could have been addressed with just a few more words.	true	Los Angeles Times,Stroke	It is an interesting paradox that the story didn’t provide an estimate of how much consumers will have to pay for the drug, but it did estimate the size of the market for such drugs. Indeed, we identified the cost of rivaroxaban to consumers in Canada within seconds and wonder why this important consideration was not included in this – or any of the stories we reviewed. The cost of the drug alone needs to be placed in context and comparison to the cost of coumadin and the requisite laboratory testing. The average reader, especially those undergoing treatment with coumadin would likely be more interested in purchase price than in revenue to the manufacturer. The story presented data from the study reported on that suggests the drug may reduce stroke risk more effectively. It alluded to some factors complicating the use of coumadin which would be eliminate with rivaroxaban. The story provided readers with information about atrial fibrillation and why a drug that prevents blood clots from forming is important. There was no discussion of potential harms or side effects from the use of rivaroxaban. The story was about study results that were presented at a recent meeting but have not yet undergone peer review. The story should have inlcuded at least a line of caution about interpreting results from a talk at a meeting. In addition, the story used only relative risk reduction data rather than absolute risk reduction stats which give readers a better sense of the magnitude of the difference. The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. The story provides comments from three experts in the field unaffiliated with the study or the manufacturer. The story contained information about the current ‘gold standard’ of treatment and indicated that rivaroxaban compared favorably; and that both rivaroxaban and the recently approved Pradaxa would be less complicated for patients to use. The story was clear that rivaroxaban is not yet approved for use and thus not available in the US. The statement that ‘analysts predict’ the drug will be approved later this year may be overly optimistic, especially since the results reported on come from a study that has not been subjected to peer review or published in a completed form.. The story explained that rivaroxaban was a medication under study as a substitute for coumadin. It also mentioned dabigatran (Pradaxa), a recently FDA approved medication that can be used instead of coumadin. Does not appear to rely on news release.
32416	Hillary Clinton said in a speech that Christians in America must deny their faith in Christianity.	A Hillary Clinton speech on improving the plight of women and girls worldwide has been cited as a demand that American Christians deny their faith	false	Politics, hillary clinton	On 23 April 2015, Hillary Clinton delivered the keynote address at the annual Women in the World Summit in New York City. In a 20-minute speech that touched on the triumphs and challenges of improving the plight of women and girls worldwide, Clinton emphasized the work yet to be done: Yes, we’ve nearly closed the global gender gap in primary school, but secondary school remains out of reach for so many girls around the world. Yes, we’ve increased the number of countries prohibiting domestic violence, but still more than half the nations in the world have no such laws on the books, and an estimated one in three women still experience violence. Yes, we’ve cut the mortality rate in half, but far too many women are still denied critical access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth. All the laws we’ve passed don’t count for much if they’re not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice, not just on paper. Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed. As I have said, and as I believe, the advancement of the full participation of women and girls in every aspect of their societies is the great unfinished business of the twenty-first century, and not just for women but for everyone — and not just in far away countries but right here in the United States.” Interestingly, within a day of Clinton’s address, an excerpt from the passage above was being passed around on the Internet, misrepresented as a demand for Christians to renounce their faith. “Sorry Christians,” a blog called the Right Scoop intoned ominously on 24 April 2015, “but your religious beliefs against abortion aren’t good enough anymore. They must be changed.” “Hilary Clinton just said that Christians must deny their Faith through the enforcement of laws, by stating that the Christian belief in being pro-life, and anti-abortion, must change,” warned Shoebat.com, “and that this should be done through laws and ‘political will.’ If Christians must change Christian teachings in regards to abortion, then what Hilary Clinton is essentially saying is that Christians must deny their Faith.” Shoebat continued: “Notice that she says that the change of Christian beliefs is the ‘unfinished business of the 21st century,’ which means she wants to persecute Christians.” Having read the pertinent paragraphs from Clinton’s actual speech above, one might well wonder how her call for the enforcement of laws protecting the rights of women in countries with deep-seated cultural biases morphed into a demand for American Christians to deny their faith. Quite simply, it was done by editing out the context so only these remarks are left (emphasis added by Shoebat.com): Far too many women are denied access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth, and laws don’t count for much if they’re not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice — not just on paper. Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed. Gone are all references to education, domestic violence, and the mortality rate of women in childbirth — not to mention the international scope of the subject matter — so what remains could be misrepresented as a direct threat to pro-life Christians in America. That was clearly not the original import of the passage. For anyone curious to learn what Hillary Clinton actually said in the speech, it was captured in its entirety in the video below:
10722	More signs lung cancer screening could save lives	We were on high alert when reviewing this story about CT screening and lung cancer deaths, because of questions about the methods used in the study and the advocacy history of the lead researcher. The headline, lead sentence and concluding section… the most important sections of the story… tilt toward meek acceptance of the study claims. However, readers who take in the whole story are treated to a solid examination of many of the questions this study raises. The top and bottom of the story should have more closely reflected the meat of the report. Also, the story emphasizes the apparently large (36 to 64 percent) relative reductions in death rates without giving equal billing to the absolute reductions of less than one percent or the hundreds of smokers that would have to be screened in order to prevent one lung cancer death. See our primer on absolute versus relative risks. Also see risk communication expert Gerd Gigerenzer’s comments on the importance of communicating absolute risk data. Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of men and women in US. While the most effective response is reducing smoking (which also reduces the heart disease and other smoking-related ailments that kill and disable far more people than lung cancer), effective lung cancer screening could offer noteworthy benefits to those who have smoked. But screening presents numerous logical traps, including exposing people to costs and harms of treatment for tumors that turn out be either harmless or merely advancing the starting date of treatment that ultimately fails to make any difference in the outcome. Earlier published studies suggested earlier diagnosis of lung cancer in a group of heavier smokers, but the eventual outcomes of the diagnosis and the impact of CT screening remained unclear. This new observational study provides some additional insight.But, as independent experts emphasize in this story, there are still many issues to be resolved about lung cancer screening and the high false-positive rate is still an issue.	true	Cancer,Reuters Health,Screening	The story reports that this sort of scan costs about $300. The story also notes that if screening is effective, the scans would need to be repeated, though there is no consensus on what schedule would make the most sense. The CDC estimates that more than 45 million Americans currently smoke cigarettes and more than that many are former smokers. The story should have more clearly pointed out that the cost of a screening program is not the cost of a single test, but the cumulative cost of repeatedly screening many millions of people as well as the cost follow-up tests and treatments… both the treatment of potentially dangerous lung cancers, but also the treatment of the many suspicious lesions that turn out not to be cancer. A separate study found a false positive rate of more than 20 percent, suggesting that follow-up tests (and the costs they incur) would be a frequent added expense. The story should have at least referred to the national costs and the additional testing and treatment costs triggered by false positive scans. This story generally meets the specific requirements of this criterion, but the overall tone and structure of the report lead readers toward an exaggerated sense of the benefits reported in this study. Putting aside fundamental questions about study design addressed earlier, there should have been more attention to the absolute differences in the actual versus expected outcomes for the smokers included in this study. The story highlights mortality reductions of 36 to 64 percent. While it does report deep into the story that 64 smokers died of lung cancer out of almost 8,000 in the main study group, readers would have to pull out their calculators to learn that based on these numbers… a 36 percent relative reduction in lung cancer mortality translates into an absolute reduction of less than half a percent. Specifically, 0.8 percent (64 out of 7995) of the smokers screened with CT died of lung cancer, while based on one comparison the researchers say the expected lung cancer death rate would be 1.2 percent (99.8 out of 7995). That is a difference of 0.4 percent. The story should have noted that based on these statistics, more than 200 smokers would have to be screened in order to make a difference for one of them. The story also errs by highlighting that another report (based on an actual comparison of screening to not-screening) reported a 20 percent reduction in lung cancer deaths, without also noting that those researchers reported about 300 smokers would have to be screened in order to stave off one lung cancer death. The story should have also clearly told readers that even if screening reduced lung cancer deaths by 20 percent in the most rigorous trial to date, that does not mean that screening would prevent 30,000 lung cancer deaths a year (20 percent of the 157,000 lung cancer deaths per year reported in the story). While too many news reports take a “why not?” attitude toward medical screening tests, this story confronts some of the potential harms. It refers to a recent report that more than one in five “initial lung CT scans show suspicious lesions that turn out not to be cancer, but lead to needless invasive follow-up procedures and radiation exposure, as well as stress and anxiety for patients and their families.” This criterion is of critical importance given the controversies over lead researcher Claudia Henscke’s long-standing advocacy of CT screening of smokers and criticism of some of her earlier publications on this topic. This latest study raises a number of questions about the methods used to compare lung cancer deaths in three different groups of people. The screened group was made up of heavy smokers living in New York who were recruited by Henschke and her team specifically for a study of CT screening. There was no control group, so in this study statistics from two other unrelated studies are used. One group (CPS-II) was made up of people who reported being smokers as part of a large nationwide study of cancer in general. The second group (CARET) was a subset of smokers who took part in the control group of a trial of drugs to prevent lung cancer. The story takes note of earlier controversies involving Henschke and points out that this study attempts to compare groups of people with important differences and then calculate estimates of the number of lung cancer deaths would have been expected in the first group if they had not been screened. Although the headline, lead and concluding lines of this story don’t incorporate these and other concerns, we give the story credit for attempting to address challenging questions of scientific and statistical methods. The story reports credible numbers describing the toll of lung cancer. The story quotes two independent experts who provide valuable perspectives on this study. We wish more stories provided similar attention to independent experts. It also notes that Dr. Henschke has been criticized in the past for accepting funding from tobacco companies and that this study was supported in part by manufacturers of CT scanners. The story does not discuss alternatives. It would require only another sentence to at least note the reduction in the risk of lung cancer, heart disease and other ailments that come from quitting smoking. Although this story does not directly address the availability of CT screening specifically designed to identify lung tumors, it does point out that such screening is generally not covered by insurance. The story puts this study into context with other recent reports, thus making it clear that the evaluation of CT screening for lung cancer is a process that has been going on for a number of years and is far from finished. The story clearly does not rely on a news release.
5799	Telehealth gives rural Missouri more access to health care.	With a population just shy of 5,000, the town of St. Robert lies just south of the heart of Missouri. It’s one of the many rural towns in the state that finds alternatives to health care access through the internet.	true	Access to health care, Technology, Health, Missouri, Internet access	Since the early 1990s, the telehealth network has helped connect patients to health care providers from their own homes. Increasing technology has made the service more efficient, with live audio and video sessions enhancing virtual health care. The Columbia Missourian reports that telehealth services rely on internet access to conduct sessions, and Missouri is one of the worst states in terms of broadband access in rural areas. Jon Moore, a physician’s assistant at Mercy Clinic Family Medicine in St. Robert, relocated to the town from Fort Leonard Wood in 1998 and has been practicing dermatology with telehealth services since then. Despite believing that dermatology is underserved in the area, Moore says that telehealth services are invaluable in a small community like St. Robert. Moore said that as broadband access has improved, the health services have improved. “We had some big problems when we were first choosing the equipment back in the early 2000s,” Moore said. “A couple of times, telemedicine degenerated into telephone medicine ... I ended up describing the lesions over the telephone because we just couldn’t get it going. With the evolution of broadband, it’s gotten better and better.” As far as who Moore sees, patients utilizing telehealth services do so for a variety of reasons. While many may use it for convenience, others may choose virtual services to reduce the cost of health care. “If (people) are unemployed, they may not have a car, or if they have a car, they may not be able to afford gas,” Moore said. “I’ve had patients that were very well insured and were just happy with the convenience of not having to get in a car and drive (to the closest specialist,) and I’ve had others that were just dirt poor or nursing home patients that just couldn’t travel.” Sometimes uninsured or underinsured patients can’t afford to consult with a specialist, he said, “so the challenge is there.” Karen Edison is the medical director of the Missouri Telehealth Network. Edison has specialized as a dermatologist for over 20 years and frequently fronts teledermatology sessions with her patients. “I’m taking care of (patients) through video conference so I see their skin,” Edison said. “They send pictures to me ahead of time and I look at all their skin photos and then I go in the room and talk to them over the computer. It’s just like it is in person, it’s just using technology to bridge distance.” Edison says that equipment and technology have become cheaper over the years to operate telehealth services. Today, clinics may only need to use a laptop or desktop computer to communicate with their patients and conduct sessions. “When we first started doing telemedicine, the local rural clinics had to have some very expensive video conferencing equipment,” Edison said. “Today, we use our regular computers. You don’t need to have anything special besides ... broadband access to make that secure and high quality.” “We still have rural areas in Missouri that don’t have high-quality broadband access and this is a problem all over the country in rural areas, but especially in the frontier areas of our country.” Rachel Mutrux is the senior program director who oversees the Missouri Telehealth Network and helps advise the state on telehealth regulations and expansion. In order for telehealth to be serviced, it can require a large amount of broadband access. “If you’re talking about live interaction video conferencing, synchronized transmissions, you would need large amounts of broadband both uploading and downloading,” Mutrux said. In the early 2000s, Mutrux says most health care organizations didn’t have enough broadband to accommodate the services. The Missouri Telehealth Network would then work with telephone companies and other organizations to put new broadband into facilities. Each organization would create a special line just for telemedicine. This partnership changed when the use of electronic health records became a standard practice. “Once they started getting electronic health records, they needed a lot more broadband anyway,” she said. “So once they got a lot more broadband anyway, the telemedicine technology got a lot better and didn’t need as much (extra) bandwidth as it did before.” Mutrux argues that most health care organizations have adequate bandwidth for at least some telemedicine even in rural areas of the state. She believes that where broadband is lacking would be more so in the homes of patients. “If a telehealth appointment was happening and the video and audio was not working successfully, then that clinic and provider should have a backup means of conducting the appointment,” she said. “In some cases, that would be to reschedule the appointment and in some cases, it would be to have a conversation on the telephone. It would have to be up to that provider and that clinic.” While broadband access may be getting better in rural Missouri, telehealth may continue to struggle without adequate funding. Mirna Becevic, an assistant research professor of telemedicine at MU, says that the expansion of telehealth is not so much a concern as reimbursement and billing. “When it comes to reimbursement for example, Medicare will only allow reimbursement if the patient is in a specifically designated rural area,” Becevic said. “This really leaves out urban areas and some other areas that seem rural but do not fall into this category.” “If you think about Medicare patients, they may be in a nursing home and there are so many nursing homes in urban areas that could really benefit from a service like this, so the patient wouldn’t have to leave the nursing home and miss services or meals, but this is not something that Medicare will cover, so it’s a challenge.” As Missouri prepares for a new legislative session in January, state Rep. Kip Kendrick, D-Columbia, wants to focus on the expansion of telehealth in schools. Kendrick believes that would help reduce the cost of overall health care in Missouri. “Hopefully once we pass additional statues, schools around the state should be able to implement school-based telehealth, where the nurse would facilitate the service in the office connecting with medical specialists on the other end,” Kendrick said. “Children can see specialists for ongoing chronic health conditions in the nurse’s office and may be pulled out of classrooms for 10 to 15 minutes. “Telehealth is already driving down the cost of health care and it’s going to become more prevalent in the future,” he said. “Missouri needs to make sure we continue to modernize our statutes, but we need to make sure that people have access to care.” ___ Information from: Columbia Missourian, http://www.columbiamissourian.com
8654	Retired doctors, medics abroad answer coronavirus calls.	On a St. Patrick’s Day like no other last month, Irish Health Minister Simon Harris launched a recruitment drive to tackle the coronavirus outbreak with a stark message: “Your country needs you.”	true	Health News	Nine days later, David Quigley arrived home to Dublin from Perth, Australia alongside 100 other young Irish doctors who cut short their training abroad to answer Harris’ call to help slow the spread that has infected more than 3,000 people in Ireland. Quigley, a 30-year-old respiratory specialist, was due to return to a job in Dublin in July after doing some traveling. Amid the travel chaos and canceled flights, he instead forked out 7,000 Australian dollars from his savings to get back early. “I wanted to come back and help out my colleagues who I had worked with for so long before, to help the cause,” Quigley said in a telephone interview from his parents’ house in Dublin where he must self-isolate for two weeks. From the United States to Vietnam and across Europe, overrun health services are helping retirees reactivate licenses, fast tracking student doctors and nurses and looking for help wherever they can find it. Authorities in Britain put out a plea for 250,000 volunteers to help the health service transport patients, deliver medicine and stay in contact with the most vulnerable in society. They said on Monday the number of volunteers had reached 750,000. Another 20,000 health professionals who had either retired or left the industry have return following the passing of emergency legislation. In Spain, which became the third country to report more than 100,000 cases on Wednesday as the death toll rose above 9,000, officials called upon all retired medical professionals under the age of 70, who were still able to work, to join the effort. For 63-year-old Loles Andolz, returning to the Barcelona hospital she retired from earlier this year means living apart from her husband, who is over 70, and mother, who recently went blind and must live in isolation to avoid infection. “My grandmother is having a hard time with her daughter’s decision, she cries all day long and wonders why she has to go volunteer instead of younger people,” Andolz’s daughter, Sonia, told Reuters. “My mother says that she feels like she is going to war and abandoning her family, although she does it gladly.” GREY-HAIRED TREPIDATION Ireland’s Health Service Executive said it had spoken to thousands of health care professionals who may be eligible to return after it received more than 70,000 responses for its ‘Be on call for Ireland’ initiative. Chris Luke, a 61-year old emergency physician, is back in work in the southern city of Cork 18 months after he retired early because of a neck injury and nerve problems in his hand. “I have no less a degree of trepidation than any other gray-haired emergency physician. But I am glad to be back. I feel I have a purpose,” said Luke, working alongside two other consultants who have come out of retirement Other volunteers like Colm O’Moráin, one of Ireland’s leading academic physicians, must wait before being called up. Aged 72, he is “cocooning”, a government order that everyone over 70 must stay at home until at least April 12. O’Moráin, whose son Neil is a doctor on the frontline in a Dublin hospital, sees the opportunity to look after patients in whatever guise as a chance to give back when the need “has never been greater.” While trying to avoid contact with his own parents who are living in a separate part of their house, Quigley, the returnee from Australia, is itching to get started. “It’s almost harder psychologically to sit back, especially when you’re in isolation in your room. As soon as it’s safe, I’m definitely, definitely eager to get back working on the frontline,” he said.
7426	Trump vs Fauci: President’s gut sense collides with science.	In a clash of gut instinct versus science, President Donald Trump and the government’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, are politely but publicly sparing over whether a malaria drug would work to treat people with coronavirus disease.	true	AP Top News, Malaria, Health, Anthony Fauci, General News, Politics, Infectious diseases, Science, Virus Outbreak, Donald Trump	Trump is clinging to his feeling that a malaria drug widely available could be the answer-in-waiting to an outbreak spreading around the nation, shutting down major parts of the economy, and posing the biggest challenge he has faced as president. Calmly and quietly, Fauci insists that the science is not yet there to validate Trump’s hope. Neither man directly challenged the other. The extraordinary scene played out on national television both Friday and Saturday during White House briefings on the outbreak. Anxious for answers, Americans heard conflicting views. Reporters asked both men — first Fauci, then Trump — if a malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine could be used to prevent COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. A day earlier, when Fauci wasn’t with him at that briefing, Trump had called attention to the drug. On Friday, Fauci took the reporter’s question and got right to the point. “No,” he said. “The answer ... is no. “The information that you’re referring to specifically is anecdotal,” Fauci added firmly. “It was not done in a controlled clinical trial, so you really can’t make any definitive statement about it.” Hydroxychloroquine and a similar drug — chloroquine — are sold around the world under a variety of brand and generic names. They can be prescribed off-label by doctors in the United States. They may interfere with the coronavirus being able to enter cells, and some scientists have reported possible encouraging signs in test-tube and other small studies. Fauci on Friday went on to explain that the Food and Drug Administration is looking for a way to make the drug available for emergency use, but in a manner that gives the government data about whether it’s safe and effective. Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH and in more than 30 years has handled HIV, SARS, MERS, Ebola and now the new coronavirus. Currently, there is no medicine specifically approved for treating COVID-19. But Trump stuck to what his gut was telling him. As the two men took turns at the podium, Trump said he disagreed with the notion that there is no magic drug for the coronavirus disease. “Maybe and maybe not, ” he said. “Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t. We have to see.” He struck an upbeat note, while trying not to directly challenge Fauci. “I think without seeing too much, I’m probably more of a fan of that,” he said, referring to the malaria drug. “And we all understand what the doctor said is 100% correct.” Then the president added, “It’s a strong drug. So, we’ll see.” That same mixed-message dynamic was on display during Saturday’s White House briefing — this time with both men publicly acknowledging their clashing stances. Prior to the briefing Trump tweeted about a preliminary French study suggesting that hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin, a common antibiotic, might be an effective treatment for COVID-19. During the briefing, Trump doubled down on his support for the malaria drug, saying it would be distributed for use while Fauci remained respectfully skeptical. “I feel, as the expression goes, what do we have to lose,” Trump said. “Tony would like, he would like samples done in a certain way. I understand that, too. Many doctors agree with that. We don’t have much time. We have a lot of very sick people right now.” Fauci called the hydroxychloroquine evidence “anecdotal” and made it clear that wasn’t how the science works. “If you really want to definitively know if something works, you’ve got to do the kind of trial where you get the good information,” he said. Fauci compared the current speculation to the early days of medical trial-and-error during the AIDS crisis when multiple anecdotal treatments were floated, “until we finally developed drugs that were knockout drugs that were safe and that were effective.” For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. Fauci has a track record of being the fact-based counterpoint to the Trump administration’s upbeat assessments of the coronavirus outbreak. For much longer than that, he’s specialized in the same calm and persistent repetition of the information he thinks his audience — whether the public or physicians — needs to know. Weeks ago, after Fauci said that even with all deliberate speed a vaccine could take a year to 18 months, Trump told a political rally one could be ready “relatively soon.” As administration officials repeatedly assured the public that coronavirus tests were rapidly becoming available, Fauci at a congressional hearing said the lack of widespread testing was “a failing” of the system. Although Fauci has publicly supported Trump’s travel restrictions to try to keep the virus out, he warned the worst was coming even as Trump suggested the crisis was under good control. On Saturday, with his public dissonance with the president now becoming a regular feature of the White House briefings, Fauci worked to find some sort of middle ground. “The president is talking about hope for people and it’s not an unreasonable thing,” Fauci said. “I’ve got to do my job as a scientist and others have other things to do.” ___ Associated Press writers Nancy Benac, Lauran Neergaard, Ashraf Khalil and Lindsey Tanner contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
26357	Models projecting COVID-19 deaths “are talking about without mitigation.”	A University of Washington model predicts 134,000 deaths by early August. That model takes into account mitigation.	false	Coronavirus, Donald Trump,	"President Donald Trump downplayed academic projections that COVID-19 deaths could rise higher than previously expected this summer. Trump was asked about new projections multiple times on May 5, the day he traveled to Arizona to tour a mask factory. ABC’s David Muir asked Trump about a model by Johns Hopkins University that said the daily death rate could rise to 3,000 a day, as well as a University of Washington update that projected 135,000 deaths by early August. Trump criticized the models as ""out of whack."" ""Those models that you're mentioning are talking about without mitigation,"" Trump replied. ""Well, we're mitigating, and we've learned to mitigate."" Mitigation generally refers to steps to reduce the spread of the virus, such as social distancing, requiring people to wear masks and reducing public gatherings. In recent days, many states or counties have loosened such restrictions or have announced plans to do so, reopening beaches, restaurants and shops. Medical experts have cautioned that such measures could lead to more cases. By saying the new reports don’t factor in mitigation, Trump made it sound like they didn’t reflect ongoing efforts to limit the spread. But Trump is wrong — the University of Washington update does take into account mitigation such as social distancing. The Johns Hopkins data was a draft and was not intended as a forecast. That was nearly double their forecast in late April. The revision reflects the winding down of social distancing measures expected in the majority of states by May 11. ""Increases in testing and contact tracing, along with warming seasonal temperatures — factors that could help slow transmission — do not offset rising mobility, thereby fueling a significant increase in projected deaths,"" the university said. The ""model includes mitigation and always has,"" Amelia Apfel, a spokeswoman for the institute, told PolitiFact in an email. The institute’s published frequently asked questions contains more details about how it factors social distancing into the models. Some experts have criticized the model as the numbers have fluctuated. The model from Johns Hopkins University caused a stir after the New York Times reported on an internal federal document showing deaths of 3,000 a day by June, compared with 1,750 now. The draft slide show, published by the Washington Post, included preliminary information from a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health professor who is contracted with the Federal Emergency Management Administration. Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology, told the Washington Post that his work contained a range of possibilities. A Johns Hopkins spokeswoman told PolitiFact that it is not a forecast. ""The information illustrates that there are some scenarios, including the premature relaxation of social distancing, that are likely to cause significant increases in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States,"" the university said. We emailed Lessler directly to ask if his 3,000 figure took into account mitigation and did not get a reply. In Lessler’s interview with NPR, he said the various scenarios took into account how effective current measures are, and that his contract with FEMA prevents him from sharing his final projections with the public. The White House told media outlets that the numbers had not been vetted or presented to the coronavirus task force. The Trump administration has made it clear that even with mitigation the U.S. death toll will grow. ""Our projections have always been between 100,000 and 240,000 American lives lost, and that's with full mitigation and us learning from each other of how to social distance,"" said Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, on Fox News Sunday. When Trump was asked about new models projecting COVID-19 deaths, Trump responded that they ""are talking about without mitigation."" The Johns Hopkins data was preliminary, and not designed as a forecast. The researcher told NPR that he assumed some degree of mitigation. Trump is clearly wrong about the University of Washington’s model, which does take into account mitigation efforts."
1653	Michelle Obama makes salad in Milan in home-cooking campaign.	First lady Michelle Obama chopped parsley and pine nuts for a salad with 20 school children in Milan on Wednesday to spread her message: Make more home-cooked meals, and you will be healthier.	true	Health News	Flanked by American celebrity chefs John Besh and Mario Batali, Obama showed students from the American School of Milan how to cook, as part of her “Let’s Move” initiative aimed at boosting nutrition and combating obesity among children. Obama is due to visit Milan’s nutrition-themed Expo 2015 world’s fair on Thursday, with an entourage including former basketball star Alonzo Mourning and cutting-edge urban farmer Will Allen. She said obesity has doubled globally since 1980. “If you cook, you take a lot of control over what you eat, you can control the portions ... and it’s a lot of fun,” Obama told the group of 11- to 14-year-olds sporting white aprons they made especially for the visit. Obama recalled how in her pre-White House days she rushed her daughters Sasha and Malia between activities, with no time to eat properly. Eventually, a pediatrician told her to slow down. “So I cooked more,” she said. “A lot of times, it was something simple ... but it was healthy ... and now our kids have no health issues at all.” Living at the White House, Obama never cooks, but she urged families to spend time together at the dinner table, saying her husband, President Barack Obama, stops at 6:30 p.m. every day to sit down with his family. “At a dinner table everyone slows down; you are actually tasting it, and you probably eat less because you’re not shoveling it down,” she said. “Well, the president shovels sometimes.” Obama, her teenage daughters and her mother Marian Robinson also met Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his wife and daughter. They viewed Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” a 15th-century mural that depicts the final meal Jesus shared with his apostles before his crucifixion. The salad, which also included lentils, quinoa and fregula - a Sardinian pasta similar to couscous - did not fill the bellies of all the children. “Is that the only thing we are going to eat?,” one boy asked as the first lady hugged and autographed her way out of the room. The female Obamas will visit Vicenza and Venice in the coming days before returning to the United States on Sunday.

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