claim_id
stringlengths 1
234
| claim
stringlengths 14
491
| explanation
stringlengths 1
4.18k
| label
stringclasses 5
values | subjects
stringlengths 0
223
| main_text
stringlengths 18
41.7k
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
35250
|
People started to ignore social distancing rules during the 1918 pandemic, leading to a second wave of infections that killed more people than all of World War I.
|
What's true: More people died during the 1918 flu pandemic than in all of WWI, with the majority of deaths occurring during the deadly second wave of the influenza outbreak. In general, places that disregarded social distancing rules saw more influenza cases. What's false: The second wave of the influenza outbreak started before the end of WWI and was largely fueled by sickened soldiers traveling home to hospitals.
|
mixture
|
History, COVID-19
|
In mid-April 2020, as some U.S. cities saw crowds of people protesting against shelter-in place or stay-home orders implemented to slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, a meme started circulating that claimed the majority of deaths during the 1918-19 pandemic occurred after people started to ignore social distancing guidelines: There is a lot of truth in the above-displayed meme, for instance: However, the timeline presented in this meme is inaccurate and, contrary to what the text implies, the second wave of this pandemic was not fueled mainly by a lack of social distancing. The 1918 pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer “Spanish flu,” left at least 50 million people dead around the world, including 675,000 in the United States. Comparatively speaking, about 20 million soldiers and civilians died in WWI. There were three waves of illness during this pandemic, which started in the spring of 1918 and subsided in the summer of 1919, the most deadly of which was the second wave that peaked in the fall of 1918. We haven’t been able to definitively determine the percentage of deaths that occurred during the deadly second wave. We can say, however, that the U.S. saw close to 200,000 deaths from the pandemic in October 1918 alone. The U.S. lost approximately 115,000 soldiers during all of WWI. While the majority of deaths did occur during the second wave, these deaths can’t be solely attributed to a lack of social distancing after the war. In fact, a timeline of the 1918 pandemic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that the second wave started in September 1918, approximately two months before Germany officially surrendered on Nov. 11, ending WWI. History.com notes that the second wave of the 1918 pandemic was largely fueled by sickened soldiers who traveled to countries across Europe, the U.S., and Africa: While the global pandemic lasted for two years, the vast majority of deaths were packed into three especially cruel months in the fall of 1918. Historians now believe that the fatal severity of the Spanish flu’s “second wave” was caused by a mutated virus spread by wartime troop movements … In late August 1918, military ships departed the English port city of Plymouth carrying troops unknowingly infected with this new, far deadlier strain of Spanish flu. As these ships arrived in cities like Brest in France, Boston in the United States and Freetown in west Africa, the second wave of the global pandemic began. “The rapid movement of soldiers around the globe was a major spreader of the disease,” says James Harris, a historian at Ohio State University who studies both infectious disease and World War I. “The entire military industrial complex of moving lots of men and material in crowded conditions was certainly a huge contributing factor in the ways the pandemic spread.” While military parades and a lack of social distancing at the end of the war did not cause the second wave of the 1918 pandemic, they did exacerbate the problem. Much like today, many cities in the U.S. closed schools, businesses, and other public spaces during the 1918 pandemic. (You can read some old news clippings urging social distancing here.) These actions were largely successful in slowing the spread of the disease, as noted in a recent study from the Journal of the American Society of Cytopathology:
|
4023
|
Officials: Teen at dance competition in Arizona had measles.
|
Public health officials say a teenager competing in the World Hip Hop Championship in Phoenix has measles and may have exposed others at the dance competition.
|
true
|
Arizona, Phoenix, Dance, Measles, General News, Health, Public health, United States
|
The Maricopa County Public Health Department said Friday the teen was infectious with measles from Aug. 9 to Aug. 11 at the Arizona Grand Resort, where the competition was held. She also traveled through Terminal 2 at Sky Harbor Airport on the evening of Aug. 11. The terminal is used by United, Alaska, Spirit and a handful of small commuter airlines. Health department spokeswoman Sonia Singh says the girl lives outside the United States but she can’t say where to maintain confidentiality. Health officials say anyone potentially exposed to measles should watch for symptoms such as a fever or unexplained rash until Sept. 2.
|
1677
|
Largest U.S. needle exchange tries free meth pipes in Seattle.
|
Occasional crystal meth smoker Richard Russell ambles up to a church storage garage in a Seattle alley and a recovering drug addict hands him two brand new meth pipes, no questions asked.
|
true
|
Health News
|
One of about two dozen methamphetamine users who received free bubble-ended pipes on a recent afternoon, Russell is a participant in a pioneering but illegal program launched in March that aims to indirectly curb infectious diseases. “Dude’s got something to smoke but he doesn’t have a pipe, what’s he going to do?” Russell said later as he munched on a sandwich. “Panhandle, steal. Inject.” The theory behind the handout program is that giving meth pipes to drug users may steer some away from needles, which are far riskier than smoking, especially if the user is sharing with another person infected with HIV or hepatitis C. There is little scientific evidence to support that claim, but The People’s Harm Reduction Alliance, a privately funded needle-swap group run by drug users, said it has distributed more than 1,000 pipes in Seattle in a matter of weeks and could expand to other cities in Washington state and Oregon. Its program also draws addicts from society’s fringes into its compassionate fold, with links to treatment and housing services, Executive Director Shilo Murphy said. Even though needle exchanges have faced continued opposition in many parts of the United States since the first legal one opened in Tacoma, Washington in 1988, the programs have been credited with reducing HIV infections and saving lives. But opponents say giving away meth pipes discourages quitting while wasting resources on an untested scheme that will not solve a city-wide health problem. They note that among methamphetamine-using gay men, HIV is transmitted primarily through unprotected sex, not syringe- or pipe-sharing. There are no studies to show meth users will resort to injections if pipes are unavailable, or that handing out pipes prevents needle use, said Matthew Golden, a Seattle and King County Disease Control Officer and a University of Washington professor of medicine. It is also hard to quantify how much the campaign might prevent death or infection, if at all, even if it does give meth users safer options than a needle or smoking out of a jerry-rigged light bulb, Golden said. “It is plausible the intervention could be effective,” Golden said. “It’s simply an unstudied idea.” But the Alliance, which says it is the nation’s largest needle-exchange program by syringes dispersed, has pushed legal boundaries for years with user-conceived experiments unacceptable to its taxpayer-funded counterparts, Murphy said. It faced public outcry five years ago with a similarly illegal campaign to hand out crack pipes with extension tubes to prevent the hot glass from blistering addicts’ lips, on the theory that disease could spread between pipe-sharers through open wounds, Murphy said. A similar program began in San Francisco last year. The Alliance launched its meth pipe program after learning from its own survey that 80 percent of area meth users would be less likely to inject drugs if given access to pipes. On a recent afternoon in an alley near the leafy University of Washington campus, dozens of drug users ambled up to a makeshift table to dump fistfuls of dirty syringes into biohazard bins and retrieve fresh boxes of needles, as well as meth pipes. Addicts, among them a transient man with a military-style backpack and two glassy-eyed college-age youths, also helped themselves to supplies like cookers, pushers and latex ties, as well as condoms and health pamphlets. “We don’t see this as controversial. We see this as what’s needed in our community,” Murphy said. Giving out meth or crack pipes is illegal under state law, but the Seattle Police Department said it has taken no action to actively monitor or shutter the program. Anti-drug groups say needle exchanges make hard drug use appear acceptable and bring crime to communities, among other concerns. Phillip Wilson, 56, said the pipe programs were harming the community, adding that he planned to re-sell the glassware he got on the street for about $10. “Come on man, giving that shit away to people who are trying to quit? I just can’t understand it,” he said.
|
5830
|
Increased number of STDs in Hawaii linked to online dating.
|
An increase in sexually transmitted diseases in Hawaii to the highest numbers reported in decades can be linked to the prevalence of online dating, officials said.
|
true
|
Sexually transmitted diseases, U.S. News, Chlamydia, Health, General News, Online dating, Hawaii, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Dating, Honolulu
|
Cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis have increased significantly in the state, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Sunday. All three infections were at or near their highest rates in about 30 years, according to the state Department of Health’s Harm Reduction Services Branch. Hawaii health officials recorded 7,732 cases of chlamydia in 2018, up from 5,972 cases in 2008. Gonorrhea more than doubled over the past 10 years from 611 to 1,496 cases. Syphilis infections increased to 180 cases from 38 a decade ago, officials said. More connections with many more people are made rapidly through online dating services, officials said. “As people rely on digital means of making connections, it can lead to circumstances where they might be more exposed to infection without them knowing it,” said Gerald Hasty, program coordinator for the state harm reduction branch. “More partners, more chances to get infections.” There has also been decreasing reliance on condoms or prophylactics for protection against acquiring or spreading STDs, officials said. The Hawaii figures correspond with the national rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis infections, which have risen for the fifth year in a row, officials said. The increase is “not desirable, but it’s also not unexpected.” The three infections do not cause distinct or troubling early symptoms so those who are infected have “absolutely no idea of it,” Hasty said. “That sets the stage for the infections to be spread,” Hasty said. “Lack of regular screenings or routine screenings contributes to increasing rates.” ___ Information from: Honolulu Star-Advertiser, http://www.staradvertiser.com
|
9121
|
Fasting blood sugar and fasting insulin identified as new biomarkers for weight loss
|
Findings from a trio of clinical trials suggest that fasting blood sugar and fasting insulin levels — two types of “biomarkers” — can be used to customize weight loss diets for people with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes, according to a news release from the University of Copenhagen. The release doesn’t say how effective the biomarkers, which like surrogate markers are representative stand-ins for actual health outcomes, were in predicting and bringing about weight loss. (Read our explainer on the downsides of surrogate markers here.) The release would have been greatly improved had it included some numbers available from the published report which explained the benefits, provided some cost considerations for this type of personalized treatment, and included information on study funders and potential conflicts of interest. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A tailored program to help people with diabetes reach weight loss goals more efficiently could be helpful.
|
false
|
biomarkers,Faculty of Science - University of Copenhagen,weight loss
|
The release gives no indication of how expensive it would be for the average person to use these markers for customizing their weight loss program. There is no mention of how much the testing would cost, (and of importance to US audiences, whether insurance would cover the expense), how often patients would need to be tested in order to ensure efficient weight loss, and what fees would be charged by doctors and dietitians to interpret the results and guide the weight loss effort. Since the main claim being made is the value of using biomarkers to personalize a weight loss plan the release should have included some basic facts about how much weight study volunteers lost by following a personalized eating plan. How did their weight loss compare to others not on the personalized plan? The release included some specifics about the meal plans studied. “The findings suggest that for most people with prediabetes, a diet rich with vegetables fruits and whole grains should be recommended for weight loss and could potentially improve diabetes markers. For people with type 2 diabetes, the analysis found that a diet rich in healthy fats from plant sources would be effective for achieving weight loss. These diets could also be effective independent of caloric restriction.” We’d like to see some numbers attached to these claims. It seems unlikely that personalizing a weight loss plan could cause significant harm. The most tangible downside is likely to be time and money wasted on a plan that might not be more effective than standard dietary advice. Still, a small risk of complications resulting from repeated blood draws or finger sticks is possible since glucose and insulin concentrations are measured from blood samples. The release tells readers these findings are from three randomized clinical trials, and that the combined sample included more than 1,200 people. It doesn’t give any details, however, about what treatment the control groups received, how long the clinical trials lasted, or any demographic description of participants. There is also no mention of the fact that these three clinical trials were conducted using very different methods with different interventions, which should warrant caution when lumping all study participants into one big group. All of this information is provided in the published study and it’s unfortunate the release did not likewise include some of these facts to help readers assess the value of biomarkers in diet planning. No disease mongering is evident in this release. The release does not state the funder of the research. A deeper dive into the full-text publication of the research revealed that the study was funded by Gelesis Inc., a biotechnology company working to develop therapies to induce weight loss and improve glycemic control in overweight and obese patients. The release notes that the researchers are looking at other types of biomarkers, including gut microbiota, and at “genomics approaches” that might aid in creating personalized diet plans. The two biomarkers are said to be a simple alternative to other means of customizing dietary plans for persons with pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes. How do you know what kind of diet you’re supposed to eat based on your biomarker profile? Presumably you’re prescribed a diet and told what to eat. But if you’re a consumer, how do you know what that diet is? In other words, how do you benefit from this? Is someone selling personalized nutrition recommendations based on these biomarkers? The idea that vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and healthy fats should be recommended for weight loss is hardly new. And yet the release frames these results as “potentially [leading] to a breakthrough in personalized nutrition.” We’d need more proof of tangible benefits before agreeing with that characterization. Calling the findings a “breakthrough in personalized nutrition” seems unjustified given we’re provided no results.
|
9699
|
C-Sections Are Best With a Little Labor, a Study Says
|
In this story, we hear about a long-term comparison of three kinds of birth in Scotland: planned C-section, unplanned C-section and vaginal delivery. This enormous observational study included more than 320,000 children, and followed their health for many years. There was a slight increase in risk of Type 1 diabetes between the scheduled and unscheduled C-sections, which the story uses as a window for interviews with experts about speculation on how vaginal birth benefits babies. But the story misses key points about baseline differences in the women giving birth in three ways, which may have impacted the findings. Additionally, the story only discusses the increased risk (from the hazard ratios given) in relative percent increase, not absolute increase. This results in a misleading description of the findings and the size of the risk. Moreover, the study itself carefully warns that the results don’t prove any causation between the style of birth and the risk. Some readers of the story may mistakenly believe that the limited results prove causation. As the story points out, almost one-third of babies born in the United States are born by C-section. This rate is higher than many other countries. Some of those deliveries are determined by medical conditions that require a C-section, and some are more related to the preference of physicians or patients. Women who may be offered an elective c-section may want to participate in the decision more actively and learn more about the benefits and risks, including those raised by this study.
|
true
|
birth,c-section,labor,obesity,public health
|
The article does not include any discussion of costs. We believe that information could have added a further dimension to the topic. Cesarean delivery is estimated to cost 50% more than vaginal delivery, in an analysis from 2013 of US births. [http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/803426_2] At a time when health-care costs are important drivers of policy, this is not a small factor. Health insurers, including the government’s Medicaid program, could adjust policies to discourage elective C-sections. The story could have added this dimension to the discussion of impact. Unwarranted variation in procedures of any kind that carry risk and may not always improve care should raise questions. The article doesn’t go far enough in explaining the difference in risk between the planned and unplanned C-sections, and the vaginal deliveries. The story presented only the relative increased risk of 35% (from a hazard ratio of 1.35) in type 1 diabetes, despite the fact that the absolute risk was 0.22 (less than 1/4 of 1 percent!). This is a VERY modest increase and was only statistically significant because of the huge sample size. Readers need this kind of context to be able to interpret the findings. The story is a comparison of harms and it did a reasonable job of describing relatively slight differences between the study groups: planned C-sections, unplanned C-sections and vaginal deliveries. The headline overstates what the story describes carefully. In the excerpt below, italics by editor. “Over all, the differences between a scheduled C-section and an emergency C-section were slight. However, the data do begin to shed light on why babies born through vaginal birth may have fewer health risks than babies born by C-section. The biggest difference between babies born by scheduled and unscheduled C-section appeared in risk for Type 1 diabetes. The results showed that babies born by planned C-section had a 35 percent higher risk of Type 1 diabetes compared with babies born by emergency C-section, after adjusting for differences among the mothers.” As noted above, the risk sounds much higher when given in relative terms, but since we’ve already docked points for that concern above,we’ll award a Satisfactory rating here. The story explains that the study was observational and of more than 250,000 Scottish births to first-time mothers. A key part of the study’s importance is the long-term follow up of 15 years on the children. We would have liked the story to emphasize that the study does not prove causation between the style of delivery and the subsequent health risks, it only shows a correlation. In addition, the story did not explain that in this observational study, there were substantial baseline differences in the women who had the different types of births. For example the women who had scheduled c-sections were older, more obese, and had higher rates of type I diabetes themselves. Although multivariable regression adjusts for baseline factors, there is strong possibility of residual confounding (meaning that differences among the moms may be responsible for the outcomes observed even after statistical adjustment). This is particularly true for the outcome of diabetes in the children. There was no disease mongering. Several independent experts were quoted. The story did a careful job of comparing the different delivery methods. There could have been perhaps a little exploration about recovery time and adverse events in the moms who have c-section. All three of the birth methods described are widely available. As the story points out, the existence of additional health risks for babies born by C-section are already well known. That is not a novel finding. What was new was the comparison between planned and unplanned C-sections. The story did not rely on a news release. There is evidence of independent reporting.
|
41733
|
"The Iran nuclear deal ""pushed back a nuclear breakout 10, 20 years."
|
We found some factual distortions in the first debate round of the two-night affair.
|
mixture
|
Guns, Iran nuclear deal, LGBT, medicare, opioids, real wages,
|
The debate season for the 2020 presidential election kicked off with 10 Democratic candidates taking the stage in Miami and exaggerating or garbling the facts on Iran, wages, Medicare, the opioid crisis and guns.The first debate was hosted by NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo on June 26, with another 10 candidates set to debate the following night.Moderator Lester Holt asked all 10 candidates if they would, as president, “sign on to the 2015 nuclear deal as it was originally negotiated.” Only Sen. Cory Booker said no.Booker said he would renegotiate the agreement, but he criticized President Donald Trump for announcing on May 8, 2018, that the U.S. would withdraw from the agreement.In criticizing Trump, Booker garbled the facts about the impact of the agreement on the “breakout time,” which is how long it would take Iran to produce enough highly enriched uranium for one nuclear weapon.Booker: Literally, he took us out of a deal that gave us transparency into their nuclear program and pushed back a nuclear breakout 10, 20 years.The Iran agreement pushed the breakout time from roughly two or three months to one year for at least 10 years, according to the Obama White House.In years 11 to 15 of the agreement, the breakout time would be reduced to less than one year because Iran would be “permitted to replace its first-generation centrifuges with limited numbers of advanced models, although the restrictions on enriched uranium stocks and enrichment level continue through year 15,” as explained in an August 2015 report issued by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University a month after the U.S. and other nations announced the agreement.The point of extending the breakout period is to give the international community enough time to react — if Iran moves ahead with production of a nuclear weapon.“Some contributors to this report believe that breakout time by year 15 could be comparable to what it is today — a few months — while others believe it could be reduced to a few weeks,” the Harvard report said. “In any event, Iran is unlikely to attempt breakout at Natanz during this period because detection would be swift and the risk of provoking a military attack would be high. Since all enrichment will be limited to Natanz for 15 years under the JCPOA, Iran’s nuclear program would be vulnerable to military attack.”“After 15 years, all physical constraints on enrichment imposed by the agreement will be lifted,” the Harvard report said.Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio falsely said: “The bottom 60 percent haven’t seen a raise since 1980.” Analyses of Census data by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service and the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that advocates for low- and middle-income workers, show there has been a rise in inflation-adjusted wages over that time period, even if the percentage increase was relatively small, especially compared with the 90th percentile of workers.Ryan, however, didn’t comment on the magnitude of the wage increase. He said there hasn’t been an increase at all.In a 2019 report, EPI showed that every percentile had seen a cumulative percentage increase in real (inflation-adjusted) hourly wages from 1979 to 2018, with considerably higher increases for high-income earners. The 50th percentile experienced a 14% increase, and the 70th percentile saw a 17.1% increase. The 10th percentile saw just a 4.1% increase, while the 95th percentile saw its wages grow by 56.1%. (See Appendix Figure B.) “Rising wage inequality and sluggish hourly wage growth for the vast majority of workers have been defining features of the American labor market for nearly four decades, despite steady productivity growth,” the report began. It continued: “What also stands out in this last year of data is that, while wages are growing for most workers, wage growth continues to be slower than would be expected in an economy with relatively low unemployment.”Another EPI report (see Figure A) shows the real wage change for the 60th percentile from 2000 to 2018 (4.9 percent) and from 2007 to 2018 (2.1 percent). The upper-percentiles did considerably better. “Because of the recent uptick in wages for the 20th through 40th percentiles over the last year on top of steady increases over the last few years at the 10th percentile, wage growth is in the rough shape of a checkmark with stronger growth at the bottom attributed to several consecutive years of state-level minimum wage increases and a growing economy, while the fastest growth at and near the top is a continuation of the trends in growing inequality since the 1970s,” EPI wrote in a report that noted “a steadily improving economy should eventually translate into stronger wage growth.”The Congressional Research Service used the same Census dataset to analyze the wage trends from 1979 to 2017. The report found that the 50th percentile experienced a cumulative 6.1% growth over that time period, with men in that percentile actually seeing a decrease of 6% while women saw a 25.5% increase. “In summary, analysis of the data shows that overall wages rose in real terms over the 1979 to 2017 period at the top of the wage distribution, increased slightly at the middle of the wage distribution, and rose to an even lesser degree at the bottom of the distribution.”We reached out to Ryan’s campaign to ask for the source of his claim, but we did not receive a response.Booker used a common but disputed comparison to justify his support for “Medicare for All.”Booker: There are too many people profiteering off of the pain of people in America, from pharmaceutical companies to insurers. Literally, the overhead for insurance that they charge is 15 percent, while Medicare’s overhead is only at 2 percent.It’s true that the most recent Trustees Report of the Medicare system puts total “administrative expenses” at $9.9 billion last year. That’s actually 1.3 percent of total Medicare expenditures for the year — even less than the 2 percent figure Booker cited. So far, so good.But is Medicare really as economically efficient as that small number suggests? Hardly. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (a nonpartisan arm of Congress) estimates that in fiscal year 2017 Medicare made $52 billion in “improper payments,” including those that were fraudulent or erroneous. Spending more on administration might cut losses from waste and fraud.It’s also true that the health insurance industry says that in 2014 through 2016 an average of 18.2 cents of every private premium dollar went for things other than doctors, hospitals and other health-care services. But by no means can all of that be called “overhead.” An average of 4.7 cents went for federal, state and local taxes, for example.Most of the remaining 13.5 cents clearly falls under the heading of “overhead,” including 3.3 cents for “fees and business expenses”; 2.3 cents for “profit”; 1.8 cents for “customer engagement”; 1.6 cents for “finance, claims and special investigations; 0.7 cent for “administrative.”But the 13.5 cents also includes 1.6 cents for “care management,” a category that includes health coaching and wellness programs aimed at improving customer health and thus reducing claims. If those expenses are considered to be benefits, then the “overhead” total shrinks to 11.9 cents.And there’s another problem with Booker’s comparison: Medicare beneficiaries are all age 65 or over, or disabled, and on average have much larger medical bills than the mostly under-65 population served by private health insurance. A 2006 study estimated that in 2003, the average medical cost for Medicare was $6,600 per person per year while the average medical cost for private health insurance (excluding out-of-pocket costs) was less than half that — $2,700 per person per year.So $1 spent on overhead for Medicare automatically becomes a smaller percentage of total spending than does $1 spent on overhead for private insurance. And that also means that if Medicare were extended to “all” the percentage spent on overhead would rise.Our conclusion: Booker and others using this and similar claims have a point — Medicare does spend less on administration than private insurers. But it’s not so simple as they would have you believe.In discussing the nation’s opioid crisis, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke offered a misleading take on a pharmaceutical company linked to the epidemic.“Despite what Purdue Pharma has done — their connection to the opioid crisis and the overdose deaths that we’re seeing throughout this country — they’ve been able to act with complete impunity and pay no consequences,” he said. “Not a single night in jail.”It’s accurate that no one from the company, the manufacturer of the addictive painkiller Oxycontin, spent time in jail. But it’s inaccurate to say “they’ve been able to act with complete impunity and pay no consequences.”In 2007, the company and three executives pleaded guilty in federal court to charges relating to “misbranding” OxyContin. Collectively, they agreed to pay more than $634 million in fines and other payments — what was described by the New York Times as “one of the largest amounts ever paid by a drug company in such a case.”States also have recently taken action against the company: In March, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office reached a $270 million settlement with Purdue after alleging the company and others were to blame for the state’s opioid epidemic.Booker cited studies that showed that when Connecticut enacted a permit-to-purchase gun law, “they saw 40 percent drops in gun violence and 15 percent drops in suicides.” Two studies did find an association with such drops in gun violence and suicides, but they stopped short of claiming the decline was caused by that law in Connecticut. And there’s also some evidence states with similar laws have seen less dramatic results.Booker: If you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to buy and own a firearm. And not everybody in this field agrees with that. But in states like Connecticut that did that, they saw 40 percent drops in gun violence and 15 percent drops in suicides. We need to start having bold agendas on guns.Currently, 10 states have enacted permit-to-purchase laws that require gun purchasers to obtain a permit or license, and three states require a license to own firearms, according to the Giffords Law Center.Booker’s claims about the effect of the permit-to-purchase law passed in Connecticut in 1995 come from two studies. The first, published in the American Journal of Public Health in 2015 concluded that “the law was associated with a 40% reduction in Connecticut’s firearm homicide rates during the first 10 years that the law was in place.” The second, published in Preventive Medicine in 2015, found a 15.4% reduction in suicide rates associated with Connecticut’s law (and a rise in suicide rates in Missouri after it repealed its permit-to-purchase law).So Booker’s statement is accurate. But both studies cited an association, and stopped short of concluding that the decline was caused by those laws.In addition, researchers caution not to put too much stock in the results in any one state or city, as it is notoriously difficult to tease out the effects of various gun policies in states that often have a combination of policies. Results are further complicated because some states with strong gun policies are bordered by states that may or may not have similar policies. In other words, results in Connecticut may not be representative of how the law might affect gun crimes in other areas.Another study, one that looked at licensing laws in large, urban counties around the U.S., found that permit-to-purchase laws “were associated with a 14% reduction in firearm homicide.” And a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine in March found that universal background checks — either at the point of purchase or through a license/permit application — were associated with about a 15 percent reduction in homicide.In the course of demonstrating his support for the LGBT community, Booker said, “We don’t talk enough about how many children, about 30 percent of LGBTQ kids, who do not go to school because of fear.”There’s a valid source for the statistic, but it could use some context. We asked Booker’s campaign for a source for the number and were directed to an NBC News story about the 2017 GLSEN National School Climate Survey, which found that 35% of LGBTQ students missed one day of school or more in the prior month because of feeling unsafe at school.GLSEN is a national advocacy group for LGBTQ rights in schools, and every other year releases a survey given to students identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer or questioning in American schools. The 2017 survey included 23,001 students from across the country between the ages of 13 and 21.The 35% of students who missed school at least one day in the past month “because of feeling unsafe” included 10.3% of students who said they missed one day, 14.1% who missed two or three days, 4% who missed four or five days and 6.5% who missed six or more days.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has similar data that suggest the number could be lower, although the survey populations differ. In the agency’s first nationally representative study of the health risks of LGB high school students, which was released in 2016 based on a 2015 survey, the CDC found that more than 1 in 10 LGB students missed at least one day of school in the past 30 days “due to safety concerns.” The survey did not ask about transgender identity, so it lacks that information.More specifically, the CDC survey found that 12.5% of LGB students missed one day of school or more because they felt they would be unsafe at school or on their way to or from school, compared with 5.6% of all students, 4.6% of heterosexual students and 10.8% of students who weren’t sure.Fact Sheet. “President Donald J. Trump is Ending United States Participation in an Unacceptable Iran Deal.” White House. 8 May 2018.Fact Sheet. “The Iran Nuclear Deal: What You Need To Know About The JCPOA.” White House. Undated. Accessed 27 June 2019.“The Iran Nuclear Deal: A Definitive Guide.” Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. Aug 2015.Press release. “The Iran Deal.” White House. 14 Jul 2015.Gould, Elise. “State of Working America Wages 2018.” Economic Policy Institute. 20 Feb 2019.Gould, Elise and Heidi Shierholz. “Average wage growth continues to flatline in 2018, while low-wage workers and those with relatively lower levels of educational attainment see stronger gains.” Economic Policy Institute. 18 Jul 2018.Donovan, Sarah A. and David H. Bradley. “Real Wage Trends, 1979 to 2017.” Congressional Research Service. 15 Mar 2018.Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “Licensing.” Accessed 27 Jun 2019.Rudolph, Kara E., et. al. “Association Between Connecticut’s Permit-to-Purchase Handgun Law and Homicides.” American Journal of Public Health 105, no. 8: pp. e49-e54. 1 Aug 2015.Crifasi, Cassandra K. et. al. “Effects of changes in permit-to-purchase handgun laws in Connecticut and Missouri on suicide rates.” Preventive Medicine. Volume 79, Pages 43-49. Oct 2015.Farley, Robert. “O’Rourke Wrong on Gun Control Stat.” FactCheck.org. 10 May 2019.Crifasi, Cassandra K. et. al. “Association between Firearm Laws and Homicide in Urban Counties.” J Urban Health. 2018 Jun; 95(3): 383–390. 21 May 2018.Siegel, M., Pahn, M., Xuan, Z. et al. “The Impact of State Firearm Laws on Homicide and Suicide Deaths in the USA, 1991–2016: a Panel Study.” Journal of General Internal Medicine. 28 Mar 2019.Kosciw, Joseph G. et. al. The 2017 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth in our nation’s schools. GLSEN, 2018.Kann, Laura et. al. Sexual Identity, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health-Related Behaviors Among Students in Grades 9–12 — United States and Selected Sites, 2015. MMWR Surveillance Summaries 65(No. SS-9), 2016. Singh, Sabrina. National Press Secretary for Cory Booker. E-mail sent to FactCheck.org. 26 Jun 2019.“The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc. and Top Executives Plead Guilty to Misbranding Oxycontin; Will Pay Over $600 Million.” Press release, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Virginia. 10 May 2007.“Attorney General Hunter Announces Historic $270 Million Settlement with Purdue Pharma, $200 Million to Establish Endowment for OSU Center for Wellness.” Press release, Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office. 26 Mar 2019.Strickler, Laura. “Five more states sue OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma for opioid epidemic.” NBC News. 16 May 2019.U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “2019 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds.” 22 Apr 2019.U.S. Government Accountability Office. “Medicare: Actions Needed to Better Manage Fraud Risks.” 17 Jul 2018.America’s Health Insurance Plans. “Where Does Your Health Care Dollar Go? : undated infographic. Accessed 26 Jun 2019.Litow, Mark. “Medicare versus Private Health Insurance: The Cost of Administration.” Health Watch Newsletter, Society of Actuaries. May 2006.
|
8616
|
Indonesia announces biggest daily rise in coronavirus cases, 24 doctors now dead.
|
Indonesia announced its biggest daily increase in novel coronavirus cases on Monday and a medical association said 24 doctors had now died after contracting the virus.
|
true
|
Health News
|
The rise in the death toll among doctors, which has doubled since last week, followed criticism of a lack of protective equipment in Indonesia. The 218 new coronavirus cases took the number overall in Indonesia to 2,491. The 209 confirmed deaths among people who have contracted the virus is the highest number of fatalities in Asia outside China. “The trend of (doctors dying) is heading for the sky,” said Halik Malik, a spokesman for the Indonesian Doctors Association which confirmed the doctors’ deaths from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. “The risk of medical workers getting infected is always there... but the point is medical workers need to be protected in any way,” said Malik. A number of rights groups, including Amnesty International, have expressed concern at the high proportion of deaths among medical workers. “The death of medical workers is not just a number, but an alarm for the country to fix their health system in an emergency situation,” a coalition of the groups said in a statement on Saturday. Health experts have pointed to the high percentage of deaths among the number of confirmed cases as a sign the outbreak is much larger than official data suggests in the world’s fourth most-populous nation. Indonesia’s own intelligence agency last week revealed that it expected coronavirus cases to peak in the next three months, surpassing 100,000 cases by July. President Joko Widodo told a cabinet meeting on Monday that personal protective equipment (PPE) had been distributed across Indonesia, though he said regional officials must monitor the arrival of the equipment in hospitals. Indonesian healthcare workers have at time faced a lack of protective gear, with some doctors forced to wear raincoats and bring their own masks to protect themselves from the virus. A deficit in hospital beds, medical staff and intensive care facilities has raised concern the coronavirus crisis could push Indonesia’s health system to the brink. At least 10 Indonesian provinces, including the eastern provinces of Maluku and Papua, lack COVID-19 facilities, Doni Monardo, the head of Indonesia’s coronavirus taskforce, told parliament on Monday. In recent weeks, Indonesia has converted a former Vietnam war era refugee camp on an uninhabited island off Sumatra, and a former athletes’ village into coronavirus treatment facilities.
|
35690
|
Clark Gable killed a pedestrian while driving drunk, but MGM covered up the accident and sent another man to jail in his place.
|
Gable was out for another month before finally returning to the studio in September; meanwhile, the producer considered replacing him, production on Dancing Lady was shut down, the film ran $150,000 over budget, and Mayer docked Gable over two months’ pay. (Actors under studio contract were not paid per film; they were paid weekly salaries, whether they were currently working on films or not. Illness was considered a poor excuse for missing work when it delayed production and incurred additional expenses for the studio, so contract actors were often penalized for taking sick days.)
|
false
|
Entertainment
|
We rarely offer our audience a glimpse behind the scenes into how we go about researching a rumor. It’s usually a boring process most of our readers wouldn’t find at all interesting, primarily because the most time-consuming part of investigating the origins and truth (or falsity) of rumors is often not the legwork of performing research and tracking down background material, but all the time required to collate the research results, organize the information, and write it up as a coherent narrative for others to read. But one item provided an example in which the research itself was every bit as much the story as the rumor, so for a change we thought we’d skimp a little on the “organization” and “coherent narrative” part and take the reader along on a trip through the process: When a drunken Gable hit and killed a pedestrian near Hollywood Boulevard, [MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer] sent Gable into hiding and then conspired with the local D.A. to have a minor executive take the rap in return for staying on the payroll for life at a higher salary. A pliant press hushed the story. When we’re investigating a rumor about a person who is both well-known and long dead, the first place we usually turn is the most recently published biography about that person (on the assumption that the biographer had access to the most up-to-date, and therefore most accurate, information). In this case the most recent Clark Gable biography was 2002’s Clark Gable by Warren G. Harris (also the author of the 1974 dual biography Gable and Lombard), and there we found that Mr. Harris had indeed addressed this rumor: In March [1945] Gable’s heavy drinking finally caught up with him. While driving home from a party celebrating the American victory on Iwo Jima, he lost control of the car as he passed through the Bristol Circle, a dense tree-filled traffic island on Sunset Boulevard in residential Brentwood in West Los Angeles. It being around four o’clock in the morning, there may have been no eyewitnesses to what actually happened. But MGM publicists and security chief Whitey Hendry got to the accident scene before it was reported to the police or press. [MGM publicist] Howard Strickling later claimed that Gable crashed into a tree on the front lawn of Harry Friedman, a talent agent for MCA. According to Strickling, Friedman knew enough about the industry’s penchant for secrecy to phone MGM instead of the cops. “It wouldn’t have been good if a photographer arrived and snapped Clark Gable lying on the lawn covered with blood and his car all cracked up,” Strickling said. After a studio doctor arrived to patch up Gable, he was taken to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, and the wrecked car was quickly towed away. At the hospital Gable required ten stitches for head and shoulder wounds and was detained for “observation.” He was in a drunken stupor and kept threatening to walk out, so all his clothes were taken away to lessen the chances. He spent the next three days in isolation, being thoroughly dried out. The press had so many informants at Cedars of Lebanon that Gable’s presence became known within minutes. Amusingly, the story handed out by MGM was that Gable’s car had been sideswiped by a drunken driver who immediately sped away! Nobody believed it, but it got printed and also started rumors of what really happened. One of the more extreme had Gable killing a pedestrian and MGM persuading one of its minor executives to take the rap for him! After “confessing” that he had really been driving the car and Gable was only a passenger, the exec supposedly served a year in jail for manslaughter, after which MGM rehired him with a whopping pay increase and pension plan. According to this account, Gable was once involved in an automobile accident while drunk, but he hit a tree (not a pedestrian or another car), and he injured no one but himself. And while MGM did feed reporters a story about Gable’s having been forced off the road by another driver in order to head off unflattering publicity about his drunkenness, there was no pedestrian whose death needed to be “hushed” by a “pliant press.” We wouldn’t want to dismiss this rumor based on a single source, however, especially since in this case the referenced biography provided no footnotes or endnotes to indicate the source of the author’s information. (Biographers often simply pick up and repeat anecdotes from earlier biographies and other printed sources without independently verifying their validity.) Remembering that we had come across this rumor in a recent book about “strange myths and curious legends” associated with Los Angeles, Paul Young’s L.A. Exposed, we flipped through the volume to see what it had to say: Not surprisingly, there has never been a credible validation of Gable’s hit-and-run story. The only recorded episode in Gable’s life that bears any resemblance occurred on June 20, 1933 when he drunkenly ran his Duesenberg into a tree. According to the Los Angeles Examiner, he was on his way to visit Strickling when he misjudged the driveway and piled right into a large eucalyptus. According to the Examiner, Strickling rushed Gable to Cedars-Sinai and told reporters that he had swerved to avoid a drunk driver traveling in the opposite direction, apparently to hide Gable’s own intoxication. And just to make sure that the public felt sorry for him, Strickling forced him to stay in the hospital for an entire week. Gable’s mysterious hospital stay in 1933 seems to be the real basis of the rumor. Yet, even that is of questionable origin. In fact, it’s likely that Strickling made up the story about crashing into a tree to hide something else, something slightly more embarrassing. According to his biographer, Lyn Tornabene, the real reason for Gable’s secretive hospital stay was to get cosmetic surgery on his famously large ears and tobacco-stained teeth, and he didn’t want anyone to know about it, including his studio bosses. Now we were confronted with a legend-within-a-legend: According to this version, the rumor of Gable’s automotive mishap dated from 1933 (twelve years earlier than the previous account), and the real story involved no dead pedestrian or even an automobile accident — rather, the entire “car crash” tale was fabricated by Gable and a studio publicist as a cover story for a prolonged hospital stay during which Gable underwent cosmetic surgery on his ears and teeth! Right away, a few problems with this account jumped out at us: Improbable as his information might be, Mr. Young at least mentioned his source: “biographer Lyn Tornabene.” A check on the author’s name revealed that Ms. Tornabene was the author of the 1976 Clark Gable biography Long Live the King, so we turned to that work to see if it could help us sort out the details of this rumor. Confusingly, what we found was that nothing in Long Live the King corroborated the story offered in Paul Young’s L.A. Exposed, despite his identification of the former as his source. First off, Ms. Tornabene’s take on the genesis of this rumor differed little in detail (and was probably the source of) the version we found in the first biography we consulted: Clark’s heroic consumption of alcohol ceased to be a laughing matter when he wrapped himself around a tree in the middle of the night in March [1945], too drunk to find the Wilshire Boulevard cut-off from a traffic circle. Fortunately for his image, the tree he ran into was on the lawn of agent Harry Friedman, who knew the business well enough to call Howard Strickling rather than the police or an ambulance. It was four or five in the morning, as Howard recalls, and Friedman said to him, “Howard, geez, your friend is bleeding; what shall I do?” Howard told him he was too far [away] to come quickly, so he would send [MGM publicist] Ralph Wheelwright and [MGM security chief] Whitey Hendry. “In the meantime,” he said, “tell Clark to talk to no one And have them get the car out of there as fast as they can.” Howard explains, “It wouldn’t have been particularly good to have some photographers go out and make a picture of Clark Gable lying on the lawn all covered with blood, and his car all cracked up, because they would all say, ‘Who was with him?’ you know. They always said, ‘There was some woman with him and you hid her. '” Wheelwright called a doctor, who called a surgeon; the Stricklings arrived in time to take Clark to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital. There he got ten stitches in his head and shoulder, and was placed under observation. Howard had to take away his clothes to make him stay in the hospital, but within three days he talked [his secretary] Jean Garceau into bringing him a suit, and his doctor into releasing him. Once he was hospitalized, there was no way to keep the press from closing in. The story the reporters were told was that Clark had swerved into the tree to avoid hitting a drunken driver, who did not stop at the accident. The press printed it, but no one believed it. Those who were told what MGM claimed was the true story behind the newspaper story didn’t believe that either. Rumors persist that the true true story was so damaging that MGM issued a fake true story to fog it. “Who was with him?” people still ask. “What were they hiding?” Nowhere in Long Live the King did we find anything about Clark Gable’s involvement in an automobile accident in 1933, or his striking and killing a pedestrian, or his plotting a mysterious week-long hospital stay, or his undergoing cosmetic surgery on his ears and teeth. The book merely mentioned that at some point in his career Gable had his teeth capped, and that there had since been dispute over when the work was performed and who paid for it. (Gable himself said that MGM head Louis B. Mayer paid for it, which contradicts the notion that the dental work was something Gable arranged for himself on the sly.) Likewise, on the subject of Gable’s ears, Long Live the King simply quoted several people who worked with Gable, half of whom maintained that Gable had his “ears fixed” at some unspecified time, and half of whom emphatically denied that Gable ever had anything done to his ears. Working on the charitable assumption that the author of L.A. Exposed didn’t just make up his own version of the Gable rumor but somehow misreferenced his source, we kept looking for additional information to resolve the discrepancies. Since an essential component of “dead pedestrian” rumor is that MGM chief Louis B. Mayer conspired with a Los Angeles district attorney to conceal the truth and send an uninvolved MGM employee to jail in Gable’s place, a book about Mayer seemed a good place to start. Consulting Charles B. Higham’s 1993 work, Merchant of Dreams: Louis B. Mayer, M.G.M. and the Secret Hollywood, we found yet another version of events, one that asserted as fact the claim that Gable did indeed kill a pedestrian while driving drunk and avoided jail only through the machinations of Mayer: Mayer had an impossible Joan Crawford on his hands. On October 21, 1933, she stormed into his office and demanded an increase from $3,500 a week to $4,500 or she would not continue work on the picture Today We Live. He told her, probably in more colorful language to get lost. She did; she disappeared from the shooting on the following Monday and could not be found. Finally, she settled for $4,000 and completed some final shots. Clark Gable was irritated at the publicity surrounding the Mayer-Crawford fight because he was getting only $2,500 a week. He complained that he was suffering from adhesions following the gall bladder operation, and he was annoyed that Mayer was lending him to Columbia Pictures, considered the Siberia of the industry, to make a picture entitled Overland Bus (later [renamed] It Happened One Night). He began to drink heavily, partly because of the fact that Miss Crawford had dumped him in favor of the handsome young Franchot Tone. While driving drunk down to Sunset Boulevard from the Hollywood Hills, he rounded a bend too sharply and struck a pedestrian, killing her instantly. Mayer acted immediately; he laid him off salary for ninety days, canceled a proposed picture, cut his salary in half for all future movies and told him to lie low until it was time to make the Columbia movie. Somebody would have to say they were driving the car, since the press would get onto the fact if the court dockets were burned. The dead woman’s family was howling for blood. Mayer went over the list of his executive staff to find the one he could definitely spare. He selected an executive I will call Mark Pine and summoned him to the office. He told Pine that, whatever happened, the studio must not be damaged or destroyed by the exposure of its leading star to charges of manslaughter; that Pine had an opportunity to save everyone’s neck. Pine would be offered a guarantee of life employment at M.G.M., and an income stretching to death, if he would take the rap for Gable, plead guilty to a manslaughter charge, saying that he was with Gable at the wheel, and, by prearrangement with [Los Angeles district attorney] Buron Fitts, would go to prison for a limited time. He accepted; Gable went to Palm Springs [to begin filming It Happened One Night] and Pine served a twelve-month term. No inkling of the matter ever reached print. Here the lack of detail concerning some key points aroused our suspicion. This account doesn’t tell us anything about when all this activity supposedly occurred (the most the reader can infer from the context is that the events described supposedly took place sometime in 1933), it doesn’t provide any information about the putative accident victim, it doesn’t identify the “proposed picture” that Mayer allegedly canceled because of the incident, and it doesn’t tell us anything about the MGM employee who purportedly took the rap for Gable (other than referring to him by a pseudonym). And the details that were checkable revealed a writer sloppy with the facts: The film Today We Live premiered in March 1933, so Joan Crawford could hardly have been threatening in October 1933 to stop working on a movie she had completed over seven months earlier! (Presumably the author was referring to her next project, the Gable-Crawford film Dancing Lady, which finished shooting in October 1933.) Since the only cited source for this account was an interview with a former studio employee conducted sixty years after the fact, we began to suspect that the author had been taken in by someone who’d simply recounted an age-old rumor to him as a real-life event. (At this point we also had to wonder: if MGM and Mayer, as claimed, wielded enormous clout that they could completely hide the fact that one of their stars killed another person and get the district attorney’s to compliantly assist in the cover-up, couldn’t they have come up with a better resolution than sending an innocent man to prison? Why not simply say that the pedestrian had been struck by a hit-and-run driver who couldn’t be identified?) Clearly, we needed more information to be able to sort out the conflicting accounts. Since we had two versions of the rumor that set Gable’s automobile accident in 1945 and two others that set it in 1933, the first order of business was to determine whether Gable was involved in two different accidents or just one — or any at all — and when they took place. The 1945 incident was easy enough to verify through newspaper archives: Gable’s accident was front-page news in both the Los Angeles Examiner and Los Angeles Times, and it was also mentioned in the New York Times and Variety (a prominent entertainment industry trade publication). The Los Angeles Times‘ account, from Sunday, 26 March 1945, read as follows: CLARK GABLE INJURED IN FREAK AUTO CRASH Clark Gable, the motion-picture actor, was in Cedars of Lebanon yesterday recovering from injuries he received in a freak accident late Saturday [24 March] on the traffic circle at Sunset Blvd. and Bristol Ave., Brentwood. Dr. Myron Prinzmetal, the actor’s personal physician, says his condition is not serious. Gable, according to a report to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, was driving east on Sunset Blvd. and, in accordance with traffic regulations, proceeded around the south half of the traffic circle. He was confronted with another car, the driver of which apparently had become confused and was proceeding west on the same arc of the circle. To avoid colliding with the other car Gable drove his automobile over a curb. Gable’s car struck a tree, throwing him against the steering wheel. The actor received a laceration of the right leg which required several stitches, and a bruised chest, the studio reported. Dr. Prinzmetal ordered Gable to remain in the hospital over Sunday. He is expected to leave the institution today. The driver of the other car apparently did not realize that Gable had had an accident and did not stop, it was reported. These accounts conform to the version of events given in the two Gable biographies cited above: Gable ran his car into a tree during the early morning hours of 25 March 1945, he was taken to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for treatment of some cuts and bruises, and MGM fed the press the story that Gable was run off the road by a wrong-way driver. (Contrary to the biographic accounts, none of the contemporaneous newspaper reports we found stated that the non-existent other driver was “drunken”: since the other driver was unidentified and reportedly did not stop, nobody could possibly have known whether he was drunk or not.) Gable’s accident was so prominent, in fact, that it prompted a section-leading follow-up story in the Los Angeles Times the next day (March 27) about the Board of Public Works’ ordering “an engineering survey to ascertain what can be done to reduce the traffic hazard at Sunset Blvd. and Bristol Ave., Brentwood, scene of numerous accidents.” The Los Angeles Times article from Monday, March 26, stated that Gable was “expected to leave [Cedars] today,” and a March 27 Variety piece noted that Gable “checked out of the hospital Monday,” so the duration of Gable’s hospital stay was apparently one night only, not “three days” or “one week” as variously reported by his biographers. About an accident in 1933, we found … absolutely nothing. The author of L.A. Exposed maintained that the “only recorded episode in Gable’s life that bears any resemblance occurred on June 20, 1933 when he drunkenly ran his Duesenberg into a tree” and claims the accident was reported in the Los Angeles Examiner, but no mention of Clark Gable’s being involved in an automobile appeared in the Los Angeles Examiner on June 20, June 21, or any other day in June 1933. None of the other newspapers we checked (the Los Angeles Examiner, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and Variety) carried any story about Clark Gable and an automobile accident any time in 1933. In fact, it’s quite clear that Gable couldn’t possibly have been involved in an automobile accident in Los Angeles on June 20 that year, because, according to Variety, Gable (“on advice from his physician”) had left for Alaska with his wife three days earlier (June 17) and was still away on vacation as late as July 3 (when Variety reported that MGM was trying to get him to return from Vancouver and finish work on Dancing Lady). Outside of the unlikely event that Gable was involved in two separate alcohol-related automobile accidents on the same portion of the same street (the first of which was so completely covered up that not a word of it ever reached the press), we had to concede that something was wrong here. Even if Higham or his interviewee got the dates mixed up and was indeed referring the 1945 accident, the details were still obviously wrong: Buron Fitts, the district attorney whom Higham claims arranged the deal that prevented Gable from being charged with manslaughter and instead sent another MGM employee to jail in Gable’s place, left the Los Angeles D.A.’s office in 1940 and served with the Army Air Force in Europe during World War II, so he couldn’t have been involved in brokering a deal with Mayer in 1945. So, we were left trying to reconcile how Clark Gable could have run over a pedestrian in Los Angeles while he was actually in Alaska, or how his accident could have been covered up by an out-of-office district attorney who was halfway around the globe serving in the military. Perhaps, we thought, some answers might turn up if we looked into what was happening in Clark Gable’s life in 1933. The sources we’d used so far all agreed that during the latter part of the year Gable experienced some significant medical problems, missed a couple of months’ work, was docked a large chunk of salary, and landed in Louis B. Mayer’s doghouse (as described by biographers Harris and Higham): Prior to starting work [on Dancing Lady], Gable joined some friends on a hunting trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. After his return on June 11 he was supposed to report to the studio the next day, but during the night he awakened with a high fever. In a panic he phoned Howard Strickling, who immediately summoned MGM’s medical consultant, Dr. Edward B. Jones. The diagnosis was grim. Pyorrhea had developed in Gable’s always-troublesome teeth and gums. The infection was rapidly spreading through his system and threatened to kill him. Dr. Jones rushed him to a private hospital for treatment. After several days on drugs, Gable rallied. Oral surgeon George Hollenbach, Jr., then took charge and, in one lengthy operation, extracted almost all of Gable’s teeth. Two weeks later, when the gums were starting to heal, impressions were made for a set of false teeth. Meanwhile [producer David O.] Selznick and director Robert Z. Leonard were “shooting around” Gable, trying to finish all the scenes in which he didn’t appear and saving his [scenes] for last. On July 30 Gable was feeling secure enough about his new teeth to come in for two hours to film a short scene with Crawford and Fred Astaire. The one-day return proved too much for Gable. “He was so weak, perspiration broke out on his face. I never felt so sorry for anyone,” Crawford recalled. That night Gable developed another high fever and landed back in the hospital. His previous infection had apparently reached his gallbladder, which became inflamed and had to be removed. Doctors said it would be at least a month before he’d be strong enough to work. Selznick wanted to replace Gable with Robert Montgomery, but L. B. Mayer wouldn’t agree. MGM’s season contracts with exhibitors had promised a Gable-Crawford starrer for Christmas, and the studio had to deliver. By August 25 Selznick had shot everything else he needed for Dancing Lady, so production was suspended until Gable could return for his scenes. Since he first missed work on June 12, Gable’s paychecks had also been suspended. He’d lost nearly $22,000 in wages, which pained him more than some of his health problems. He got so angry that he ignored doctors’ orders and returned on August 29, only to collapse after a half-day’s work. He went home and stayed in bed for a week. Feeling fully recuperated, he finally returned on September 8, the thirteenth day of the longest production shutdown in MGM’s history. Due mainly to the delays caused by Gable’s health, the production cost $923,000, or $150,000 over budget. Within four days, Selznick assembled a rough cut for a sneak preview to gauge public reaction. The screening at the Fox Wilshire Theater in Beverly Hills was well received except for numerous comment cards expressing shock over Gable’s haggard looks in the close-ups that were made right after he returned from his sickbed. Selznick decided to call him back for several days of retakes, which gave Gable more cause to dislike the producer, even though it was for his own benefit. Gable was furious and became angrier still when informed that his next trip would be a loan-out to one of Hollywood’s “poverty row” studios for a comedy about overnight bus service. A Hollywood legend claims that Louis B. Mayer loaned Clark Gable to minor-league Columbia Pictures as punishment for the problems he caused during Dancing Lady, but that’s not true. Between his illnesses and his suspended salary, Gable had been “punished” enough. It was simply a business deal that benefited both studios. MGM had no project of its own ready for Gable, and it also earned $500 per week by charging Columbia $2,500 instead of the $2,000 that he received at home.1 Two days into production [of Dancing Lady], Clark Gable was due on the set from a bear-hunting expedition with Marino Bello, when the same problem that had afflicted Mayer in Rome struck him down. Gable had long neglected his teeth, and now a major infection invaded his gums, the result of very advanced pyorrhea. Mayer was afraid he might die; Dr. Edward B. Jones again came to the rescue and called for multiple extractions. Almost every tooth in his head came out, and he was fitted with porcelain dentures. Gable was laid off, but he came in for a difficult day’s work on July 30 and was applauded by the crew. His system was badly undermined, however, and he came down with an inflamed gall bladder and had to be operated on on August 1. Mayer was determined not to replace Gable; the rushes were disappointing, and it was clear only Gable could save the picture. Mayer called Nicholas Schenck and the picture was closed down until August 29, but Gable collapsed again, and again the picture was delayed.4 The contemporaneous newspaper accounts we dug up confirmed Gable’s hospital stays: Variety noted in its July 24 issue that Gable had been discharged from Cedars of Lebanon after a “tonsil snatching,” and a number of newspapers reported in early August that Gable had re-entered the hospital to have his appendix removed. (The news reports that Gable’s surgeries were for tonsil or appendix removal, two very common types of operations, were undoubtedly less-alarming cover stories given out to the press by MGM to avoid the disclosure that one of their stars was seriously ill.) We also noted another item that, although it didn’t involve Clark Gable, might have some bearing on this rumor. Higham repeated a story he picked up from Lawrence Grobel’s The Hustons, about actor-writer (and later world famous director) John Huston: On September 25 [1933], John Huston, son of Walter Huston and a promising writer in whose welfare Mayer took a strong interest, ran over a woman while driving on Sunset Boulevard and killed her instantly. He claimed that he was sober. Walter Huston was still one of Mayer’s favorite actors and worked on and off at the studio. There was no way that this episode could not be kept out of the papers: John Huston was a nobody, and Mayer could not again pull strings. It was announced on September 26 that a grand jury had been called to determine whether John Huston was guilty of manslaughter or murder. Walter went to see the hard-pressed Mayer; he begged him to see that William Randolph Hearst’s all-important newspaper chain, and in particular the powerful columnist Louella Parsons, should underplay the matter. Mayer would, of course, have less influence over the other newspapers. Mayer is believed to have invested $400,000 to suppress the matter. Huston escaped the charges, and it was arranged that he would leave the country and go to England for an indefinite period. It’s far more likely Huston escaped prosecution because there was no strong evidence that he was at fault in the accident rather than because Mayer “invested $400,000 to suppress the matter,” as $400,000 was an enormous sum of money in 1933 — more than half the budget of an MGM feature film and easily the equivalent of several million dollars today. It beggars belief that Mayer would have spent such a huge sum to protect “a nobody” who was not nearly as important to MGM financially as Gable was, and simply having newspapers “underplay the matter” wouldn’t have kept Huston out of criminal court. We mention the incident because it poses an extraordinary, or perhaps not so extraordinary, coincidence: another tale of a woman killed in an accident on Sunset Boulevard in 1933 by a Hollywood-connected driver who supposedly escaped prosecution through the behind-the-scenes manipulations of Louis B. Mayer. At this point we had enough information to reconstruct the true arc of events, and a likely scenario for the rumor. On Monday, 12 June 1933, Clark Gable was to begin production on the film Dancing Lady. The night before, however, he was struck down by an advanced infection that required several days of hospitalization, followed by the extraction of most of his teeth. Since it would take a couple of weeks for him to recover his strength and for his gums to heal sufficiently to allow the fitting of dentures, after his release from the hospital Gable and his wife left for a vacation in Alaska and Canada where he could recuperate away from studio pressures and the prying eyes of fans and the press. (He couldn’t have been especially anxious for others to see him in his newly-toothless state.) MGM shot scenes around Gable until he returned to California and was fitted with false teeth, but after a single day’s work on July 30 he was again felled by the same infection, now serious enough to require the immediate removal of his gall bladder.
|
11476
|
New scan can speed Parkinson’s diagnosis
|
The DaTscan is intended to help doctors rule out Parkinson’s disease when the underlying cause of their symptoms is difficult to determine, but the patient example and overall tone of the story convey that the test is meant to uncover Parkinson’s cases that other tests and exams have missed. The story does not address the lack of evidence about whether this test can improve patient outcomes. The story fails to offer readers any independent voices, relying only on doctors at institutions that are actively marketing their ability to offer a test that not all of their competitors have. The story also fails to address the potential harms of this test, including a risk of thyroid cancer if uptake of radioactive iodine in the test solution is not properly blocked. Parkinson’s is a common neurological condition that causes tremor and difficulty with moving. It generally starts in people later in life and can lead to major functional impairment. The diagnosis is a clinical one – meaning that the patient describes symptoms and the physician performs an exam that is consistent with Parkinson’s disease. For many individuals, this diagnosis is straightforward and tests such as the one described here would be unnecessary. For some patients with early, mild symptoms, the diagnosis can sometimes be more difficult to make with certainty. However, for these individuals, many physicians would not want to start treatment because of the problem with medicines leading to tolerance with time that limits their long-term effectiveness. So the role for this test, probably is for the minority of patients with functionally impairing symptoms in whom the diagnosis isn’t clear when being evaluated by a specialist. The problem with tests such as this is that it is hard to limit use to the minority in whom it can help. Rather they are promoted and end up being overused in the routine patient in whom the test really isn’t needed to make the diagnosis. This is how technology adds to the cost of health care without improving outcomes.
|
false
|
Chicago Tribune,Screening
|
Yes, the story reports that a DaTscan costs about $1500. Oddly, instead of reporting what the hospitals featured in the story charge for a scan, the story attributes the price estimate to a quote taken from an article by Medscape Medical News. But there is a much higher price listed on the web site of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, which estimates a DaTscan costs almost $3000. Still, because the story does address cost we will give it credit on this criterion. Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research page on DaTscan: http://www.michaeljfox.org/newsEvents_parkinsonsInTheNews_article.cfm?ID=694 The unsatisfactory rating on this criterion also is related to the fundamental misrepresentation of the purpose of the DaTscan. The story repeatedly refers to getting patients on drug treatment for Parkinson’s earlier. The only patient example presented to readers is of a man who says the test was the key piece of evidence that finally revealed he has Parkinson’s after he was repeatedly told by other doctors that he had some other condition. In fact, conventional examinations are more likely to lead to a Parkinson’s diagnosis than is a DaTscan test. The intended use of the test is to identify people who have been misdiagnosed as having Parkinson’s when actually their symptoms are caused by some other condition. Also, while the story refers to clinical studies, it doesn’t give readers any specifics about the results of those trials. The story does not mention potential harms, including the potential cancer risk from radioactive iodine that is injected into patients as part of the DaTscan. The drug label warns that clinicians must use a blocking agent to prevent the patient’s thyroid from taking up the radioactive iodine. The story should have also reported that although adverse reactions were uncommon in clinical studies, some people did have hypersensitivity reactions such as rash and itching, and that less than 1 percent of patients reported mild to moderate headache, nausea, vertigo, dry mouth or dizziness. The story would have been better if it also noted that since the studies included fewer than 300 patients, side effects that occur only rarely might not have shown up. FDA-approved label for DaTscan: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/nda/2011/022454sOrig1s000Lbl.pdf As noted above, the story creates an impression that the DaTscan is used to find cases of Parkinson’s, when actually the opposite is true: the test helps rule out Parkinson’s in patients who actually have Essential Tremor or other conditions. The story not only fails to accurately describe the evidence, it gets it entirely backwards. The article does a poor job describing who this should be used for. Parkinson’s is a clinical diagnosis that is readily made by physicians without the need for such a test. Although the story does report prominently that the DaTscan test is intended for use in “difficult-to-diagnose cases of Parkinson’s disease or other parkinsonian syndromes,” it should have noted that these groups represent only about 5 percent of patients. What’s more, the patient example and other sections of the story would likely lead readers to believe that the test is useful in many patients who do not fit the population for which the test was approved. Indeed, the story generally flips the intended use upside down, creating an impression that the DaTscan detects cases of Parkinson’s disease that other tests and exams may miss, when actually the test is intended to help doctors rule out Parkinson’s in patients who actually have some other condition. A news release from GE Healthcare says the test may help reduce the cost of care by “preventing patients from receiving misdiagnoses or inappropriate treatment.” GE Healthcare news release: http://md.gehealthcare.com/component/content/article/940-press-release/102-impact-of-datscan.html All of the experts quoted in the story appear to work at institutions that are promoting their ability to offer the DaTscan test. A truly independent expert source might have raised some of the important issues discussed in our review. In the overwhelming majority of cases, a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease is made through clinical examination of the patient, including the specific pattern of tremors and other movement difficulties, followed by a test of drugs to see if they help ease the symptoms. The story not only fails to accurately describe conventional clinical tests and examinations used to establish a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, it misreports the primary purpose of the DaTscan test. The availability of the DaTscan test is the main point of the story. It reports the test was approved by the FDA in January 2011 and is now available at more than 80 hospitals in the United States. It also reports that the test was approved for use in Europe a decade ago. The story does note that the DaTscan test became available in the United States only this year. However, as noted above, the misrepresentation of the purpose of the test will likely mislead most readers about what is actually new about this test. The story does not appear to rely on a news release. However, it does not tell readers much information beyond what they would get from reading just the hospital news releases touting this test.
|
26464
|
“Africans living in China now being forced to sleep outside in the cold” as “Chinese nationals blame them for the rising number of new coronavirus cases in the country.”
|
Africans in one Chinese city are being evicted amid fear of a second wave of COVID-19 in China and a focus on foreigners. The evictions are blamed on racism, which the Chinese government denies.
|
true
|
China, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
|
"Some Africans living in China are being evicted from their homes amid fears of a second wave of the coronavirus in the country where it originated. Social media posts about about the matter caught our attention, including this video shared on Facebook: ""Africans living in China now being forced to sleep outside in the cold,"" reads the caption at the top. A narrator in the video states that ""Africans have become subject of racial profiling"" as ""Chinese nationals blame them for the rising number of ner coronavirus cases in the country."" The video, which carries a logo from The Savoy Show on it and appears to be a news story, was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) However, in this case, it is accurate. Africans in at least one Chinese city are facing widespread evictions and discrimination related to COVID-19 fears. Numerous legitimate news reports describe such targeted evictions, stemming from fears of another COVID-19 outbreak, in the southern China city of Guangzhou. Home to many Africans, Guangzhou has long been one of China’s main commercial and trading centers. One report cited a case in which a police officer accompanied a landlord on an eviction of an African. Black residents in a part of Guangzhou known as ""Little Africa"" are being forced to remain inside their apartments — even if they have not traveled anywhere that would warrant a quarantine — and submit to coronavirus tests, the Washington Post reported. Chinese officials say they are trying to prevent a second wave of the coronavirus, focusing on foreigners, according to Al Jazeera. President Xi Jinping urged authorities to carefully watch for imported cases from other countries, state news agency Xinhua reported. But China has denied racism in the effort. But the actions are widespread enough, according to the Associated Press, that African officials are confronting China over racist treatment of Africans, including Africans being ejected from hotels in the middle of the night. The Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe said: ""It is harmful to sensationalize isolated incidents. China treats all individuals in the country, Chinese and foreign alike, as equals."" The Guangdong provincial government has responded to concerns about discrimination by calling China and Africa good friends, partners and brothers, according to the BBC. More than two dozen Africans told CNN about being left without a home, being subject to random testing for COVID-19, or being quarantined for 14 days in their homes, despite having no symptoms or contact with known patients. Photos and videos posted on social media showed Africans sleeping on sidewalks or waiting under shop awnings after being ordered out of their apartments and hotel rooms, the Washington Post reported. And community leaders told the BBC that hundreds of Africans had been evicted after online rumors that coronavirus was spreading among African people. A video shared on Facebook claims that ""Africans living in China now being forced to sleep outside in the cold."" Numerous news articles report that, amid fears of a second wave of the coronavirus, China has focused on foreigners as a possible source of the virus, and Africans in the southern China city of Guangzhou are being evicted from their homes. African leaders have called out the evictions as racist."
|
33938
|
"Oklahoma State Rep. Justin Humphrey said he viewed a pregnant woman as a ""host"" for the fetus she carried. "
|
It’s true that Humphrey did say he viewed a woman as a “host” for a fetus once she has become pregnant, but he did not reduce the entire status of women in society to that of a host, even stipulating that beyond the context of pregnancy, “your body is your body.” It is a matter of subjective opinion whether or not one accepts his distinction as being sincere or meaningful, but the fact remains that Humphrey did express such a viewpoint.
|
true
|
Politics, abortion
|
In early 2019, an Oklahoma lawmaker’s two-year-old comments about abortion re-emerged online and prompted skeptical inquiries from our readers. On 15 February, the Gaily Grind web site posted an article with the headline “GOP Lawmaker Who Called Pregnant Women ‘Hosts’ Pushing Bill Requiring Men to Approve All Abortions,” which reported that: Oklahoma state legislator Rep. Justin Humphrey (R) has sponsored a draconian bill that would require a woman to get the written consent of the fetus’s father before obtaining an abortion. The bill, HB 1441, which passed out of a House committee Tuesday, would also require a woman “to provide, in writing, the identity of the father of the fetus to the physician who is to perform or induce the abortion,” according to the bill’s language. “If the person identified as the father of the fetus challenges the fact that he is the father, such individual may demand that a paternity test be performed.” In justifying the bill, Rep. Humphrey told The Intercept that women have no right to their bodies once they become pregnant because they are mere “hosts.” The Gaily Grind’s 2019 article created the impression that it was describing current events, but in reality Humphrey had made his remarks two years earlier, in February 2017, and they had generated a wave of outrage at the time. Humphrey did indeed say that he viewed a woman as a “host” for a fetus, although he stipulated that this view was limited to the context of pregnancy and abortion, stating that his more general view of female bodily autonomy was “your body is your body.” On 6 February 2017, State Representative Justice Humphrey, a Republican who represents the 19th District in southeastern Oklahoma, introduced House Bill 1441, which would have prohibited any abortion that took place without the written informed consent of the fetus’ father, except in cases of rape or incest, or the father was deceased, or the woman’s life was in danger. On 14 February 2017, the State Legislature’s Public Health Committee voted in favor of the bill, but it never came before the general assembly and was never passed into law. In the landmark 1992 case Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania vs. Casey case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional a part of a Pennsylvania state law requiring that a married woman provide her husband with advance notification that she intended to undergo an abortion. As a result, any law requiring a woman to obtain the consent of her sexual partner for an abortion would almost certainly have been overturned in court on the basis that it imposed an “undue burden” on a woman’s right of access to abortion, as set out in the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade. In an interview with the Intercept web site, published on 13 February 2017, Humphrey outlined the rationale behind his proposed legislation: At first, Humphrey said that the original intention of the bill was to ensure that fathers are involved in supporting a child from conception. “I was wanting fathers to have to pay child support at the beginning,” he said, but that specific language was excised from the bill. Ultimately, he said, his intent was to let men have a say. “I believe one of the breakdowns in our society is that we have excluded the man out of all of these types of decisions,” he said. “I understand that they feel like that is their body,” he said of women. “I feel like it is a separate — what I call them is, is you’re a ‘host.’ And you know when you enter into a relationship you’re going to be that host and so, you know, if you pre-know that then take all precautions and don’t get pregnant,” he explained. “So that’s where I’m at. I’m like, hey, your body is your body and be responsible with it. But after you’re irresponsible then don’t claim, well, I can just go and do this with another body, when you’re the host and you invited that in.” So Humphrey did indeed say that once a woman has become pregnant, in his view she is a “host” for the fetus, and that her obligation to the fetus stems from that dynamic. However, he did also indicate that outside the context of pregnancy, his view of a woman’s bodily autonomy was “Hey, your body is your body and be responsible with it.” This nuance was not fully acknowledged in some of the initial reporting on Humphrey’s remarks, such as the February 2017 article on the web site of New York magazine’s “The Cut,” whose headline read: “Oklahoma Anti-Abortion Lawmaker Says Women Are Merely ‘Hosts’,” or an opinion column on the web site Bustle, which read: Of all the ridiculous things male politicians have said about abortion policy — looking at you, Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin — saying that women’s bodies literally aren’t theirs is among the worst I’ve heard. So, too, is the bizarre idea of women as “hosts,” the same word you’d use for an organism being victimized by a parasite. Anti-choice politicians are sometimes criticized for allegedly treating women as mere incubators; Humphrey, in that interview, seems to explicitly endorse that train of thought.
|
35878
|
"U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris met with Jacob Blake — who, a meme claimed, ""raped a woman” — and told him that she was “proud of him” in September 2020."
|
What's true: According to a statement from Blake’s lawyer, Harris met with Blake's family and told Blake on the phone that she is “proud of him and how he is working through his pain.” In July 2020, Blake was charged with third-degree sexual assault of his ex-girlfriend. What's false: Blake has not been tried or convicted of sexual assault.
|
mixture
|
Politics
|
In September 2020, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., visited the family of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot in the back by police on Aug. 23 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Harris, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, also spoke to Blake himself over the phone as he recovered in hospital from his injuries. Details about their conversation spread on the internet and drew censure as social media users learned Blake had previously been accused of sexual assault. Snopes readers shared a Facebook post, asking if Harris had indeed told Blake — a man who had committed “rape,” the meme claimed — that she was “proud of him.” The post read: “Just so women are clear … Kamala Harris went to see a man that raped a woman and told him she’s proud of him!” Blake was charged with third-degree sexual assault of his ex-girlfriend, but has not been tried or convicted. In July 2020, prosecutors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, successfully applied for an arrest warrant for Blake on charges of third-degree sexual assault, criminal trespass, and disorderly conduct, all of which were additionally designated as acts of domestic abuse. In Wisconsin, third-degree sexual assault is defined as: “Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person without the consent of that person is guilty of a Class G felony.” Snopes reported on Blake’s sexual assault charges in more detail here. Since Blake has not been tried or convicted of the July 2020 charges, it is not yet known whether the Facebook post’s claim that Blake “raped a woman” is accurate. On Aug. 23, 2020, the same woman who had filed the complaint against Blake that led to the sexual assault charges in July called 911 to report that Blake was at her home in Kenosha, according to interviews and records. Officials said that police responded to what they said was a domestic complaint and attempted to arrest Blake. Police initially attempted to use a Taser on him and also said Blake admitted to having a knife. Ben Crump, a lawyer for Blake’s family denied that Blake was carrying a knife and said he had been trying to break up a disturbance involving two women. Police shot Blake seven times in the back in front of his children. A neighbor recorded the shooting with a cellphone. Protests spread across Kenosha in the aftermath. Blake’s family said he was paralyzed from the waist down as a result of the shooting. Harris visited Blake’s family in early September and said she wanted to “express concern for their well-being” and “to let them know that they have support.” She added, “they’re an incredible family and what they’ve endured and they do it with such divinity and grace and you know they’re carrying the weight of a lot of voices on their shoulders.” Crump released a statement after Harris met the family and spoke to Blake on the phone. Sen. @KamalaHarris met with the family of #JacobBlake today, who joined by phone from his hospital bed. The family’s legal team released the following statement about the one-hour visit. #JusticeForJacobBlake pic.twitter.com/TQ7io0Clhe — Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) September 7, 2020
|
34265
|
A photograph shows a newborn child who weighed 8.6 kg (18.96 lbs.) at birth.
|
But again, we haven’t yet found anything definitively linking the viral photograph at the head of this article to that Indonesian birth, or to any of the other reported births of unusually large babies in recent years.
|
unproven
|
Fauxtography
|
In August 2018, Facebook users encountered multiple postings of a photograph of what looked to be a very large newborn child, accompanied by text suggesting the baby weighed in at a whopping 8.6 kilograms (18.96 pounds) — said to be a Guinness World Record for “the biggest baby born by natural birth”: This photograph has been online since at least as far back as March 2017, with varying weights offered for the pictured child. We haven’t yet been able to tie the photograph to any details documenting the identity of the pictured child, its birth weight, or the date and circumstances of its birth. or link the picture with any news story or other report about the birth of an extraordinarily large baby. We can note that the current Guinness World Record for “Heaviest Birth” is a 9.98 kg (22 lb.) boy born in 1879 to a 7 ft. 11 in. Ohio woman who was also part of a Guinness World Record for “Tallest Married Couple“: Giantess Anna Bates, who measured 241.3 cm (7 ft 11 in), gave birth to a boy weighing 9.98 kg (22 lb) and measuring 71.12 cm (28 in) at her home in Seville, Ohio, USA, on 19 January 1879. The baby, who was not officially named but just referred to as “Babe”, sadly died 11 hours later. It has been reported that when Anna’s waters broke, she lost an estimated six gallons of fluid. Martin van Buren Bates, the father of the child wrote: “He was 28” tall, weighed 22 lbs and was perfect in every respect. He looked at birth like an ordinary child of six months”. Many commenters have pointed to news accounts of the 2009 birth (by cesarean section) of a child in Indonesia whose weight (8.7 kilograms, or 19.2 pounds) was even greater than that claimed of the child pictured above: A baby made his way into the world in Indonesia at 19.2 pounds (8.7 kg) — about three times the weight of an average newborn. Muhammad Akbar Risuddin is thought to be the heaviest baby born to date in Indonesia. “I was very surprised. I thought it was twins,” said Binsar Sitanggang, the lead doctor in the cesarean-section delivery at Abdul Manan Hospital in North Sumatra. “It needed a longer time than normal to deliver this baby,” Sitanggang said. “He was hardly breathing when we took him out. But, thank God, he is healthy.” “We can compare this giant baby with a 9- to 10-month-old baby,” Sitanggang said. “Both his parents are tall and big, so there might be a genetic cause for this.”
|
26512
|
“Conservative Supreme Court Justices vote remotely to deny Wisconsin voters their right to vote remotely.”
|
The U.S. Supreme Court did indeed meet and vote remotely to rule on the Wisconsin election. But it’s a stretch to say they denied a “right to vote remotely” The traditional remote voting right is to cast an absentee ballot by Election Day, and that was still allowed under this ruling. The court struck down a lower court decision that would have allowed any absentee ballot received by April 13, 2020, to count, not just those postmarked by Election Day.
|
mixture
|
Elections, Supreme Court, Wisconsin, Facebook posts,
|
"A pair of high court rulings set the stage for Wisconsin’s April 7, 2020 pandemic election. The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down an order from Gov. Tony Evers that would have moved the election back to June, which kept in-person voting in place. And the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all absentee ballots had to be postmarked by Election Day, reversing a federal judge’s order, forcing thousands who requested but didn’t receive an absentee ballot to vote in person if they wanted their vote to count. A viral image on Facebook claims the latter ruling had some irony to it. ""Conservative Supreme Court Justices vote remotely to deny Wisconsin voters their right to vote remotely,"" the April 7, 2020, post says, accompanied by pictures of the five men comprising the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) There are a couple elements here — the method of voting and the claim about voting rights. Let’s investigate. The highest court in the land did indeed issue its April 6, 2020, Wisconsin election ruling without meeting in person. Beginning with a March 20, 2020, conference, the Supreme Court has functioned remotely, according to Richard Wolf, who covers the court for USA TODAY. It has postponed all oral arguments for March and April. It’s been a while since that happened, the court said. ""The Court’s postponement of argument sessions in light of public health concerns is not unprecedented,"" a March 16, 2020, release said. ""The Court postponed scheduled arguments for October 1918 in response to the Spanish flu epidemic. The Court also shortened its argument calendars in August 1793 and August 1798 in response to yellow fever outbreaks."" The second part of this claim isn’t so simple, asserting there is a right to vote remotely that was stripped away. We’ll start by backing up a step. The issue before the U.S. Supreme Court was whether to allow ballots postmarked after Election Day to be counted as long as they arrived by April 13. A prior federal court ruling had extended the deadline by which clerks had to receive absentee ballots from April 7 — Election Day — to April 13. Republicans argued those ballots still had to be postmarked by Election Day in order to count, while Democrats argued anything that arrived by April 13 should be allowed — effectively extending the election by six days. By a 5-4 vote, with all conservative justices in favor, the Supreme Court ruled ballots had to be postmarked by Election Day. ""Extending the date by which ballots may be cast by voters — not just received by the municipal clerks but cast by voters — for an additional six days after the scheduled election day fundamentally alters the nature of the election,"" the majority opinion says. So did that amount to denying voters their rights to vote remotely? The longstanding remote voting availability in Wisconsin has been that voters are permitted to submit absentee ballots up to Election Day. That was not changed. The high court simply denied a request to extend beyond Election Day the period in which votes could be turned in. The nuance here is that thousands of Wisconsinites never received the absentee ballots they requested — in some cases well before the election. So those voters were denied the ability to vote remotely, but that was due to systematic errors in ballot distribution, not directly via Supreme Court action. Liberals argued accommodations should have been made for those people who did not receive ballots they requested in the required timeframe (up to the Friday before the election). A Facebook post says conservative Supreme Court justices voted remotely ""to deny Wisconsin voters their right to vote remotely."" The court vote involved did take place remotely. But the latter half of this claim overreaches. The traditional ""right"" to vote remotely involves submitting an absentee ballot by Election Day. That right was not taken away. The high court simply did not extend that right to days past the election as Democrats requested. For a statement that is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context, our rating is ."
|
8500
|
Brazil likely has 12 times more coronavirus cases than official count, study finds.
|
Brazil likely has 12 times more cases of the new coronavirus than are being officially reported by the government, with too little testing and long waits to confirm the results, according to a study released on Monday.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Researchers at a consortium of Brazilian universities and institutes examined the ratio of cases resulting in deaths through April 10 and compared it with data on the expected death rate from the World Health Organization. The much higher-than-expected death rate in Brazil indicates there are many more cases of the virus than are being counted, with the study estimating only 8% of cases are being officially reported. The government has focused on testing serious cases rather than all suspected cases, according to the consortium, known as the Center for Health Operations and Intelligence. The center and medical professionals have also complained of long wait times to get test results. Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta has said that it is difficult to distribute tests in Brazil because of the size of the country but acknowledges that testing needs to improve. Officially, Brazil’s coronavirus death toll rose to 1,328 on Monday, while the number of confirmed cases hit 23,430, according to health ministry data. As of last Thursday, Brazil had had around 127,000 suspected cases and carried out just short of 63,000 tests, ministry figures indicate. A health ministry official on Monday said more than 93,000 tests are still being processed for results. Year to date, the number of hospitalizations for severe respiratory symptoms has been over three times higher than usual for the time of year, but only 12% of those have been confirmed as COVID-19, the severe respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. “The high degree of under-notification could give a false impression about control of the disease, and consequently, could lead to a decline in containment measures,” the center said. The outbreak has stoked tension in the Brazilian government, with right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro downplaying risks of the virus and urging the country to return to normal, while his health minister, state governors and local officials urge stricter measures. The center has thus far been accurate in predicting the evolution of the virus in Brazil, with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases through March 30 falling within the range that the researchers previously predicted. The researchers are now predicting that by April 20 the number of cases will grow to 25,164 in its most optimistic scenario and 60,413 cases in its most pessimistic.
|
7064
|
Zika travel advisory issued for 11 Southeast Asia countries.
|
U.S. health officials are advising pregnant women to postpone travel to 11 countries in Southeast Asia because of Zika outbreaks in the region.
|
true
|
Brunei, Maldives, AP Health, Travel, Asia, Health, Thailand, Southeast Asia
|
The advisory issued Thursday targets travel to Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Zika has been in some areas of Southeast Asia for years, and some residents may be immune. But a number of U.S. travelers have become infected there in the last year, so there is a danger to visitors. Most infected people suffer a mild and temporary illness, at worst. But infection during pregnancy can causes severe brain-related birth defects. The virus is spread primarily by bites from infected mosquitoes. ___ Online: CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/zika/
|
7892
|
Virgin companies to invest $250 million to save jobs after virus outbreak: Branson.
|
British entrepreneur Richard Branson said on Sunday companies in his Virgin empire will be investing $250 million in coming weeks and months to save jobs from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
|
true
|
Health News
|
“Because many of our businesses are in industries like travel, leisure and wellness, they are in a massive battle to survive and save jobs”, Branson wrote in a blog. He didn’t say if the $250 million just represented salaries of furloughed staff. “Our airlines have had to ground almost all their planes; our cruise line has had to postpone its launch; our health clubs and hotels have had to close their doors and all bookings to our holiday company have stopped”, he added. Virgin companies employ more than 70,000 people across 35 countries. Branson had told Reuters late last month that the new Virgin cruise line would overcome coronavirus fears, but the outbreak has since spread to more places and has jolted markets and industries across the world. Branson - one of Britain’s best-known businessmen who launched his career in the 1970s in records before expanding into airlines, banking, TV, healthclubs and space - described the crisis as the “most significant” during his lifetime.
|
41649
|
60 ambulance stations have closed since 2010.
|
We don’t know how many ambulance stations have closed since 2010 as national figures on this aren’t regularly published.
|
unproven
|
health
|
There are 16,481 fewer beds in hospitals since 2010. This is in the right ballpark, but it doesn’t seem to be the best comparison. It seems to compare the number of beds at different times of the year, but the number available fluctuates seasonally. Comparing July-September in 2010 and 2017, the decrease in beds available overnight in England is closer to 13,200. 66 A&E and maternity wards have been closed. We don’t know, as this information isn’t collected nationally. In 2014, there were reportedly plans to close or downgrade 66 in England, but while some have been, others have stayed open. 103 NHS walk-in centres have closed or been downgraded since 2010. We don’t know exactly, as this information isn’t collected centrally. Research from an NHS regulator and from campaign group 38 Degrees suggests more than 90 have been closed or downgraded. 60 ambulance stations have closed since 2010. We don’t know how many ambulance stations have closed since 2010 as national figures on this aren’t regularly published. 1,000 GP practices have closed since 2010. There are around 1,000 fewer GP practices in England in 2017 than in 2010. Some practices may have merged together, rather than closing completely, but we don’t know how many have done so. A&E four hour targets have been missed more than 10 million times since 2010. Correct. Between 2010/11 and 2017/18, around 12 million A&E attendances in England took over four hours from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge. The number of patients waiting more than 12 hours in A&E is up 2,700% since 2010. Correct (although not all patients will necessarily have been waiting in A&E). In 2011/12, 120 patients in England waited 12 hours between the decision to admit them to emergency admissions and their actual admission, compared to 3,500 in 2017/18. Spending on social care is down 8% since 2010. Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies last year said that between 2009/10 and 2016/17, councils’ spending on adult social care in England fell 8% in real terms. Newer analysis says that it fell by 6% over the same period. We’ve asked it for more information. There are 5,240 fewer mental health nurses since 2010. This seems to be looking at different months in 2010 and 2017, which isn’t the best comparison. Comparing the number of full-time equivalent mental health nurses between January 2010 and January 2018 (the latest figures), the drop is closer to 4,500. The number of operations classed as urgent that have been cancelled twice have doubled since 2010. Correct. The number of urgent operations in England cancelled for the second time or more for non-medical reasons more than doubled between 2011/12 and 2017/18. There has been a 22% drop in ambulances meeting their 15 minute transfer target since 2010. The decrease is actually greater—28%. In 2010/11 in England 80% of ambulance transfers were done in 15 minutes, in 2015/16 it was 58%. Claim 1 of 12
|
24202
|
President Obama's bill won't bring down the costs (of health care) for average Americans -- or really for very few Americans, if any.
|
Bachmann says Democratic health care bill won't lower costs for average Americans
|
false
|
National, Health Care, Michele Bachmann,
|
"Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has a reputation for using political rhetoric that pushes the envelope. On March 3, 2010, she appeared on CNN's Larry King Live along with Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson, a Floridian who's also known for his outspokenness from the opposite ideological perspective.We thought we'd look into one of the comments she made about the issue of the day: the Democratic health care reform plan. ""Unfortunately,"" she said, ""President Obama's bill won't bring down the costs for average Americans -- or really for very few Americans, if any. ""To test this claim, we turned first to the nonpartisan referee for such questions -- the Congressional Budget Office.We looked at a CBO analysis of the Senate Democratic health care bill released Nov. 30, 2009. This bill -- which was passed by the Senate in December 2009 -- forms the basis for President Barack Obama's own proposal. (The CBO has not directly analyzed Obama's proposal, but most health policy analysts do not expect the numbers to change dramatically from what the CBO analyzed in November. )Before we dig into the CBO study, we should outline the three types of private coverage and how they differ. Individual policies are obtained directly by individuals or families, without an employer serving as an intermediary. ""Small-group"" plans are provided through small employers. And ""large-group"" policies are plans obtained through larger employers. The CBO looked at the effect of the health care bill on premiums for each category.One other thing to know: The bill provides subsidies for people in the individual and small-group markets whose income is below certain thresholds. The CBO looked at how the bill would change premiums both before subsidies were factored in and after.So here's what the CBO expects for 2016, the year its analysts chose as the benchmark.For individual plans -- before subsidies are taken into account -- the bill would make policies 10 percent to 13 percent more expensive. But a big reason for this increase is that the bill would set higher minimum standards for coverage. So, before subsidies are factored in, people and families buying individual policies would have to pay more, but they would also be getting more generous coverage.However, it's worth noting that many people on the individual market would qualify for subsidies. In fact, the CBO estimates that 57 percent of individual-market purchasers would. And once these subsidies are factored in, buyers on the individual market would see their premiums drop quite a bit -- between 56 percent and 59 percent, according to the CBO. (The question of whether to count or not to count subsidies when analyzing the bill became a major bone of contention during the Feb. 25, 2010, presidential health care summit; you can read a previous PolitiFact item for a more detailed explanation of this question, http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/feb/25/barack-obama/obama-says-under-democratic-health-plan-family-ins/)For the second category -- the small-group market -- the CBO estimates that unsubsidized premiums would land somewhere on the continuum between rising by 1 percent and falling by 2 percent. For the 12 percent of small-group beneficiaries who are expected to qualify for subsidies, premiums would fall by 8 to 11 percent.Finally, in the third category -- the large-group market -- the change in premiums would range from no change to a 3 percent decline. (Large-group beneficiaries are not eligible for subsidies under the bill. )To fuly analyze Bachmann's claim, we need to add in one additional factor: the number of Americans who will buy insurance in each of these three markets.The CBO estimates that 134 million people will be covered by large-group plans, 25 million will be covered by small-group plans and 32 million will be covered by individual market plans. The total of these three categories is 191 million people. (Remember that many Americans are covered by Medicare, Medicaid or other government plans, and these are not included in the CBO's analysis, or in ours. )Let's first analyze these numbers using the strictest definition -- unsubsidized premiums. And because the CBO is using a range of likely outcomes, we'll do our best to quantify how many people will actually see their premiums fall. We'll do this by assuming that, say, for a range of 10 percent to 13 percent, one quarter will see a change of 10 percent, one quarter will see a change of 11 percent, one quarter will see a change of 12 percent, and one quarter will see a change of 13 percent. The real numbers will not fit so neatly into that kind of breakdown, but health economists tell us it's a serviceable guide.By our reckoning, then, three quarters of the 134 million people in large-group plans -- 101 million -- will see their premiums fall slightly. Next, in the small group market, let's assume that half the beneficiaries will see a decline in premiums (those who see their premiums fall by 1 percent or 2 percent.) That translates to about 13 million people. So, right off the bat -- without factoring in subsidies -- the CBO expects 114 million people to see their premiums go down at least a little bit. That's about 60 percent of beneficiaries.Once subsidies are accounted for, the percentages rise.In the small-group market, 12 percent of beneficiaries would qualify for subsidies, the CBO projects. Proportionally, these subsidies would reduce premiums for an additional 1.5 million people.In the individual market, 57 percent would qualify for subsidies, according to CBO. That's about 18 million people who'd see their premiums drop.So, adding it up, nearly 134 million people should see their premiums go down when subsidies are factored in. That's about 70 percent of all privately insured Americans.What about the rest? By our calculations, about 45 million people would see their premiums stay the same. Adding them to the 134 million Americans who saw their premiums drop, you get 179 million people, or almost 94 percent of those on private insurance.That leaves about 14 million Americans who would see their premiums go up, according to the CBO's model. (The numbers don't add up to 191 million due to rounding.) These unlucky beneficiaries -- mostly people with individual insurance who earn too much to receive subsidies -- account for 7 percent of those with private insurance in 2016.Of course, the CBO's projections are only that -- projections. In addition, basic mathematics suggests that some number of Americans will see their premiums rise or fall by greater amounts than the CBO estimates. So our exercise should be taken with due caution. But the CBO is the generally accepted arbiter of these questions and the overall trend seems solid despite the caveats. However, looked at another way, Bachmann would have had a stronger point if she had said the bill's benefits are limited. Only about 21 million people -- those who receive subsidies -- will see their premiums drop by more than a few percentage points. That's about 11 percent of the people with private insurance in 2016 -- within shouting distance of the ""very few Americans"" she referenced in her quote.Measured in raw dollars, a decrease of 1 to 3 percent won't put a whole lot of additional money in the pockets of the other nine-tenths of the private market. By the CBO's estimate, the difference could be on the order of $100 or $200 on a several-thousand-dollar policy. But we're rating Bachmann's claim that ""President Obama's bill won't bring down the costs (of health care) for average Americans -- or really for very few Americans, if any."" And on that, our interpretation of the CBO numbers indicates she's wrong. Using the strict, unsubsidized figures, 60 percent of Americans in the private insurance market should see their premiums fall. And taking into account the subsidies, a full 70 percent would see their premiums fall. And almost 94 percent would see their premiums either fall or stay the same. No matter how you slice it, the overwhelming majority are likely to see a decline. So we find her claim ."
|
7406
|
The big question: Will cancer immune therapy work for me?.
|
Dennis Lyon was a genetic train wreck. Cancer was ravaging his liver, lungs, bones and brain, and tests showed so many tumor mutations that drugs targeting one or two wouldn’t do much good. It seemed like very bad news, yet his doctors were encouraged.
|
true
|
AP Top News, Genetics, Cancer, San Diego, Health, Tumors, Genetic Frontiers, North America, Business, California, Science, U.S. News
|
The reason: People with the most messed-up genes often are the ones who do best on treatments that enlist the immune system. “These are the patients we used to be very depressed about,” thinking they couldn’t be helped, said Dr. Razelle Kurzrock at the University of California, San Diego. “Now when we see those types of patients, we’re really excited,” because there are so many ways for the immune system to recognize the cancer cells as abnormal. Immunotherapy is the hottest thing in cancer care. Drugs called checkpoint inhibitors can vanquish some advanced cancers by removing a chemical cloak that hides them from the immune system. Former President Jimmy Carter got one at age 91 for skin cancer that spread to his brain, and now is in remission. But they’re expensive, have side effects, and work for only about one-quarter of patients — as few as 5 percent with colon cancer and as many as half with the skin cancer, melanoma. Sometimes the benefits are brief. Worst of all: For a small number of unlucky folks, treatment can backfire. Their cancer grows exponentially after getting a checkpoint drug. “We’re going to have to figure out not only who to treat with immunotherapy but who not to treat,” Kurzrock said. Gene tests are starting to help sort that out. But for patients, the big question is “Will it work for me?” PREDICTING WHO BENEFITS The first step is testing for a protein called PD-L1 that’s often involved in forming that chemical cloak. Some checkpoint drugs target this or a related protein, so people with a lot of it should respond to treatment. That was the hope when Diane Tippett showed up last October at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center with a salivary gland cancer that had spread to her liver and lungs. “Five years ago, I probably would have thrown up my hands and given her standard chemo,” said the center’s director, Dr. Louis Weiner. Instead, he ordered tests that showed Tippett had a PD-L1 mutation, meaning her cancer made a lot of it. He started the 49-year-old Leonardtown, Maryland, woman on a checkpoint drug, Opdivo, and told her to come back in a few months. “Quite honestly, I didn’t know if I’d ever see her again,” he said. Now, Tippett’s lung tumors are gone. Her liver tumor shrank 50 percent and is stable. She got married in July and says she feels great. “I don’t feel any different than you do. I’m not tired, I’ve got all my hair,” she said. “I want more people to know about it and to ask their doctors about it,” she said of immunotherapy and the testing that led her to it. NOT THE WHOLE STORY That protein isn’t a very reliable predictor, though. Some people with a lot of it don’t benefit from the drugs and the opposite also is true. There are other checkpoints besides that one, too. Researchers increasingly are focusing on something else Tippett had: a high number of flawed genes. It’s a sign that tumors have been evolving over time and are hard to treat with drugs that target a single gene. It sometimes accompanies two other DNA problems that some checkpoint drugs already are approved to treat. Lyon, the San Diego man, had nearly two dozen different mutations after his skin cancer spread widely. In October 2015, he started on Opdivo and was in near-complete remission within two months. Recent tests showed no active cancer in his spine and lungs, and doctors think small spots in his brain and liver may be scar tissue, though they can’t know for sure. A test for tumor DNA in his blood found none. “It would appear my cancer is all dead,” he said, and called it “nothing short of miraculous” that gene tests led to successful treatment after years of trial and error. “I’m so grateful. No one’s lucky that gets cancer but I may be in an era where there’s a way through this tunnel.” Three-quarters of patients who are helped by checkpoint drugs have long-lasting benefits, as Lyon did, said Dr. Steven O’Day, an immunotherapy expert at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. “When you respond, it’s a home run in terms of long-term survival,” O’Day said. “But we still have to be better at predicting who those patients are.” THE DARK SIDE Others have not been so fortunate. In November, French researchers reported that 12 of 131 patients, or 9 percent, got much worse after checkpoint drugs, which seemed to speed their tumor growth. Kurzrock checked with colleagues and quickly found more cases — a 73-year-old man with bladder cancer, a 65-year-old woman with endometrial cancer, and a 44-year-old breast cancer patient whose tumors “just exploded” in size within two months of immunotherapy. In a report on 155 patients, she tied several gene mutations to this risk. Kurzrock has consulted for some gene-medicine makers and co-founded a company using a software program to determine best treatments for patients depending on their tumor genes. The unfortunate cases are a reality check, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. “We are not paying close enough attention to those people” and need to know whether they fared badly because of their treatment or for other reasons, he said. SHOULD WE BE DOING ‘IMMUNOGRAMS’? That’s the question Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, posed a gene medicine conference he organized in March at the suburban San Diego research center. Should there be baseline tests to map what patients’ natural defenses look like? For example, how many immune system soldiers called T cells do they have in the area of the tumor? Max Krummel is working on a roadmap to do that. The University of California, San Francisco, scientist heads a project with $10 million from three companies that make checkpoint drugs. He is analyzing hundreds of tumor samples to see what immune system features spell success or failure. “We’re not looking at how the immune system changes,” but for what starting point works best with the drugs, he said. “What we’re seeing is that the kinds of cells you have in a tumor predict who’s going to respond.” Krummel, who was involved in work that led to Yervoy, the first checkpoint drug, has started a company to try to tune up one part of the immune system he thinks is key to maintaining a healthy balance. Cancer exists because the immune system isn’t working as it should, he said, so successful immunotherapy may require “treating the immune system, not treating the tumor.” ___ Marilynn Marchione can be followed on Twitter: @MMarchioneAP ___ 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.
|
10853
|
Artificial pancreas would dial up diabetes control
|
"This story describes the development of ""artificial pancreas"" technology. Despite a lack of data on safety or efficacy, the story unwisely presumes eventual clinical use and its potential to significantly improve the lives of kids with Type 1 diabetes. The report would have been stronger if it had followed a few best practices: It should have made clear that the prototype technology may fail, and that other treatments for Type 1 diabetes may overtake it. Pancreas and islet transplants should have been mentioned as other developing treatments. It should have explored the sources’ potential conflicts of interest, and consulted with other experts less sanguine about the technology. It should have cited at least some early data–there must be some results encouraging enough to justify multiple companies spending money to develop the technologies. There is nothing wrong with reporting about early research into treatments, especially for a serious disease affecting children. But the story needs to maintain a skeptical distance, and do diligent reporting, to ensure readers get a realistic view of the technology and its promise."
|
mixture
|
"While the artificial pancreas technology is still in prototype, two elements of it–the insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor–are currently used. As a matter of course, the costs of this technology should be cited. We are not given a clear sense of how many people have been tested on this technology, but if the story can confidently state that ""Experts say the technology will revolutionize treatment of type 1 diabetes and may help people with advanced type 2"" then it should be able to cite some data at this point. The story does not explore the possible risks of the developing technology. The story does not cite any evidence of safety or efficacy of the developing technology. No overt disease-mongering. The story quotes four medical sources, one of whom is directly linked to a device maker. But the report fails to note whether any of the other sources, including the central figure, has a financial conflict of interest. A story about a developing technology with potentially significant economic payoff should clarify the status of each source. The story makes clear that the current treatment regimen, even with the two existing hardware devices, is demanding and difficult. It explains that diet is important to controlling Type 1 diabetes. The story makes clear that the ""artificial pancreas"" technology is not available and is likely to be years away from implementation. The story does an excellent job of distinguishing between the existing hardware elements of the ""closed-loop"" system and the software currently under development. There isn’t any evidence that the story relied solely or largely on a news release."
|
|
4290
|
International aid helps Mozambique fight cholera in Beira.
|
As Mozambique battles to control a fast-spreading cholera outbreak in the cyclone-hit central city of Beira, international assistance is arriving.
|
true
|
Health, Cholera, Africa, International News, Mozambique, Malawi
|
The number of cholera cases jumped to 271 over the weekend although no deaths from the disease had been reported. More than 500 people have died in Mozambique from Cyclone Idai , which slammed into Beira more than two weeks ago, according to government officials. Another 259 people died in Zimbabwe and 56 in Malawi, bring the three-nation total to more than 815. Authorities warn the tolls are preliminary as flood waters recede and reveal more bodies. The Chinese government has sent doctors to fight the cholera outbreak in Beira and on Sunday Chinese aid workers sprayed anti-cholera disinfectant in parts of the port city of 500,000. The World Health Organization has said some 900,000 cholera vaccine doses are expected to arrive on Monday, with a vaccination campaign to start later this week. “You know we came from China and our government cares very much about the situation in Beira here in Mozambique. And China has a good relationship with Africa, so the China government sent medical doctors to come and give some treatment,” said Wang Shenguin, spokesman for the Chinese doctors. The U.S. military joined the international humanitarian aid efforts to Mozambique by airlifting food and relief supplies from South Africa. The first round-the-clock flights to deliver supplies from the U.N. World Food Program started Saturday and continued Sunday from King Shaka International Airport in Durban, South Africa, said Robert Mearkle, U.S. embassy spokesman. He said the commodities airlifted from Durban were from the World Food Program’s internal stock. “Separately from these shipments, the United States has provided nearly $3.4 million in additional funding for the World Food Program to deliver approximately 2,500 metric tons of rice, peas, and vegetable oil to affected people in Sofala, Zambezia, and Manica provinces,” said Mearkle. “This lifesaving emergency food assistance will support approximately 160,000 people for one month.” The U.S. government has provided nearly $7.3m in humanitarian assistance to help people in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi who have been affected by Cyclone Idai, including more than $6.5 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development, said Mearkle. The cholera outbreak in Beira started on Wednesday with five cases of the acute diarrheal disease confirmed by national health director Ussein Isse. The number of cases jumped to 271 over the weekend. Beira’s crowded, poor neighborhoods are at particular risk. Children and other patients curled up on bare beds at a treatment center in Beira, some with anxious parents by their side. They had intravenous drips to help replace fluids. Doctors Without Borders has said it is seeing some 200 likely cholera cases per day in the city, where relief workers are hurrying to restore the damaged water system and bring in additional medical assistance. Cholera is spread by contaminated food and water and can kill within hours if not treated. The disease is a major concern for the hundreds of thousands of cyclone survivors in the southern African nation now living in squalid conditions in camps, schools or damaged homes. Some drink from contaminated wells or filthy, stagnant water. As health responders stress the need for better disease surveillance, the United Nations’ deputy humanitarian coordinator in Mozambique, Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, has said all cases of diarrhea are being treated as though they are cholera. Cholera is endemic to the region, and “it breaks out fast and it travels extremely fast,” he told reporters. Doctors Without Borders has said other suspected cholera cases have been reported outside Beira in the badly hit areas of Buzi, Tica and Nhamathanda but the chance of spread in rural areas is smaller because people are more dispersed. Mozambican officials have said Cyclone Idai destroyed more than 50 health centers in the region, complicating response efforts. The United Nations has said some 1.8 million people need urgent help across the sodden, largely rural region. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa
|
8253
|
London hospital briefly issues critical alert as cases surge.
|
A hospital in London briefly declared a “critical incident” on Friday due to shortage of intensive care beds caused by a rise in the number of patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Northwick Park Hospital in northwest London told staff it did not have enough space for patients needing critical care, several newspapers and broadcasters reported. “We can confirm that our critical incident status has been stood down,” the hospital said in a statement. “Critical care capacity for patients with coronavirus is being organised on a cross-London basis so that hospitals and organisations work together to deliver the best possible care for patients and that is what has happened in this case.”
|
3486
|
Japan revises Fukushima cleanup plan, delays key steps.
|
Japan on Friday revised a roadmap for the cleanup of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, further delaying the removal of thousands of spent fuel units that remain in cooling pools since the 2011 disaster. It’s a key step in the decadeslong process, complicated by high radiation and other risks. The government and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., are keeping a 30- to 40-year completion target.
|
true
|
AP Top News, Tsunamis, Tokyo, General News, Business, Science, Asia Pacific, Japan
|
A look at some of the challenges: ___ MORE THAN 4,700 UNITS OF FUEL IN POOLS More than 4,700 units of fuel rods remain at the three melted reactors and two others that survived the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. They pose a high risk because their storage pools are uncovered and a loss of water in case of another major disaster could cause the fuel rods to melt, releasing massive radiation. Their removal at Units 1 and 2, after repeated delays, is now postponed by up to 10 years from the initial target of 2018, with more preparation needed to reduce radiation and clear debris and other risks. Fuel rod removal at the Unit 1 reactor pool will begin sometime in 2027-2028, after debris is cleaned up and a huge rooftop cover installed to contain radioactive dust. Fuel removal at Unit 2 pool is to begin in 2024-2026. Work at the Unit 3 reactor pool began in April 2019 and all 566 units will be removed by March 2021. TEPCO has emptied the pool at Unit 4, which was offline and only suffered building damage, and aims to have all remaining rods in reactor pools removed by 2031 for safer storage in dry casks. ___ 1.2 MILLION TONS OF RADIOACTIVE WATER TEPCO has been unable to release the 1.2 million tons of treated but still radioactive water kept in nearly 1,000 tanks at the plant, fearing public repercussions and the impact on the area’s struggling fishing and agriculture. The amount of water is growing by 170 tons daily because it is used to cool the melted fuel inside the reactors. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry recently drafted a proposal to release the water to the sea or the air, or a combination of both. TEPCO says it can only store up to 1.37 million tons, or until the summer of 2022. Time is limited because preparation is needed before any water release. TEPCO and the government say the tanks pose risks if they were to spill their contents in another major earthquake, tsunami or flood. They also need to free up space to build storage for melted fuel removed from reactors beginning 2021. The water is still somewhat contaminated, but TEPCO says further treatment can remove all but radioactive tritium to levels allowed for release. Experts say tritium is not harmful to humans in small amounts and has been routinely released from nuclear plants around the world. ___ 880 TONS OF MELTED FUEL Removing an estimated 880 tons of molten fuel from Fukushima’s three melted reactors is the toughest and unprecedented challenge. It’s six times the amount dealt with in the aftermath of the 1979 Three Mile Island partial core melt in the United States. Removal is to begin in 2021 at Unit 2, where robotic probes have made more progress than at Units 1 and 3. A robotic arm was developed to enter the reactor from the side to reach the melted fuel, which has largely fallen to the bottom of the primary containment vessel. A side entry would allow the simultaneous removal of fuel rods in the pool from the reactor’s top. The removal of melted fuel will begin with just a spoonful, which will be carefully measured and analyzed under International Atomic Energy Agency instructions. The government hopes to gradually expand the scale of the removal, though further expertise and robotic development is needed. The first decade through 2031 is a crucial phase that will affect future progress. Units 1 and 3 fell behind due to high radiation and water levels respectively, requiring more investigation. ___ 770,000 TONS OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE Japan has yet to develop a plan to dispose of the highly radioactive melted fuel and other debris that come out of the reactors. TEPCO will compile a plan for those after the first decade of melted fuel removal. Managing the waste will require new technologies to reduce its volume and toxicity. TEPCO and the government say they plan to build a site to store waste and debris removed from the reactors, but finding one and obtaining public consent will be difficult. Additionally, there will be an estimated 770,000 tons of solid radioactive waste by 2030, including contaminated debris and soil, sludge from water treatment, scrapped tanks and other waste. They will be sorted, treated and compacted for safe storage under a plan to be compiled by 2028. ___ 8 TRILLION YEN The government says Fukushima’s decommissioning cost is estimated at 8 trillion yen ($73 billion), though adding compensation, decontamination of surrounding areas and medium-term storage facilities would bring the total to an estimated 22 trillion yen ($200 billion). The Japan Center for Economic Research, a think tank, estimates that decommissioning alone would cost 51 trillion yen ($470 billion) if the water is not released and tritium removal technology is pursued. ___ 10,000 WORKERS More than 10,000 workers will be needed annually in coming years, about one third assigned to work related to the radioactive water. Securing experienced workforce for the decadeslong cleanup is a challenge in a country with rapidly aging and declining population. Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Toyoshi Fuketa raised concerns about a possible labor shortage following recent minor mishaps at the plant. TEPCO has expressed intention of hiring workers for the decommissioning under Japan’s new policy allowing more unskilled foreign labor, but the plan is on hold following government instructions to address language and safety concerns. ___ Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi
|
7802
|
International campaigners urge UK to allow 'three-parent' IVF babies.
|
Campaigners urged British lawmakers on Sunday to seize a chance to become the first in the world to allow three-way fertility treatments to families who want to avoid passing on incurable diseases to their children.
|
true
|
Health News
|
In an open letter ahead of a parliamentary vote scheduled for Tuesday, charities and advocacy groups said the opportunity “offers families the first glimmer of hope that they might be able to have a baby that will live without pain and suffering.” The technique under debate is known as mitochondrial donation and is often referred to as three-parent in vitro fertilization (IVF) because the offspring would have genes from a mother, a father and from a female donor. The process, still only at the research stage in Britain and the United States, involves intervening in the fertilization process to remove faulty mitochondrial DNA, which can cause inherited conditions such as fatal heart problems, liver failure, brain disorders, blindness and muscular dystrophy. It is feared by critics who say it effectively allows “designer babies” because it would involve implanting genetically modified embryos into women. Britain last February set out draft legislation that, if passed, would make it the first country to allow the technique. In their letter, groups including the U.S.-based United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, the Australian Mitochondrial Disease Foundation and groups from France, Germany, Britain and Spain, described mitochondrial disease as “unimaginably cruel”. “It strips our children of the skills they have learned, inflicts pain that cannot be managed and tires their organs one by one until their little bodies cannot go on any more,” they wrote. They said they were aware “that no novel medical procedure is without risk”, but had “absolute confidence” in scientific panels that have examined the technique. The issue of mitochondrial donation has been scrutinized by several expert panels in Britain, including the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Many scientists and medics have welcomed the government’s decision to push ahead. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said it would “allow the law to catch up with public and scientific opinion”. “Parents who know what it means to care for a sick and suffering child with mitochondrial disease are the people best placed to decide ... whether mitochondrial donation is right for them,” he said. “It is time to allow them to make that choice.”
|
1734
|
Stricter controls needed after surge in marijuana ills: U.S. anti-pot group.
|
The number of children treated annually for accidental pot consumption in Colorado has reached double-digits and a drug treatment chain has seen a surge of teens treated for cannabis abuse, a leading U.S. anti-marijuana group said on Monday.
|
true
|
Health News
|
In a report, marijuana legalization foe Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) also pointed to higher-than-average use in the first states to sanction recreational cannabis, Colorado and Washington state, and an increase in burns from butane hash oil production. “We need a pumping-of-the-brakes on the marijuana industry,” SAM’s president, Kevin Sabet, said in an interview. “When we have hospitalizations and burns and deaths, we need to stop many of these products from being sold.” The report comes amid rapidly shifting state laws governing marijuana use. Voters in four U.S. states opted to legalize its recreational use, most recently in Oregon and Alaska. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Legalization opponents say Washington state and Colorado have been flooded with dangerous products, from infused candies and concentrates, many far stronger than what might have been smoked in the 1960s. At least 14 Colorado children ages 3 to 7 were sent to hospitals in the first half of 2014 for accidentally ingesting marijuana products, compared with eight in 2013 and four between 2008 and 2011, SAM said of state data. In Colorado, teen marijuana abuse treatment at about a dozen Arapahoe House Denver-area facilities increased by 66 percent between 2011 and 2014, SAM cited that group as reporting. Separately on Monday, Colorado health officials announced a $4 million Internet, television and radio public-education campaign aimed at exposing the dangers of cannabis-infused products and aspects of the law. Use among people ages 18 and older from 2011-2013 in Colorado and Washington has risen about 3 percentage points, from roughly 16 to 19 percent and from 15 to 18 percent, respectively, SAM said, citing federal data. The national average is about 12 percent. The University of Colorado observed 17 cases of marijuana-related burns in 2014 and 11 cases in 2013, largely from botched butane hash oil extractions, with one case each in the three years prior, SAM said. “Trying to draw any conclusions with less than one year of data is irresponsible,” pro-cannabis Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Mason Tvert said. He said research on pot has drawn conflicting results and has been limited by the federal ban.
|
26579
|
“COVID literally stands for Chinese Originated Viral Infectious Disease.”
|
COVID-19 is an abbreviation of “coronavirus disease 2019.” “CO” stands for “corona,” “VI” stands for “virus” and “D” stands for “disease.” The number 19 reflects the year the disease was identified — 2019.
|
false
|
China, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Viral image,
|
"President Donald Trump has been criticized for calling the new coronavirus as the ""Chinese Virus,"" a term some fear will encourage xenophobia and abuse against Asian Americans. But a recent Facebook post would have you believe the president’s word choice is closer to the truth than news reports say. ""Hate to break this to all of the morons who call themselves journalists,"" the March 25 post says. ""COVID literally stands for ‘Chinese Originated Viral Infectious Disease and the number 19 is due to this being the 19th virus to come out of China."" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) That’s because it’s literally wrong. The 2019 novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, on Dec. 31, 2019. The deadly disease caused by this coronavirus has since infected hundreds of thousands of people around the world. On Feb. 11, the World Health Organization announced that the name for the disease would be COVID-19 and the complete official name for the virus that causes the disease would be ""severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2"" or ""SARS-CoV-2."" Until that point, the virus and the infection had been referred to as the ""2019 novel coronavirus"" or ""2019-nCoV."" ""Having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing,"" tweeted Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO. COVID-19 is an abbreviation of ""coronavirus disease 2019,"" the CDC says. ""CO"" stands for ""corona,"" ""VI"" stands for ""virus"" and ""D"" stands for ""disease."" The number 19 reflects the year it was identified — 2019."
|
3965
|
Tennessee names new state veterinarian.
|
The Tennessee Department of Agriculture has appointed a Samantha Beaty as state veterinarian and assistant commissioner for animal health.
|
true
|
Health, General News, Animal health, Tennessee, Veterinary medicine, Agriculture
|
Agency Commissioner Charlie Hatcher announced Wednesday that Beaty, who lives in Robertson County on a beef cattle farm, has 18 years of veterinary medicine experience. She will be responsible for protecting and monitoring animal health throughout the state. Beaty was previously the interim director the department’s C.E. Kord Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory, where she led diagnostic services to Tennessee animal owners and veterinarians. She has worked at the department since 2016. Beaty will replace Doug Balthaser as the interim state veterinarian.
|
11112
|
Switching to public transport or cycling/walking to get to work might help shed the pounds: Strengthens case for incentivising walking or cycling to boost population health, say researchers
|
This release reported on a study that tracked changes in participants’ weight as they used different modes of transportation to get to work. The study found that participants tended to lose weight when they switched from taking a car to walking, bicycling, or using public transport (and vice versa). The release did a good job of quantifying the results of the study and explaining the limitations of the research. It could have added more context for readers by mentioning cost differences between commuting methods, potential harms of alternative commuting approaches, funding sources for the study, and any previous research that has addressed this issue. According to the most recent U.S. census data, the majority of Americans use personal automobiles as their main form of transportation. What are the health impacts of our reliance on automobiles? The research covered in this news release tried to determine if non-automobile commuting methods (walking, bicycling, and public transportation) were associated with changes in one indicator of health — bodyweight — relative to commuting via automobile. As might be expected, they found that participants with self-powered commutes tended to weigh less than when they used a car to get to work. As the researchers point out, “these findings add to the case for interventions to promote the uptake of these more sustainable forms of transport.”
|
false
|
Journal news release,Observational studies,Weight loss
|
The release failed to mention any costs or savings associated with the different commuting approaches discussed in the study. A mention of any of the following costs such as public transportation fees, gasoline/fuel costs, vehicle maintenance, etc., would have earned the release a satisfactory rating. This release did an excellent job quantifying the potential benefits of switching to alternative commuting methods. Average reductions or gains of Body Mass Index (BMI) values were clearly stated, in addition to equivalent values in the unit of kilograms (kg) — a nice clarification for many who do not understand what BMI entails. This release failed to mention any potential harms associated with various types of commutes. It could have earned a Satisfactory rating here by discussing the risk of injuries associated with regular cycling vs. the risk of being injured in a car accident. Another “harm” the release could have acknowledged is housing affordability and how that affects how close someone is able to live to their place of employment. This release could easily be dismissed by readers who work in areas that are unaffordable to live in and who therefore don’t have the option to walk or cycle to work. The quality of evidence presented in this release was Satisfactory, mainly due to the clarity of its presentation. All of the presented evidence appropriately used the word “associated” to imply a correlation rather than a causation. Reduction in BMI was “associated” with a switch to non-driving commuting, not “caused by.” Furthermore, the story explains the limitations of their chosen observational study design by stating, “…no definitive conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect.” In addition, the release alludes to the study researchers controlling for confounding in their analysis. This was an especially refreshing “Satisfactory” mark for this release. It would have been extremely tempting to exaggerate automobile-based commuting as a serious health detriment. However, this story clearly presents the weight-loss benefits associated with alternative commute methods, without putting undue emphasis on the potential health issues associated with having a higher weight. The study was funded mainly by public health agencies in the UK, which adds to the credibility of the research. However, the release does not mention who funded the study. When considering that the benefit posited by this study was weight loss, this release did not present alternatives to a satisfactory level. It would have been nice to at least see a mention of other weight-loss methods. For example, does switching to a healthier diet also have the same impact on BMI as the effect of switching commute? Although the availability of non-automobile commute methods is arguably obvious, the release failed to at least mention the potential barriers that individuals may face when trying to use alternative methods. Switching to a different commuting method may be more difficult for certain individuals due to a variety factors — i.e. lack of suitable public transportation or bicycle-friendly road systems. It would have been better if the story at least acknowledged these difficulties. Although physical activity is not a novel approach to lowering BMI, it would have been nice to understand how the results found by these researchers add to a research gap or other information not already known about physical activity and BMI. This release did not use any unjustifiable language when presenting the evidence. It would have been very easy for this release to exaggerate the study’s claims. However, that temptation was successfully avoided.
|
1787
|
No place to hide for Africa's pangolins amid China buying spree.
|
Alongside dirt roads twisting through the dense tropical forests of Gabon, the scaly bodies of lifeless long-snouted pangolins dangle from sticks stuck in the ground by hunters.
|
true
|
Environment
|
The pangolin, a mammal that looks like an anteater but has the tough scales of a crocodile, has long been prized in central Africa as a bushmeat delicacy. But growing demand for it from Asia, where pangolin scales are used in Chinese medicine to help women lactate and to cure skin disorders, now threatens to hasten its demise and rob African countries of a precious resource. Conservationists say the demand boom is due to declining wild populations in Asia as well as high numbers of Chinese workers in Africa’s resource and timber sectors, located in remote regions of the continent’s interior. The example of Africa’s elephants, whose numbers have been slashed by demand from Asia for their ivory, have prompted conservations to mobilize to protect the pangolins. “It’s always been ivory but the new pressure is on the pangolin,” said Lee White, the British-born head of Gabon’s national parks agency, which runs the 13 national parks covering just over a tenth of the country’s territory. “We’re looking out for workers here putting out orders for pangolin and we’ve had to train sniffer dogs at the ports.” Shy and near-sighted, pangolins only venture out from the safety of their burrows or tree-top homes at night to scour for insects. When startled, they curl up into a ball – a technique that is futile against the cable snares set by local trackers. All eight of the world’s species of pangolin, which range from 30 to 100 cm (12 to 39 in) length, are threatened with extinction. Up until recently, African exports were thought to be done opportunistically and on a small scale. One parcel of scales was found nestled inside a tin of dog biscuits. But so far this year, more than 6 tonnes of African pangolin scales have been seized before export to Asia - more than the combined total of all previous seizures. Cameroon seized 1.5 tonnes at Yaounde airport in June, according to senior customs department official Etienne Tabi Mbang. Other shipments were intercepted from Kenya, Sierra Leone and South Africa. “There is potential for it to become more industrial as people realize they can make money from pangolin scales, and we are starting to see this already with seizures of large volumes of scales,” said Dan Challender, who is doing his PhD research at the University of Kent in England on the pangolin trade and co-chairs a pangolin specialist group. Within Asia, around 10,000 animals are seized annually despite a defacto trade ban, but Challender says this could represent just 10 to 20 percent of the total trade. Following the arrest of a dozen Chinese workers with pangolin scales last year, Gabon is working with researchers on an investigation into the growing exports. Francesca Baker, a post-graduate student at Imperial College London who is heading a Gabon research group, says villagers admit to selling carcasses to Asian workers. One such worker approached a local bushmeat processor and sought to strike a deal to purchase the scales. Neighboring Cameroon has also organized workshops for customs officials at air and sea ports to identify and seize pangolin shipments. But while conservationists praise the work of some African governments, they say tougher local legislation is required to protect them. Gabon has three pangolin species but only one, the giant pangolin, is protected from hunters. Even so, it is still served in local restaurants. “Despite Gabon being one of the better students in terms of protecting the environment, the penalties for infringements are far from being dissuasive,” said Eric Arnhem of the Wildlife Conservation Society of Gabon. In the seaside capital Libreville, pangolin meat is popular with the local elite. The meat is boiled for hours to remove the scales in restaurants in the chic Montee de Louis district and then dished out with cassava or banana for up to XAF 10,000($19.74) a plate, expensive compared with other dishes. “The pangolin is in great demand from our clients although it’s rare to see it in the market,” said Madeleine Sah, owner of one of the restaurants. “But when we have it, it is sold straight away.” (1 US dollar = 506.61 Central African CFA franc BEAC)
|
37579
|
Twitter user @into_the_brush provided an accurate account of attempting to be tested for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Seattle.
|
‘Seattle Coronavirus Testing’ Twitter Thread
|
unproven
|
Fact Checks, Viral Content
|
On March 2 2020, as six patients in Washington state were reported to have died of a novel coronavirus, a Twitter user going by @into_the_brush shared a thread about their purported attempts to be tested for the virus in Seattle.In the first tweet, the person posting said: They were a resident of Seattle, had “a history of chronic bronchitis,” and also claimed they had “all symptoms of COVID-19.” Moreover, they indicated their workplace was a clinic frequented by people over the age of 65, adding they did not wish to potentially spread coronavirus should they test positive for the strain:I live in Seattle, I have all symptoms of COVID-19 and have a history of chronic bronchitis.Since I work in a physical therapy clinic with many 65+ patients and those with chronic illnesses, I decided to be responsible and go to get tested. This is how that went.— sketchy lady (@into_the_brush) March 3, 2020For clarification, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)’s Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) “Symptoms” page listed the following three extremely common features to many illnesses as the known symptoms of COVID-19:We would also note the user described a “history of chronic bronchitis.” A list of symptoms for bronchitis was a bit longer, but it included all known three COVID-19 symptoms:Based on the first and most viral tweet of the thread, it wasn’t immediately clear why the user believed that their symptoms were attributable to COVID-19 or novel coronavirus versus bronchitis, the latter of which they claimed to contract with regularity. It was possible to guess at some possible circumstances behind their reasoning, such as:On March 3 2020, CBS News reported that four of the six deaths in Washington state were in the same nursing home:[Novel coronavirus or COVID-19] has killed six people in the [United States], four from one nursing home near Seattle and two others in the same county. The cluster of deaths at the nursing facility in King County highlights the serious threat the disease poses to the elderly and infirm. There were just over 100 cases in 15 states as of Tuesday morning, with New Hampshire and Georgia being the most recent to join the battle against the virus.As we were referencing CBS News’ reporting, the page updated to show that there had been at least three additional deaths in the United States, bringing the total number up to nine. The additional three fatalities were also in the state of Washington. That article was formatted with live updates, and just two paragraphs down the page, only two deaths had been reported.That section was about the risk of asymptomatic carriers in Washington (and possibly beyond):While their research has yet to be peer-reviewed, a team of scientists in Washington said the state’s [first] two deaths could be the tip of an iceberg: They said hundreds more people in King County, where Seattle is located, may already have been exposed to the disease.The potential for mild or even asymptomatic cases to go undetected but still spread COVD-19 has been noted repeatedly by health officials as one of the biggest challenges in fighting the disease. It makes the virus a deceptive enemy and, in spite of assurances from officials that the risk to the general public is low, the stockpiling and last week’s stock market losses show that, like the disease itself, fear is still spreading.However, much of that reporting was on March 3 2020, and @into_the_brush’s thread was shared a day prior. In their next 10 tweets, they described purported efforts to connect with public health resources and get tested for COVID-19.First, the user said they attempted to use a “coronavirus hotline,” eventually giving up due to an excessive wait. Then they visited the CDC’s website, but failed to locate any information on COVID-19 testing for patients. They then described making several additional calls and receiving conflicting information, ultimately getting transferred back to the “coronavirus hotline.” At that point, they reported connecting with a hotline worker:I called the Corona[virus] hotline, was on hold for 40 minutes and gave up.So I looked at the CDC and Washington public health websites. They told me to see a primary care doctor, but there’s no information about testing.I called 2 primary care doctors. One told me they don’t know where to get testing, and that I should not to seek out testing. The other one told me to go to an urgent care or ER.I called the Urgent Care, they also had no idea where tests are, but told me to call the hospital.I called the hospital. They do not have tests, but transferred me to the COVID-19 hotline to “answer my questions”. Since I was transferred on a medical provider line, I actually got through. Progress!The user did finally connect to an individual dispensing information on coronavirus but claimed they did not “qualify” to be tested for coronavirus, concluding in several tweets:The lady with the hotline was very kind and professional and understood my concern about my own health and those at my clinic. (Which is currently being sanitized). However, I was told I do not qualify for testing. And I was not given a timeline or info on current resources.So. Who does qualify? Those who have been out of the country in the last 14 days, and those who have had contact with one of the few people who have been tested and come up positive. That’s it.The only way I can get treated is if my symptoms get so bad I develop pneumonia or bronchitis, which is very likely in my case. Then I’ll be in the ER and quarantined for several days while waiting for a test and for the results to come back.This is all incredibly frustrating because I am trying to do everything right in a system that punishes moments of “weakness” like taking days off.It’s also scary to know that I won’t be able to get help until I need life support.To sum up: this is not contained. No one knows what the fuck is happening. I can’t work. WASH YOUR FUCKING HANDS.Ah fuck! Didn’t realize there was a hashtag just for lil ol’ me! Check out above thread ☝️ #CoronaVirusSeattleSince this is getting attention.COVID-19 HOTLINE: 1-800-525-0127DON’T CALL unless you are experiencing all symptoms or have been exposed to a case. Leave the lines open to people who need it most. Any other questions can be answered on the CDC, WHO, or WA public health sites.In the last tweets of the original thread, @into_the_brush asserted:However, directly thereafter, the user said:The only way I can get treated is if my symptoms get so bad I develop pneumonia or bronchitis, which is very likely in my case. Then I’ll be in the ER and quarantined for several days while waiting for a test and for the results to come back.That statement partly conflicted with the one directly above it, as it appeared to show that testing was available to symptomatic patients in the emergency room. It also seemed indicative that the hotline worker may have advised the user to visit an emergency room for suspected coronavirus, noting that patients tested for COVID-19 in the ER would be quarantined while the test was pending. With that in mind, it seems possible that the actual information provided was that patients showing symptoms who had a reasonable risk of infection were quarantined after being tested, and that the user was instead seeking a form of coronavirus testing that did not involve a quarantine.Subsequently, the user continued as if they were infected, further claiming they would be unable to access treatment unless they became gravely ill. The thread’s final tweets concerned getting “treated” (not “tested”), and the user seemed to assume not only that they had been infected, but that no treatment would be rendered at all until the illness had progressed to be life-threatening:Those final assertions and the general tenor of the thread was oddly juxtaposed with a final tweet amplifying the “coronavirus hotline” number to a national audience, and advising Twitter users to keep “the lines open to people who need it most” and not to call it “unless you are experiencing all symptoms or have been exposed to a case.”That same phone number was shared on two subreddits, r/CoronavirusWashington and r/Seattle; the second thread linked to the Twitter thread above:COVID HOTLINE FOR WASHINGTON STATE: 1-800-525-0127 from CoronavirusWAThe COVID hotline is 1-800-525-0127, but getting tested is tough from SeattleA top comment on the thread in r/Seattle indicated the tweet had been repeatedly shared in that subreddit, and voiced suspicion of the user’s claims in general:Please don’t keep posting this. The account is anonymous, mostly retweets political news and never mentioned Seattle or healthcare before today AFAIK.A reverse search for the phone number indicated it was in use by the Washington State Department of Health (DOH), until recently as a one of two “consumer assistance” lines. It also appeared on the DOH’s dedicated coronavirus page, “2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak (COVID-19. )”A big blue box at the top of the page advised the line might be “temporarily unavailable” due to a high volume of calls, possibly in part due to the thread’s viral spread on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and other sites:The Washington State Department of Health has established a call center to address questions from the public. If you have questions about what is happening in Washington, how the virus is spread, and what to do if you have symptoms, please call 1-800-525-0127 and press #. Note: The DOH coronavirus hotline (1-800-525-0127, press #) is experiencing high traffic and may be temporarily unavailable.That page did lack information about testing as it concerned the general public, but included a section: “What’s the current risk?” In that section, the DOH alluded to hotline protocols for assessing risk and triaging callers based on their level of personal risk. Factors identified by the DOH included recent travel to and from affected regions, healthcare workers directly exposed to coronavirus patients, residents of areas with community spread, and individuals who had contact with patients who tested positive:In the Twitter thread, the user did not make any statements indicating they were exposed to COVID-19, and it seemed likely if they contacted the DOH’s hotline, they were assessed to be at low risk of contracting coronavirus based on current information at the time of the call. Also, by their own description the user did not appear to fit any of the DOH’s stated criteria for elevated risk of COVID-19 exposure. The DOH referred website visitors to review CDC guidance in assessing exposure risk for COVID-19.It was also clear all of the information dispensed to the caller was readily available on the DOH’s coronavirus page. Individuals not in the elevated risk of exposure categories were advised that risk of exposure for them was low. It seemed evident that if the user did accurately relay the call, they received information consistent with the above-quoted portion, and may have emphasized their personal fear of exposure — prompting the hotline worker to advise them to visit an emergency room to report symptoms, and explaining that people with suspected cases of coronavirus were tested and quarantined.On first glance, @into_the_brush’s Twitter thread appeared to describe a concerning lack of information available to people in Seattle and/or Washington State, as well as a poor public health response involving bureaucratic bungling — foretelling an inevitable rise in coronavirus infections. On closer inspection with all available information and alongside Washington State DOH’s COVID-19 guidance for residents, the thread seemed to possibly illustrate an efficiently operating coronavirus response.If the tweets were accurate, the caller cited no personal risk factors or exposure to coronavirus, even based on their location. They seemingly reported being assessed as low risk and advised to seek emergency treatment if they developed coronavirus symptoms or their reported symptoms worsened. Perhaps the best takeaway for the hundreds of thousands of Twitter users engaging with the thread was its final message: Do not to sponge up limited public health resources for COVID-19 or novel coronavirus by unnecessarily calling hotlines for the same information offered freely on DOH webpages.
|
26392
|
COVID-19 is “here to stay” and “we need to accept that and be prepared to deal with COVID long term.”
|
Arguing for relaxing restrictions, the speaker was making the point that staying indoors for another month or two won’t get rid of the virus. Experts say it’s too early to say for sure, but it’s eradicating COVID-19 will be a difficult undertaking — even after a vaccine Many expect it to remain in the environment and ebb and flow like the seasonal flu
|
true
|
Health Care, Public Health, Wisconsin, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
|
"The debate over when to re-open Wisconsin has escalated quickly. Frustration with the extended quarantine is mounting on social media, and residents around the state have defied social distancing orders to attend rallies demanding Gov. Tony Evers ease restrictions. Protesters say the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed enough to justify reopening, given the mounting economic and health impacts. One viral Facebook post — making the case to move toward re-opening the state — says we need to get used to living in a world with COVID-19. It was posted April 26, 2020, by Dr. David Murdock, a research cardiologist with the Aspirus health system in Wausau who was placed on leave after attending an April 19, 2020, re-open rally in Mosinee. ""The consensus medical view is that this virus is here to stay. In other words, this virus cannot be defeated simply by staying inside for a couple of months,"" wrote Murdock, who said he was observing from the rear of the rally at a safe distance to gather material for a memoir. ""The world will likely see periodic outbreaks, and we need to accept that and be prepared to deal with COVID long term."" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Murdock makes an array of points in the wide-ranging post, which has been shared more than 2,000 times. But we’re especially interested in the claim about the longevity of COVID-19. Of course, the ""Safer at Home"" order from Evers — and similar efforts across the country, including guidance from President Donald Trump — is not designed to eradicate the disease. It was implemented to slow the spread so hospitals aren’t overwhelmed. Understanding that, we still wanted to examine the underlying claim. COVID-19 has sickened 3 million and killed more than 200,000 globally. Is it really here to stay? We asked the experts. Many experts have said a true return to normalcy likely isn’t possible until a vaccine is widely available, which could be a year or more. ""We're going to probably all need to be used to social distancing for the next 12 to 18 months,"" John Raymond, CEO of the Medical College of Wisconsin, said during an April 27, 2020, online briefing for the Greater Milwaukee Committee. ""Until hopefully we have an effective vaccine, it's likely we're going to be living with COVID-19."" But a vaccine doesn’t necessarily mean the end of COVID-19. Like much about this coronavirus, this isn’t something we can say for sure yet. But experts we talked to said complete eradication would be a major undertaking. ""Absent a vaccine, I think it would quite likely become like seasonal flu or perhaps like some of the other coronaviruses that we are familiar with,"" said Bill Hanage, an associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard University’s School of Public Health. ""It is entirely plausible that this could become part of our regular landscape of respiratory viraI infections."" The vaccine he references would be a theoretical one that is 100% effective and gives lifelong immunity. But vaccines are ""almost never perfect,"" notes Barry Bloom, a professor of public health at Harvard. Bloom also expressed concern over the volume of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccinations on social media, which include a host of conspiracy theories about pushing people to vaccinate and concerns about how the vaccines may be dangerous. That could affect willingness to take a vaccine once it’s available. ""The vaccine is only a tool if it’s used,"" Bloom said. Hanage said an array of key unknowns will determine the long-term future of COVID-19. They include: Whether people can get re-infected, and how severe those recurrences would be How much immunity results from minor infections How the summer warmup alters infectiousness (based on both people’s behavior and the reaction of the virus itself; generally coronaviruses don’t survive as long in warmer weather) Even if the virus does stick around, though, it may not be the threat it is today. ""If that immunity is not very long-lasting — and we have good reason from other coronaviruses including the original SARS, that it won’t be — what type of infections will people have when their immunity starts to wane?"" Hanage said. ""The first thing to say is we don’t know, but I think it’s also plausible to suggest they might be milder."" It’s worth noting that SARS — a disease caused by a coronavirus that killed 800 during a 2003 outbreak — has been eradicated. But there are key differences that make COVID-19 a more formidable foe. In a March 5, 2020, article for The Lancet medical journal, Annelies Wilder-Smith noted COVID-19 can be passed on by those with minor symptoms or none at all (SARS patients generally weren’t contagious until they had severe symptoms). And COVID-19 is more easily transmitted and has had a more prevalent community spread. ""The virus remains, and we need to learn how to deal with it,"" Wilder-Smith, a professor of emerging infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told PolitiFact Wisconsin. ""Certainly lock-down is only a temporary solution whilst we gear up to provide the true solution. Yes, we need to prepare for this reality."" Charles Branas, chair of the epidemiology department at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, told PolitiFact Wisconsin eradicating the virus like we did with smallpox ""will be challenging, to say the least."" Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health and professor of epidemiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said COVID-19 sticking around is ""likely, but not inevitable."" Khan noted some countries already are attempting to eliminate the virus. China, New Zealand, Australia and Vietnam have all set a goal of not just containment, but elimination. The New York Times reported April 24, 2020 that the adjoining nations of Australia and New Zealand are seeing just a handful of new infections each day and closing in on their ""extraordinary goal."" A widely shared Facebook post from a Wisconsin doctor said we need to face the reality that COVID-19 is ""here to stay"" and ""we need to accept that and be prepared to deal with COVID long term."" He was making the point that staying indoors for another month or two with extended shelter-in-place orders won’t get rid of the virus. (Though, as noted, the shelter-in-place orders are not meant to fully eradicate the virus.) Experts say it’s still too early to know this with complete certainty, since much remains unknown about the nature of immunity. And we have no clue how effective a future vaccine may be. But a best guess at this point is that COVID-19 could indeed stick around long-term, waxing and waning similar to the seasonal flu. Experts say there’s also reason to believe that lingering version could be less severe, though, a nuance Murdock did not address."
|
8653
|
Singapore's coronavirus struggle shows colossal task of global containment.
|
Held up as a role model for its battle against coronavirus, city-state Singapore is struggling with an infection spread that disease experts say bodes ill for global containment efforts.
|
true
|
Health News
|
The tiny Southeast Asian nation was one of the worst hit countries when the virus first spread from China in January, but a strict surveillance and quarantine regime helped stem the tide, with methods that drew praise from the World Health Organisation. As the virus later formed new hotspots in Europe and the United States, infecting nearly one million people globally, the trading and travel hub closed its borders. Guarding against the virus in Singapore is easier than in most places. The island of 5.7 million people takes less than an hour to drive across, has a handful of international entry points and a strong healthcare system. So far only four people have died, but the city-state’s containment measures are showing signs of strain. On Wednesday, Singapore reported its biggest daily jump in coronavirus cases, up 74 to 1,000 infections. More than 70% of those were domestic as opposed to imported, and many were unlinked to previous cases, a gauge of how far the disease is spreading in the community. Experts say the breaches of Singapore’s defences show how difficult it will be to curb the coronavirus spread elsewhere. “Singapore’s approach has been by far one of the very best,” said Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota. “What they are really showing the rest of the world is that this is just a difficult virus to beat back and keep down.” Singapore's domestic cases have doubled over the last week alone, while its total infections have increased nearly tenfold in the last month. reut.rs/2wUX81W “We should be mindful of what we do and where we go now,” said Irving Chung, a 43-year old compliance manager, describing Wednesday’s record case numbers as “worrying”. Singapore’s top medical authority Kenneth Mak said this week that the rising caseload was “cause for concern” and that they would closely monitor the trend over the coming weeks to assess whether intensified prevention measures were working. Taiwan - which has also been lauded for its stringent virus measures - has also recently seen a rise in imported cases and pockets of local outbreaks with no obvious source of infection that have made authorities anxious. Meanwhile in China, where draconian containment measures have helped curtail domestic transmission of the virus, officials have turned attention to intercepting an influx of “imported” cases from Chinese returning from abroad and paying closer attention to the potential for asymptomatic carriers to fuel a second wave of outbreaks as curbs on movement are eased. The WHO has previously praised Singapore for “leaving no stone unturned” in efforts to trace potential carriers, and said the country had shown how the disease can be held back without resorting to strict lockdowns now common around the globe. Schools, restaurants and offices remain open in Singapore, although recently imposed social distancing measures have seen bars shut and social gatherings limited to 10 persons. Asked about Singapore’s rising cases, the WHO’s representative in the region said on Thursday that the city-state and others needed to do more. “The virus never sleeps, and it is highly infectious. Intensification of control efforts are needed around the globe, including in Singapore,” said Ying-Ru Lo, Head of Mission and WHO Representative to Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore. Singapore has said a total lockdown will not eradicate the virus and any measures put in place have to be sustainable in an outbreak that could last for many months. “There is no such magic solution,” said Lawrence Wong, co-head of the government’s virus-fighting taskforce. But some local disease experts say the trends show tougher measures - such as closing schools and offices - may be needed. “Very frankly, I am worried, because we do see an increasing number of unlinked cases...and that is a sign that there are sporadic transmissions in the community that we are unable to get a handle on,” said Teo Yik Ying, dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore.
|
24515
|
"House Republicans pledged to introduce a bill to reform America’s health care system,"" but ""the 'party of no' has . . . failed to produce legislation."
|
Hoyer claims Republicans have no health care alternative
|
mixture
|
National, Health Care, Steny Hoyer,
|
"No matter which party controls Congress, its leaders usually refer to the opposition as ""the party of no."" The Republicans did it when they were in control, and now it's Democrats' turn. The latest complaint from House Democratic leaders is that Republicans have failed to produce an alternative to the five major health care bills circulating in Congress. In a Sept. 28, 2009, news release, Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer made this claim: ""In June, House Republicans pledged to introduce a bill to reform America’s health care system. Now, over 100 days and numerous excuses later, the 'Party of no' has not only failed to produce legislation, but they have yet to offer any real solutions or ideas on how to make health care more affordable and accessible to American families."" It's a matter of opinion whether Republicans have offered any ""real solutions."" But we can fact-check whether the GOP has, indeed, failed to introduce an alternative. Back in June, when the health care debate was just starting to heat up, Republicans were quick to say they wanted to be involved. Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said there would be a Republican alternative, one that he said would make health care affordable for everyone; protect people from ""being forced into a new government-run health care plan""; let people keep their doctors and their coverage; ensure that medical decisions are made by doctors; and improve health through prevention and disease management programs. ""We believe our plan is a big improvement on the current system that will cost far less than what the administration is proposing,"" said Boehner. Republican Roy Blunt of Missouri, who is leading the GOP's Health Care Solutions Group, pledged his party would offer a bill based on those principles soon enough. ""I guarantee you we will provide you with a bill that costs less and provides better care for the American people,” he said. Let's pause for a moment to explain some important Washington parlance. On Capitol Hill, many lawmakers present ""plans"" or ""blueprints."" Think of them as a rough draft for an eventual bill. Actually writing a bill is a slightly bigger step, although thousands of bills get introduced every year that never see the light of day — let alone the lights of a committee hearing. In that regard, Republicans have been prolific. Since the beginning of the year, they have introduced more than 35 health care reform bills. Many deal with small slices of the health care debate. For example, one, by Rep. Sam Johnson of Texas, would allow small businesses to band together to negotiate health care plans with providers. Another, by Rep. Darrell Issa of California, would allow nonfederal employees to enroll in the same health care plan that is currently enjoyed by members of Congress and federal employees. One bill, sponsored by Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, the leader of the conservative Republican Study Committee, got our attention because it has 44 co-sponsors and tackles many of the goals the GOP leadership outlined early in the summer. The Empowering Patients First Act, would, for example, allow patients to keep their coverage, as Republicans vowed. But neither that bill nor the others from Republicans has emerged as the Republican alternative. That's partly because the Democrats are in control and have used their own bills as the main legislation, but also because no GOP bill has drawn enough support to get momentum. We asked Michael Steel, Boehner's spokesman, whether Price's bill is the Republican-backed legislation that Blunt promised back in June. ""It's an alternative,"" he said of the Price bill, pointing us to a Web site that lists several Republican health care bills. For now, there is no single Republican bill, Steel said. A single bill is exactly what the Democratic leadership is looking for, said Hoyer spokeswoman Stephanie Lundberg. ""The RSC bill is not the Republican alternative,"" she said. ""When we say that the Republicans don't have a bill, it's because they said they would have an alternative bill,"" backed by the party. So, back to Hoyer's claim. He contends that the Republicans ""pledged to introduce a bill to reform America’s health care system"" but have failed to do so. That's incorrect in that there are dozens of GOP bills, including several that are highlighted on the Republicans' Web site. But he's right that the Republicans have not rallied behind a single bill the way they suggested back in June. That leaves the Truth-O-Meter stuck in the middle. ."
|
7514
|
UN agency: China virus ‘too early’ for emergency declaration.
|
A viral illness in China that has sickened hundreds of people and prompted Chinese authorities to effectively shut down at least three cities is not yet a global health emergency, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
|
true
|
Beijing, AP Top News, Travel, Geneva, International News, General News, Public health, Epidemics, China, United Nations, Asia Pacific, Health, Ebola virus
|
The U.N. health agency issued its evaluation after Chinese authorities moved to lock down three cities indefinitely earlier in the day and canceled major public celebrations and gatherings in Beijing during the Lunar New Year holiday period to try to contain the evolving outbreak. During a news conference in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that while the epidemic was clearly a crisis in China, “it has not yet become a global health emergency. It may yet become one.” The steps taken by China to shut down cities with more than 18 million people are unprecedented in public health, as countries typically shy away from such extreme measures. Tedros said that while WHO’s role is to provide science-based recommendations, “at the end of the day, a sovereign country has the autonomy to do what it thinks is right.” However, he added that WHO hoped the actions taken by China would be “short in duration.” The decision not to declare a global emergency “should not be taken as a sign that WHO does not think the situation is serious or that we’re not taking it seriously. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Tedros said. “WHO is following this outbreak every minute of every day.” The United Nations health agency made the decision after independent experts spent two days assessing information about the spread of the newly identified coronavirus. “It’s too early to consider this as a public health emergency of international concern,” Didier Houssin, the chair of the emergency advisory committee, said, noting that the panel “was very divided, almost 50-50.” WHO defines a global emergency as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response. Previous global emergencies have been declared for crises including the emergence of Zika virus in the Americas, the swine flu pandemic, and polio. A declaration of a global emergency typically brings greater money and resources, but may also prompt nervous foreign governments to restrict travel and trade to affected countries. Deciding whether an outbreak amounts to an international crisis therefore can also be politically fraught. In 2014, WHO initially resisted declaring the devastating Ebola epidemic in West Africa to be a global emergency because it feared the announcement would anger Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The U.N. agency ultimately declared the Ebola outbreak as a global emergency after more than 1,000 people had died and the virus had spread across multiple national borders. Houssin suggested during the news conference in Geneva that China’s view of the outbreak was a factor in Thursday’s decision. “The perception of this declaration by the international community, in the most affected country, by the people struggling with the virus, certainly has to be considered,” he said. Hundreds of people infected with the new virus have fallen ill in China, and 17 have died. The first cases appeared last month in Wuhan, an industrial and transportation hub in central China. Other cases have been reported in the United States, Japan, South Korea and Thailand. Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong reported their first cases Thursday. While airports in many major cities around the world have instituted health screenings for arriving passengers from China, Tedros said that “for the moment, WHO does not recommend any broader restrictions on travel or trade.” Dr. Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that regardless of the decision not to declare an emergency, many more resources were needed to stop the virus. “There are still many missing pieces in the jigsaw puzzle to fully understanding this new virus, which is spreading rapidly across China and most probably around the world,” Piot said in a statement. “There cannot be any complacency as to the need for global action.”
|
2833
|
Biocon to start selling breast cancer drug in India in February.
|
Biocon Ltd said its generic version of Roche’s Herceptin breast cancer treatment would be available to patients in India from the first week of February.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Bangalore-based Biocon jointly developed biosimilar trastuzumab, which received the Indian drug regulator’s marketing approval in November, with U.S.-based Mylan Inc. About 150,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in India, of which 25 percent are eligible for treatment with trastuzumab, Biocon said. Roche decided not to pursue a patent application for its breast cancer drug Herceptin in India, paving the way for generic drugmakers to produce cheaper copies, known as biosimilars because they are not identical to the original drug. Global sales for Herceptin were valued at about $6.4 billion in 2012, including about $21 million in India, Biocon said.
|
3064
|
Doctor’s report says Elizabeth Warren ‘in excellent health’.
|
Elizabeth Warren “is in excellent health,” according to a doctor’s report released by the Massachusetts senator on Friday, becoming the first in a trio of top Democratic presidential candidates over 70 to make their medical records public.
|
true
|
Health, General News, Politics, Election 2020, Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts
|
Warren’s last physical was in January and was conducted by Dr. Beverly Woo, who said she has served as the candidate’s primary care physician since 1999. Woo, from Boston, wrote in a one-page letter dated this week that Warren’s “only medical condition” is an underactive thyroid gland, which is easily treated by medication, the only kind she takes. The senator , 70, is up to date on some important protective health steps: She had her annual flu shot in October, and a routine mammogram in January found no sign of trouble. At 5 feet, 8 inches, she weighs 129 pounds, exercises regularly and follows a healthy diet, the doctor wrote. She has never smoked, misused drugs or had a problem with alcohol. Woo said Warren’s January checkup found no red flags. In fact, her blood pressure was lower than is usual for someone her age — 115 over 57 — and her heart rate was 70, levels that are seen in people who exercise regularly. “If I were seeing a 70-year-old woman in my clinic with these vital signs, physical exam and lab values, I would tell her that she is quite healthy for her age,” said Dr. Brian Antono, a family medicine specialist at Georgetown University School of Medicine who reviewed the health information released by Warren’s campaign. Warren underwent a long list of blood tests at that physical, and none signaled any underlying diseases. Importantly, they indicate she’s at low risk of heart disease and stroke. Her blood sugar was normal. Her cholesterol was in the healthy zone, with a total cholesterol of 193 and level of the so-called “bad” subtype, or LDL, at 88. Her level of HDL, or “good” cholesterol, was an unusually high 95. In contrast to the other cholesterol types where a lower number is better, an HDL higher than 60 is considered protective — and Antono said the thyroid condition Warren has sometimes bumps up that number. “Her normal cholesterol levels combined with the rest of her ‘puzzle pieces’ – normal blood pressure, normal blood sugar and non-smoker status – are all positive contributors to an overall reassuring heart health,” Antono said. The senator frequently jogs onto stage at her rallies and says she keeps healthy by walking frequently while talking on the phone or listening to audiobooks, with the goal of doing 7 miles (11 kilometers) daily. “But I don’t always hit it,” she says. Warren is among her party’s primary front-runners along with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 78, and former Vice President Joe Biden, 77. Also in the top tier is Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, who is 37. Sanders had a heart attack while campaigning in Las Vegas on Oct. 1 and has brushed off complaints his campaign wasn’t fully forthcoming about the extent of his health scare until he was subsequently released from the hospital. But he has promised to release full medical records by the end of the year. Biden says he’ll make his health records public before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3. A Pew Research Center poll from May found that about half of Democrats said it would be best for a president to be in their 50s. Another quarter said it would be best for a president to be in their 40s, and 16% preferred a president in their 60s. Just 3% said someone in their 70s would be best — and 6% said the same of a president in their 30s. Donald Trump, now 73, became the oldest newly inaugurated first-term president in January 2017. He has been criticized for releasing only cursory details on his health while running for the White House. His doctor, Harold Bornstein, wrote in December 2015 that Trump would “unequivocally” be the healthiest president in history and deemed the celebrity businessman’s condition “astonishingly excellent.” Bornstein later said he wrote the note in five minutes while a limo sent by the candidate waited outside his office. Last month, on a Saturday, Trump visited Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a stop that wasn’t listed on the president’s schedule and came just nine months after his last physical. Trump later said he went through a “very routine physical” and blamed the media for sparking unfounded fears that the visit meant he was ill. Figuring out how fit the septuagenarians — or any candidates — really are can be tricky. No law requires them to disclose their medical records, though doctor’s notes and the records from a most-recent physical, like Warren released, do provide snippets and important clues. Biden had a brush with death in 1988, requiring surgery to repair two brain aneurysms — weak bulges in arteries, one of them leaking. Medical records released in 2008 during Biden’s vice presidential campaign showed he’d made a full recovery, with no trouble since. ___ Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.
|
14674
|
Texas is growing twice as fast as the rest of the country.
|
"Straus said: ""Texas is growing twice as fast as the rest of the country."" Census Bureau statistics show that Texas, indeed, is growing faster than the United States as a whole. Experts explain that the rate of population growth is due to its birth rate, foreign immigration and migration from other states. Although Texas is growing faster that the country as a whole, it is not the fastest growing state. Although it ranked second behind North Dakota in 2014, it dropped behind North Dakota, Colorado, Nevada and Florida in 2015, according to data released after Straus published his video."
|
true
|
Population, Texas, Joe Straus,
|
"A campaign video put out by House Speaker Joe Straus, the San Antonio Republican, shows him talking up his re-election hopes and throwing out a claim about huge Texas growth. The video, posted Dec. 17, 2015, opens with Straus signing papers to run for re-election, where he’ll face off in the March 2016 Republican primary for the District 121 seat against former schoolteacher Sheila Bean and Jeff Judson, a former San Antonio tea party director. Straus, shown shaking hands with people, also says: ""Texas is growing twice as fast as the rest of the country. This is a time for men and women who are ready to confront our challenges with humility and with purpose."" Hold on; Texas is growing two times as fast as the other 49 states combined? By email, Straus spokesman Jason Embry pointed toward U.S. Census Bureau data as the basis of the claim. Texas’s population growth According to the Census breakdown, from April 2010 to July 2014, the U.S. population grew 3.3 percent. According to the data, Texas’ population grew 7.2 percent, which breaks out, Embry noted, to Texas growing twice as fast as the nation. It didn’t take long for us to identify more recent Census data covering national and state population estimates through June 2015. Then again, that information was released Dec. 22, 2015, shortly after Straus unveiled his video -- so he wouldn’t have had access to it. Regardless, the latest figures show Texas more than doubling the nation’s growth rate from April 2010 to July 2015 when the population of Texas grew 9.2 percent while the U.S. population grew 4.1 percent. Not that Texas was the fastest-growing state in the period; that distinction goes to North Dakota, which saw 12.5 percent population growth, the bureau says. Texas compared to the rest of the country We recognized, though, that the offered basis of the speaker’s claim compares Texas to the nation as a whole. That’s not what Straus said; he compared Texas to the rest of the nation not including Texas. So, does the growth of Texas double the growth of the rest of the country? You bet your boots, we confirmed, both if you look at growth from 2010 to 2014, the period singled out by Straus, and at shorter time periods. We got out our calculator and found that from mid-2013 to mid-2014, Texas grew by 1.8 percent; that rate was more than double the 0.7 population growth in the rest of the country. From April 2010 through July 2014, according to bureau data, the population of the rest of the country increased 2.9 percent (while Texas grew, as noted above, 7.2 percent). Throw in growth from mid-2014 to mid-2015, and the rest of the nation grew 3.6 percent over five-plus years (while Texas saw 9.2 percent population increase). Texas compared to other individual states There’s another way to make such comparisons -- state to state. And while North Dakota, not Texas, has lately been the fastest-growing state, Texas has ranked among the very fastest-growth states.From 2010 to 2014, year to year, Texas consistently ranked as one of the fastest-growing states. From mid-2014 to mid- 2015, only North Dakota, Colorado, Nevada and Florida grew faster than the Lone Star State. Year to Year Percentage Changes in Population, Fastest-Growing States 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 North Dakota 0.29 1.60 2.47 3.04 2.27 2.28 Colorado 0.38 1.41 1.41 1.53 1.60 1.89 Nevada 0.10 0.57 1.33 1.29 1.72 1.85 Florida 0.24 1.36 1.29 1.25 1.59 1.84 Texas 0.39 1.62 1.70 1.58 1.81 1.82 Source: U.S. Census Bureau (NST-EST2015-popchg2010_2015, Jan. 20, 2016) In this recent period, North Dakota was consistently the fastest-growing state; it grew more than 2 percent annually from mid-2012 to mid-2015 and spurted 3 percent from mid-2012 to mid-2013. Why is Texas growing? It doesn’t bear on the accuracy of the speaker’s claim, but we wondered why Texas remains fast-growing. By phone, Lloyd Potter, the Texas state demographer, said much of the state’s growth reflects net migration, the difference between the number of people entering and leaving the state in a given period of time. Potter also said migration to Texas had been driven by job opportunities in the state. ""People move to one place or another, usually because they’re looking for work,"" Potter said. ""There’s a small percentage of migration behavior that’s related to say retirement or maybe going to school, but the bulk of movement of people over space is a function of them seeking employment opportunities or leaving a place where there isn’t employment opportunities."" Another factor playing into the state’s relatively high population increases, Potter said, is a ""fairly healthy"" natural rate of increase, meaning births in Texas outnumbering deaths. Like Potter, William Frey, a Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program senior fellow, attributed the growth to fertility rates and domestic migration, as well as immigration. ""Texas is unusual because it’s one of the bigger attractions for immigrants in the United States but also has really stood out in term of domestic migration,"" Frey said. ""It’s one of the few states that have a large number of both."" Our Ruling Straus said: ""Texas is growing twice as fast as the rest of the country."" Census Bureau statistics show that Texas, indeed, is growing faster than the United States as a whole. Experts explain that the rate of population growth is due to its birth rate, foreign immigration and migration from other states. Although Texas is growing faster that the country as a whole, it is not the fastest growing state. Although it ranked second behind North Dakota in 2014, it dropped behind North Dakota, Colorado, Nevada and Florida in 2015, according to data released after Straus published his video. – The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing."
|
9723
|
Why Double Knee Replacement Might Be Best
|
Sweeping new fuel rules aiming to cut pollution belching from ships and save lives are now just a couple of weeks away but with no central policing agency and several countries still not signed up to them, compliance is a major concern.
|
true
|
knee replacement
|
From January 2020, ships must use fuel with a sulfur content of 0.5%, down from 3.5%, or install devices that strip out the toxic pollutant - known as scrubbers. As a result, refiners and shipping companies will spend billions of dollars in the years ahead on ensuring fuel and engines comply. But enforcement of the United Nations convention on cleaner fuels - known as MARPOL Annex VI - rests with individual countries and flag states, meaning for some routes and regions, compliance is already looking patchy. A handful of major states resisted pressure this month at the U.N.’s COP25 climate talks in Madrid to ramp up efforts to combat global warming, underscoring a need for collective action to cut carbon emissions and wider pollution. Despite two decades in the making, countries such as Israel and New Zealand have been unable to sign up in time for the 2020 IMO start date, while others such as Malaysia are considering how to apply the rules. “I am sure there will be pockets (of non-compliance) initially,” said Guy Platten, secretary general of the International Chamber of Shipping association. “Without co-ordination and consistency, shipowners will be placed in a no-win situation,” he said. So far, over 90 countries have adopted the rules, which were set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), leaving large parts of Africa and South America yet to sign up. Russia said in October that while it pledged to stick to its obligations in international waters from 2020, it wants to postpone introduction of the rules domestically to prevent a sharp jump in marine fuel prices for its domestic river fleet. The IMO said flag states which have signed up represented almost 97% of world merchant shipping by tonnage. “It is recognized that in some areas the coverage by port state is not 100%, but as soon as a ship trades to a state which has acceded to MARPOL Annex VI they could be subject to control,” it said. All commercial ships have to be registered, or flagged, with a particular country, partly to comply with safety and environmental regulations. Nick Makar, regulatory affairs advisor with the Marshall Islands registry, among the world’s top three flags, said it was an obligation under the MARPOL convention to establish sanctions, and penalties should be “adequate to discourage violations”. “Compliance will be considered on a case by case basis,” he said. Officials in Israel said the country was unable to meet the 2020 start date as a national proposal on the issue was still in the process of being amended. Israel’s environment ministry said its proposed regulation would be more stringent than MARPOL Annex VI, but gave no time frame for when the country would join. New Zealand’s government said this month it would sign up to the IMO convention, as the country’s previous administration had not initiated the process. Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter said there would be “a longer lead in time” before the rules applied to domestic ships, with stricter sulfur limits from early 2022. Genter’s office told Reuters fuel companies in New Zealand were preparing to supply international ships with 0.5% fuel on entering local waters, but did not say when it would happen. Malaysia, a major shipping hub for commodities and oil, said it would consider detaining ships until they had compliant fuel. “We will have to look into how we enforce these requirements on the ships,” said Baharin bin Abdul Hamid, director general of the Malaysia Marine Department. Countries in Europe are gearing up for full compliance using measures such as “sniffers”, which measure the sulfur content from a vessel’s flue gas, and rigorous oil sampling at port control areas, all with the threat of imprisonment. Elsewhere, the Panama Canal, one of the world’s busiest chokepoints, was taking steps to ensure readiness. “We expect some non-compliance internationally and for that reason we have been training our inspectors and engineers to secure compliance,” said Alexis Rodriguez, a specialist in environmental protection with the Panama Canal. The complexities of enforcement can be seen between neighboring countries such as the United States, which has signed up, and Mexico, which is outside. Mexico’s navy said ships still using dirty fuel would be allowed in its waters and would be allowed to sail into international waters as long as they remained outside the jurisdiction of those countries which have complied.
|
1566
|
Double joy as mother of only giant panda twins in U.S. pregnant again.
|
The mother of the only giant panda twins in the United States may soon deliver a second set of twins, Zoo Atlanta said on Tuesday, capping off an eventful month for lovers of the fluffy black and white bears across the globe.
|
true
|
Environment
|
Three years ago, mother bear Lun Lun gave birth to female cubs Mei Lun and Mei Huan, who are still at the Georgia zoo but could be returned this fall to China, which owns them, zoo spokeswoman Rachel Davis said. An ultrasound on Monday confirmed that Lun Lun, who turns 19 years old on Thursday, is once again pregnant with twins, the zoo said. Delivery of the new twins could be in the next few weeks, Davis said, calling the pregnancy a surprise. Panda pregnancies, famously rare in captivity and outside of China, are notoriously hard to establish or predict. The rarest member of the bear family with roughly 1,864 in the wild, pandas live mainly in bamboo forests high in the mountains of western China, where they subsist almost entirely on bamboo leaves. News of the pregnancy comes as twin panda cubs born at a zoo in Vienna, Austria, turned 16 days old on Tuesday and were said to be fit and healthy - and very cute. In China, twin panda cubs, a male and a female, were born at a breeding research base in southwest Sichuan province on Aug. 9, state broadcaster CCTV reported. In Atlanta, Lun Lun was impregnated by artificial insemination on March 28, the zoo said. There is no guarantee the birth will be successful since a condition known as fetal resorption, or Vanishing Twin Syndrome, in which a fetus dies before it is born, is “not uncommon” in pandas, the zoo said. If Lun Lun’s second set of twins survive, they will be her sixth and seventh cubs, Davis said. Newborn panda cubs are very vulnerable, being about the size of a stick of butter, according to the World Wildlife Fund. They can grow to up to 330 pounds (149.69 kg) as an adult. While about half of all panda deliveries are twins, mothers in the wild typically only care for one cub, Zoo Atlanta said. “Advances in animal care and veterinary care in zoos have resulted in successful rearing of twins both in the zoological population in China and in zoos outside China,” Zoo Atlanta said in a statement. While the zoo will be closely watching Lun Lun, the rest of the world can also keep an eye on her and perhaps watch her give birth over a live camera streamed at www.zooatlanta.org.
|
457
|
Ram Dass, psychedelic drug pioneer, dies at home aged 88.
|
Ram Dass, who in the 1960s joined Timothy Leary in promoting psychedelic drugs as the path to inner enlightenment before undergoing a spiritual rebirth he spelled out in the influential book “Be Here Now,” died at home on Sunday. He was 88 years old.
|
true
|
Health News
|
“With tender hearts we share that Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert) died peacefully at home in Maui on December 22, 2019 surrounded by loved ones,” according to his official Instagram account. “He was a guide for thousands seeking to discover or reclaim their spiritual identity beyond or within institutional religion.” The man who would become a serene, smiling forerunner of the New Age movement and play a leading role in bringing Eastern spirituality to the West grew up as Richard Alpert in a Jewish family in Newton, Massachusetts. He considered himself an atheist, and after graduating from Tufts University and earning a Ph.D. from Stanford University, was an up-and-coming psychology professor and researcher at Harvard University in the early ‘60s. Ram Dass would later describe himself at the time as a driven “anxiety-neurotic” who had an abundance of knowledge but lacked wisdom. Things began to change when Leary joined the Harvard faculty and the two became close friends. He had been introduced to marijuana in 1955 by his first patient while working as a health services counselor at Stanford University but Leary took him farther with psilocybin, the compound that gives certain mushrooms hallucinogenic qualities. In his first psychedelic experience, “the rug crawled and the picture smiled, all of which delighted me,” Ram Dass wrote in “Be Here Now.” Ram Dass and Leary wanted to open the mind to a deeper consciousness and conducted experiments that included giving the drug to “jazz musicians and physicists and philosophers and ministers and junkies and graduate students and social scientists.” Afterward, they had them fill out questionnaires about their experiences. Ram Dass said the subjects found bliss, heightened physical senses, accelerated thought processes, a relaxing of biases and hallucinatory experiences, such as seeing God. Ram Dass and Leary began including the hallucinogenic drug LSD, which like psilocybin was legal at the time, in their experiments but Harvard was upset that they were using students as subjects and fired them in 1963. The two former professors later moved to a mansion in Millbrook, New York, made available to them by heirs to the fortune of industrialist Andrew Mellon, and continued their experimentation there. Anti-war protest leader Abbie Hoffman and Beat Generation writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac were among those who dropped in. In an effort to avoid the disappointment of “coming down” from a drug experience, Ram Dass said he and five others locked themselves in a building at the estate for three weeks and took LSD every four hours. “What happened in those three weeks in that house no one would ever believe, including us,” he wrote in “Be Here Now,” but they were not able to avoid the inevitable return to reality. As the hippie movement grew, Ram Dass and Leary were among the counterculture luminaries at the Human Be-in, a 1967 gathering of some 25,000 people in San Francisco where Leary spread his “turn on, tune in, drop out” credo. Poets such as Ginsberg and Michael McClure, anti-war activists Dick Gregory and Jerry Rubin and rock acts Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane also took part. In search for a more permanent enlightenment, later that year Ram Dass went to India, as members of the Beatles would in 1968. He found what he was looking for in the form of Hindu mystic Neem Karoli Baba, also known as Maharaj-ji. Alpert said that through Maharaj-ji he found a spiritual love deeper than anything he had experienced. Ram Dass had taken a batch of LSD with him to India to share with holy men in order to get their opinion of it. At Maharaj-ji’s request, Ram Dass gave him a super-sized dose of LSD but said there was no discernable effect on him, nor was there three years later when they repeated the experiment. The guru gave him the name Ram Dass, which means servant of God, and he returned to the United States with long hair, a beard and instructions from Maharaj-ji to “love everyone and tell the truth.” Drugs would no longer be a major factor in Ram Dass’ life. He wrote about his conversion in “Be Here Now,” which became popular in the 1960s and provided a road map for the burgeoning New Age movement of spirituality. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who used LSD in his younger years, said the book “transformed me and many of my friends” and George Harrison used the title and general philosophy for one of his post-Beatles songs. “I was a sort of spiritual uncle to a movement - to a consciousness movement bringing the East and West together,” Ram Dass told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2004. Ram Dass spread his interpretation of Eastern philosophy as an author and lecturer, advising acolytes to be loving (“we’re all just walking each other home”) and to sublimate the ego for the sake of the soul (“the quieter you become, the more you can hear”). In 1978 Ram Dass co-founded the Seva Foundation, a charity to fight blindness and other health problems around the world. Ram Dass suffered a near-fatal stroke in 1997 that partially paralyzed him and hampered his speaking ability but left him feeling more compassionate and humble. In 2007 he moved to Hawaii and used the internet to deliver lectures. In his later years he focused on aging and dying without fear. “(I’m) an uncle to the Baby Boomers, teaching them about illness and aging,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2004. “Not to be frightened of aging. That it’s OK.”
|
22860
|
"Sixteen [federal] programs exist to fight homelessness"" and some of them are duplicative."
|
Congressman asks how many federal programs does it take to help homeless?
|
true
|
Georgia, Federal Budget, Jack Kingston,
|
"Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston wanted to be the guy to watch your tax dollars in Washington. The Savannah Republican recently made an unsuccessful bid to chair the House Appropriations Committee, which oversees the distribution of federal funds. It's considered one of the most powerful positions in Washington. Republican House leaders voted in favor of Kentucky's Harold Rogers. Kingston put together an 18-page presentation to make his case for the job. It was full of charts and numbers and graphs and a bandaged pig to illustrate the representative's big point -- that Washington's finances are being mismanaged, and Kingston had some conservative and innovative ideas to straighten things out. The presentation also included some numbers listed as ""facts"" that made us curious: There are 16 programs to combat homelessness. It was listed under the headline ""end duplicative programs."" Since fact-checking is our business, AJC PolitiFact Georgia couldn't pass this one up. Were there that many federal programs out there to help the homeless? And are they duplicative? The congressman's office told us their numbers came from U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma. Kingston's spokesman, Chris Crawford, said they believe federal efforts to help the homeless should be under one department, not the myriad of agencies that currently have programs to assist those without permanent shelter. ""Why are we duplicating the efforts so much?"" Crawford asked. ""Is there something that could be done to consolidate services?"" In 1987, Congress created the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to lead the federal government's efforts to aid homeless individuals and families. The agency's spokesman, Jason Kravitz, forwarded us its fiscal year 2009 report, which was released in April 2010. The ICH includes 19 federal departments and agencies, ranging from Health and Human Services to the Defense Department. Kravitz said part of the ICH's mission since Barack Obama became president has been to ""break down the silos"" that some say exist among the various government agencies. Kravitz said there has been concerns that some federal agencies were unaware of what others were doing to help the homeless. So does that mean there's duplication? ""Some [of the programs] target youth. Some target the mentally ill. Some target families,"" answered Sharon Price, the ICH's deputy director for policy. We reviewed the FY 2009 report and found 27 federal programs to help the homeless. The programs cost at least $1.2 billion. The greatest number of them, eight, are within the Department of Veterans Affairs. One program is aimed at reintegrating homeless veterans back into society, another provides health care, one offers dental care, and another identifies and coordinates services. Within Veterans Affairs, we found a Compensated Work Theory that, according to the FY 2009 report, ""endeavors to match and support work-ready veterans in competitive jobs, and to consult business and industry regarding their specific employment needs."" The VA budgeted $26.6 million toward that program. The Labor Department has a Veterans' Reintegration Program, which is ""the only nationwide program exclusively focused on assisting homeless veterans reintegrate into the workforce."" Its budget was $26.3 million. The federal Health and Human Services Department has two programs that, in part, try to assist homeless people with mental health issues. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has a Supportive Housing program that has a component that works with people with severe mental illness. HUD's Shelter Care program also works with people who are ""seriously mentally ill."" Additionally, there's an Emergency Food and Shelter program and Emergency Shelter grants. Steve Berg, vice president of programs and policy for the Washington, D.C.-based National Alliance to End Homelessness, is familiar with virtually every federal program for the homeless. The programs, he said, are different. Berg did say some have ""similar functions,"" like the Emergency Food and Shelter program and Emergency Shelter grants. He noted that the grants go to state and local government, while the Food and Shelter program funding goes to large nonprofit organizations. Indeed, local governments can manage how the grants are used. Berg said it is ""highly unlikely"" that one person would get the same service from different programs. Berg said some programs, like PATH, focus on implementing initiatives to help the homeless, while Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals center on finding best practices to aid homeless Americans. ""There are reasons why each [program] exists,"" Berg said. In summary, we found more federal programs aimed at helping the homeless than Kingston did. Some of the programs do share the same goals, although Berg noted there are some differences in who gets the funding and how they get used. We believe Kingston's statement is accurate, but more information shows there are some differences in about all of these programs. Kingston may not have gotten the assignment he wanted, but the congressman gets a pretty high mark on our rating system, ."
|
36530
|
"Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke against abortion in a comment alluding to his ""I Have a Dream"" speech."
|
Did Martin Luther King, Jr. Say ‘the Dream’ Cannot Survive if Women Have Abortions?
|
false
|
Disinformation, Fact Checks
|
In January 2019, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the passage of a new abortion law in New York state occurred in close proximity, facilitating the circulation of the following quote meme:The above-reproduced quote meme included a photograph of King and the following quote:“HOW CAN THE ‘DREAM’ SURVIVE IF WE MURDER THE CHILDREN?EVERY ABORTED BABY IS LIKE A SLAVE IN THE WOMB OF HIS OR HER MOTHER.THE MOTHER DECIDES HIS OR HER FATE.”Although what appeared to be King’s signature was part of the meme, it lacked any references to a specific speech, interview, or other commentary he made.The suggestion that King voiced opinions on the morality or legality of abortion was chronologically iffy, as the debate over the practice didn’t really get into full swing in the late 1960s and early 1970s; the National Right to Life Committee was established in 1973.We were unable to locate any specific position Dr. King took on the matter of abortion. But in 1966, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) awarded Dr. King the PPFA Margaret Sanger Award — “given annually to individuals of distinction in recognition of excellence and leadership in furthering reproductive health and reproductive rights.” A page on Planned Parenthood’s site notes that Coretta Scott King delivered an acceptance speech attributed to her husband:Dr. King’s award was presented on May 5, 1966. The citation read “This award is presented to the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., for his courageous resistance to bigotry and his lifelong dedication to the advancement of social justice and human dignity.“Facing jail, abuse and physical danger, Dr. King’s unceasing efforts – in behalf of all Americans – to win freedom for the Negro people parallel closely Mrs. Sanger’s fight over the last half-century for the emancipation of women from the burdens of perpetual child-bearing and the emancipation of children from a future of poverty and hopelessness. Neither Mrs. Sanger nor Dr. King has hesitated to challenge unjust laws, cruel social customs and blind prejudice that hold people in ignorance and degradation. Our courts, our legislatures and – most of all – the human heart and mind have been the crucible in which they have forged a nobler history for all mankind.“In the tradition of all great humanitarians who have seen that human life and progress are indeed indivisible, Dr. King has lent his eloquent voice to the cause of world-wide voluntary family planning.“For Martin Luther King’s unique qualities of understanding, compassion and bravery, and for his wise and unwavering leadership in securing for all people their basic human right to knowledge, dignity and opportunity that are the fount and principle of Margaret Sanger’s life, this award is presented.”The page also reproduced a letter sent from Dr. King to Cass Canfield, then chairman of the Executive Committee of the PPFA World Population Emergency Campaign:Words are inadequate for me to say how honored I was to be the recipient of the Margaret Sanger Award. This award will remain among my most cherished possessions. While I cannot claim to be worthy of such a signal honor, I can assure you that I accept it with deep humility and sincere gratitude. Such a wonderful expression of support is of inestimable value for the continuance of my humble efforts.Again let me say how much I regret that at the last minute urgent developments in the civil rights movement made it impossible for me to be in Washington to personally receive the award. My wife brought glowing echoes of the wonderful reception and impressiveness of the total occasion.I am happy to be the recipient of the Margaret Sanger Award and I can assure you that this distinct honor will cause me to work even harder for a reign of justice and a rule of love all over our nation.Sincerely yours,Martin Luther King Jr.King’s words in 1966 were starkly at odds with the quote attributed to him in the meme.But that quote was not fabricated — it just was not one uttered by Dr. King. Neither did it date to the late 1960s. In 2017, King’s niece Alveda King was quoted by anti-abortion site Live Action:Decades after King gave his famous speech, his legacy lives on. Yet, his niece, Dr. Alveda King, is speaking out about why the fulfillment of King’s Dream remains under threat. In a piece written for Priests for Life, Alveda King penned her thoughts about why abortion is undermining her uncle’s Dream:Oh, God, what would Martin Luther King, Jr., who dreamed of having his children judged by the content of their characters do if he’d lived to see the contents of thousands of children’s skulls emptied into the bottomless caverns of the abortionists pits?…How can the “Dream” survive if we murder the children? Every aborted baby is like a slave in the womb of his or her mother. The mother decides his or her fate…If the Dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is to live, our babies must live. Our mothers must choose life.With respect to the New York law:The [Reproductive Health Act] takes abortion out of the criminal code; the state will now regulate it as a matter of public health. It also expands the pool of medical professionals who are authorized to perform abortions and permits abortions after 24 weeks when the fetus is not viable or a woman’s health is at risk. Previously, women who needed later-term abortions to end nonviable pregnancies were forced to travel far outside the state — a financial and psychological burden.
|
37941
|
A grand jury indicted Netflix on charges related to the release of Cuties, a controversial French film about a girls' dance troupe.
|
A number of news organizations (including USA Today and Reuters) reported that a Texas grand jury had indicted Netflix over its distribution of Cuties (originally titled Mignonnes). Coverage of the press release and indictment was typically suspiciously vague or suspiciously partisan, and legal analysts commenting separately from those articles surmised that the indictment was largely performative, possibly to curry favor among constituents outraged by rumors about the content of Cuties.
|
mixture
|
Fact Checks, Viral Content
|
"On October 7 2020, posts claiming that a Texas grand jury had “indicted Netflix” over its distribution of the film Cuties began circulating on social media:Netflix’s Indictment in the NewsReaders searching to validate the story might be led to believe the claim was validated by a “fact-check,” thanks to Facebook’s labeling of content on the topic of Netflix’s purported indictment:But the article by USA Today did not appear to be an actual fact-check — instead, it linked to a standard October 6 2020 news story, which reported:Netflix is now facing felony charges for “Cuties,” as backlash against the controversial French film heads to the legal arena.A Tyler County, Texas, grand jury indicted the streaming giant on Sept. 23 [2020] for promoting the “lewd” visual material “against the peace and dignity of the state.”The one-page indictment, received by USA TODAY, states that Netflix promoted, distributed and exhibited material that “depicts the lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 years of age” for the “prurient interest in sex.” The document also states that the film held no serious “literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”Netflix released “Cuties,” originally titled “Mignonnes,” [in September 2002] to strong national reaction. The French-language film centers on 11-year-old Amy, who becomes a member of a dance group dubbed the “Cuties.”Two analytics companies that track Netflix subscribers reported in September [2020] that the streaming service saw an uptick in cancellations amid the controversy over the coming-of-age film, which some critics say sexualizes young girls.The subsequent reporting consisted of commentary by Tyler County District Attorney Lucas Babin and contextual information about the film. The article contained no information about how an indictment against a large company such as Netflix might or might not progress was included; nor did elements of a fact-check appear at any point — the content was not assessed and authenticated, and it carried no rating.On October 6 2020, the Tyler County District Attorney’s Office shared a press release on Facebook:Typically, reporting by news organizations such as Reuters repeated statements from the Tyler County District Attorney’s Office without any contextual information or legal analysis.On Reddit’s r/law, a discussion of the indictment against Netflix was shared alongside a scan of the indictment itself:An East Texas DA’s office has filed an indictment against Netflix (lol). from lawThat document bore a date (September 23 2020), a Cause Number (13731), a title (The State of Texas vs. Netflix, Inc.), and it read as follows:CHARGE: PROMOTION OF LEWD VISUAL MATERIAL DEPICTING CHILD PC 43.262IN THE NAME AND BY AUTHORITY OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:THE GRAND JURY for Tyler County, Texas duly selected, impaneled, sworn, charged, and organized as such at the JANUARY term A.D. 2020 of the 1 .A District Court for said County, upon their oaths present in and to said court at ‘ said term that NETFLIX, INC, hereinafter styled Defendant, on or about the 15TH day of SEPTEMBER A.D. 2020, and before the presentment of this indictment, in the County and State aforesaid, DID THEN AND THERE knowingly promote visual material which depicts the lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 years of age at the time the visual material was created, which appeals to the prurient interest in sex, and has no serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value, to wit: by issuing or selling or providing or delivering or distributing or disseminating or transmitting or publishing or exhibiting or presenting or advertising the film titled Cuties, also known as Mignonnes, or offering or agreeing to issue, sell, provide, deliver, distribute, disseminate, transmit, publish, exhibit, present, or advertise said film, and the promotion of said film was authorized or recklessly tolerated by a high managerial agent of Netflix, Inc., namely, Wilmot Reed Hastings Jr. or Theodore Anthony Sarandos Jr., acting in behalf of Netflix, Inc. and within the scope of the agent’s office or employment at Netflix, Inc. AGAINST THE PEACE AND DIGNITY OF THE STATE.The indictment maintained that Netflix’s distribution of Cuties (original title Mignonnes) constituted promotion of “lewd visual material depicting [a] child,” and that the film otherwise had “no serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”‘Netflix is a Ham Sandwich’A legal axiom holds that indictments are easy to obtain; it is often said a prosecutor could “indict a ham sandwich” if they so chose, phrasing referenced on social media after the indictment began making the rounds:In 22 states, the prosecutor must obtain an indictment before he can proceed with a felony prosecution, and while it sounds like a fancy legal term, don’t be fooled — indictments are easy to obtain.They can come pre- or post-arrest. Pre-arrest indictments (rare in New York) are generally based on weeks or even months of investigation, material discovered through search warrants, phone taps, and snitch information — more akin to what’s traditionally done in a federal, rather than a state, case. (Reminder: If you or a loved one ever is the subject of such an investigation, do not cooperate without an attorney present. Even as a witness subpoened to a grand jury, you have the right to an attorney. )[…]As New York Judge Sol Wachtler said in 1985, “If a district attorney wanted, a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich.”Grand juries are the prosecutor’s babies. They decide who gets picked, what evidence gets presented, and what gets left out. There’s no judge, no defense attorney, and generally a defendant only testifies in rare circumstances — his story is so air tight that there’s no down side in putting him in. There’s no necessity for unanimity among the 23 or so jurors, and the standard of proof is so low — that probable cause exists to believe a crime has been committed — anyone, for the merest hint of an offense, can get indicted.Legal Analysts Weigh InOn October 6 2020, legal scholar Eugene Volokh published a brief assessment of the Netflix Cuties indictment, essentially dismissing it as, at the very least, stunt-adjacent:[Eugene Volokh] Indictment Netflix Under Texas Child Pornography Law Probably Won't Go Anywhere https://t.co/m39H3FqM2d pic.twitter.com/kj5vbFovf1— Volokh Conspiracy (@VolokhC) October 6, 2020In a short piece (“Indictment of Netflix Under Texas Child Pornography Law Probably Won’t Go Anywhere”), Volokh wrote in part:I think Netflix should easily beat this indictment because Texas law expressly excludes material that has “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value … The judgment about serious value in such contexts is generally seen as being, in the first instance, a matter of law for the judge (and for appellate judges); it’s to be judged under a national reasonable person standard, and not under a community standard. (See Pope v. Illinois (1987).) And of course a work can have serious artistic value regardless of its moral message; and serious value is not a particularly high bar.From all I hear about Cuties (I haven’t watched it myself), it does have serious artistic value, and it seems unlikely that a court would conclude that a film that won a Best Director prize (in the international film category) at Sundance lacks such value. To be sure, in Castillo v. State (Tex. Ct. App. 2002), the court was a bit cavalier as to the serious value inquiry when it came to a comic book, and left the matter to the jury’s discretion. But given the Pope precedent, coupled with the film’s awards and nominations (and perhaps, rightly or wrongly, the sense that broadly exhibited films are more “artistic[ally]” “serious” than comic books), I don’t think Netflix has much to worry about here.In a subsequent point, Volokh noted that states likely could prohibit lewd material involving children regardless of what is arguably artistic merit:Now it appears that a state probably could ban child pornography without regard to whether it has serious value: In the words of the Supreme Court in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002),Where the images are themselves the product of child sexual abuse, … the State ha[s] an interest in stamping it out without regard to any judgment about its content…. The fact that a work contained serious literary, artistic, or other value [does] not excuse the harm it caused to its child participants.Another legal commenter, Ken White, sent a series of tweets describing the indictment as “frivolous”:Frivolous, performative defamation suits are a huge GOP thing so it's hardly a surprise that frivolous performative indecency prosecutions would become a thing. https://t.co/tWQpbXaXJy— TakingYouAllDownWithMeHat (@Popehat) October 6, 2020/2 There is no plausible argument that the Netflix series is outside First Amendment protection. You'd have to overturn a couple of generations of law to do it.But the people pursuing it don't care. They don't care about the First Amemdment, despite constantly citing it.— TakingYouAllDownWithMeHat (@Popehat) October 6, 2020/3 No, the people pursuing this sort of thing want you to choose between rolling over and ignoring the rule of law, or asserting the rule of law so they can hoot and point and shout ""YOU SUPPORT CHILD PORNOGRAPHY HA HA. ""— TakingYouAllDownWithMeHat (@Popehat) October 6, 2020/4 (In this, by the way, they are more or less like the people on the other side of the spectrum who shout THE ONLY REASON YOU SAY THERE'S NO HATE SPEECH EXCEPTION TO THE FIRST AMENDMENT IS THAT YOU'RE IN FAVOR OF RACISM AND NAZIS. )— TakingYouAllDownWithMeHat (@Popehat) October 6, 2020We were unable to locate any reporting which included legal analysis, nor did we uncover any standalone legal analysis suggesting that the indictment was likely to result in any meaningful action against Netflix.SummaryA number of news organizations (including USA Today and Reuters) reported that a Texas grand jury had indicted Netflix over its distribution of Cuties (originally titled Mignonnes). Coverage of the press release and indictment was typically suspiciously vague or suspiciously partisan, and legal analysts commenting separately from those articles surmised that the indictment was largely performative, possibly to curry favor among constituents outraged by rumors about the content of Cuties.Comments"
|
28444
|
A recent international investigation resulted in the shutting down of an online pedophilia forum with some 70,000 members worldwide.
|
What's true: A joint operation between Europol and local law enforcement in multiple countries took down an online pedophile forum with some 70,000 members worldwide. What's false: These events are not recent, as the operation began in 2007 and ended in 2011.
|
mixture
|
Junk News, neon nettle
|
On 8 June 2018, the disreputable Neon Nettle web site published an article reporting the culmination of a multi-year international investigation into a pedophile ring, one which resulted in the taking down of an Amsterdam-based online forum called boylover.net — described as “probably the largest online pedophile network in the world” at up to 70,000 members: A massive internet Pedophile Ring with up to 70,000 elite members, now thought to be the world’s biggest, has been busted by police according to security officials. The bust, which was part of “Operation Rescue” had identified 670 suspects and 230 abused children in over 30 countries, had now taken to many victims to safety. Officials say that 184 people had been arrested with investigations in some countries still ongoing. This information was true as far as it went, except that Neon Nettle completely failed to disclose to readers that this “news” was over seven years old. “Operation Rescue,” a joint effort involving the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) and law enforcement in thirteen different countries, was initiated in 2007, and in March 2011 Europol announced the success of the years-long investigation that had, at that time, resulted in the identification of over 200 victims of child abuse and the arrest of 184 suspected child sex offenders: With the leading support of Europol, police have arrested 184 suspected child sex offenders and identified over 200 victims of child abuse following one of the biggest investigations of its kind by law enforcement agencies across the world. With investigations still continuing, 670 suspects have been identified across the world already, 184 arrests made and 230 children safeguarded. The number of victims safeguarded is the highest ever achieved from this type of investigation, and is set to rise even further in the coming weeks. These spectacular operational results were the work of effective police cooperation across many countries. Instrumental to the success was the unique role played by Europol in identifying the members of the child sex abuse network and facilitating operational action by police authorities in multiple jurisdictions. In particular it was the work of Europol analysts in cracking the security features of a key computer server at the centre of the network which uncovered the identity and activity of the suspected child sex offenders. Europol subsequently issued over 4000 intelligence reports to police authorities in over 30 countries in Europe and elsewhere, which has led to the arrests of suspects and the safeguarding of children. These reports also identified links between this network and those featured in multiple other investigations. But Neon Nettle’s article contained no date information whatsoever, nor any reference to sources that would inform readers about the true age of the story, offering only a single inline link to an undated NBC News article (which was actually published on 16 March 2011). Attempting to capitalize on their other recent false reporting involving child sex trafficking, Neon Nettle deceptively reported this story as if it were current and ongoing, without any indication to readers that the events described had taken place over seven years earlier, and that the referenced investigation had long since ended. Misleading readers is typical of Neon Nettle, a notorious fake news site with a predilection for publishing sensationalized and exaggerated (if not completely fabricated) stories about pedophiles.
|
10610
|
Grumpy Old Men: Maybe It’s A Question of Testosterone
|
"This story failed to provide good information about testosterone treatment. It didn’t discuss costs. We believe that it committed disease-mongering (see criterion above.) It talked about ""accumulating evidence"" without quantifying what that evidence was, but only giving anecdotes. It gave an incomplete description of potential harms. After reading this piece, a person was not much better informed about what testosterone treatment could and could not do. The story failed to provide insight that would enable a person to weigh the risks and benefits of this intervention. There are many differences between older and younger individuals. While the story attempted to dampen enthusiasm for testosterone replacement therapy as a fountain of youth for older men, it did not adequately balance the quotes from experts to achieve this objective."
|
false
|
The story supplied no information about the costs of treatment. The story did not provide any quantification of the benefits of treatment. The story mentioned the ongoing discussion about the association between levels of testosterone and prostate cancer. It should have distinguished between what is known about testosterone levels and prostate cancer in general and how that compares with what is known about the use of testosterone replacement therapy and prostate cancer. There are also other potential harms of testosterone replacement therapy including fluid retention, liver toxicity, polycythemia, etc. Given these are older men, likely with comorbid illness and multiple medications already, the addition of another medication, especially a hormone with possible severe side effects, should not be taken lightly. The story did not actually present much in the way of evidence about the benefits of testosterone replacement therapy. Although linking low levels of testosterone with a number of common complaints, it did not describe what is known (or not known) about whether or to what extent these resolve in a population treated with testosterone. The story quoted one expert who wondered why testosterone wasn’t used to treat testosterone deficiency in old men when it is used for this purpose in young men. The story should have included some balance with a quote from someone who might have insight into reasons why old men and young men differ. In addition, the story stated that ‘…evidence is accumulating’ without providing additional information about the nature of the clinical evidence. Instead, it is followed by anecdotal tales which is really the antithesis of what characterizes good ‘evidence’. The story mentioned a wide range of complaints that aren’t specific to testosterone deficiency. It failed to clearly explain that while these complaints (lack of energy, sexual dysfunction, mood changes, etc) may be associated with low testosterone levels, there are a number of other potential causes. This story is, however, to be commended for not falling into the rabbit hole of using the term ‘andropause’ which was apparently popular at the meeting discussed. The story provided interview quotes from a number of people who attended the 6th Annual World Congress on the Aging Male, and mentioned that they all had ties to pharmaceutical firms marketing testosterone. However, it could have sought out someone to provide balance and talk about what is not known about the efficacy of the treatment and the harms that may accompany its use. While mentioning a laundry list of symptoms that aren’t specific to testosterone deficiency, the story failed to mention that there are interventions for management of these besides testosterone. The story talked about testosterone replacement therapy being available by prescription. It mentioned that it is currently available in an injectable form, a topical gel and in a transdermal patch. This was very clear and well done. However the story also included discussion about pharmaceutical companies working on the development of an oral form which would deliver the benefits without the potential harms without sufficient framing to indicate that outstanding questions remain both as to whether an oral mode of delivery would be effective and if it were, whether the potential harms would really be diminished. The story was clear that it was not about a new therapy. Does not appear to rely on a press release.
|
|
23891
|
"Once the U.S. government signs a U.N. treaty on conventional arms, ""all U.S. citizens will be subject to those gun laws created by foreign governments."
|
Chain e-mail says U.N. treaty would force U.S. to ban, confiscate guns
|
false
|
National, Legal Issues, Foreign Policy, Guns, Chain email,
|
"A chain e-mail making the rounds warns that President Barack Obama's administration is pursuing a United Nations treaty that would be the ""first major step in a plan to ban all firearms in the United States."" Given the controversial nature of both gun-rights policy and United States sovereignty, we decided to do a fact-check.Here are excerpts from the version of the e-mail forwarded to us by a reader, with original capitalization and syntax intact:""While you were watching the oil spill, the New York failed terrorist bombing and other critical crises, Hillary Clinton signed the small arms treaty with the UN. ""OBAMA FINDS LEGAL WAY AROUND THE 2ND AMENDMENT AND USES IT. IF THIS PASSES, THERE could BE WAR....""On Wednesday the Obama administration took its first major step in a plan to ban all firearms in the United States. The Obama administration intends to force gun control and a complete ban on all weapons for US citizens through the signing of international treaties with foreign nations. By signing international treaties on gun control, the Obama administration can use the US State Department to bypass the normal legislative process in Congress. Once the US Government signs these international treaties, all US citizens will be subject to those gun laws created by foreign governments.... The laws are designed and intended to lead to the complete ban and confiscation of all firearms....""We will wake up one morning and find that the United States has signed a treaty that prohibits firearm and ammunition manufacturers from selling to the public. We will wake up another morning and find that the US has signed a treaty that prohibits any transfer of firearm ownership. And then, we will wake up yet another morning and find that the US has signed a treaty that requires US citizens to deliver any firearm they own to the local government collection and destruction center or face imprisonment. This has happened in other countries, past and present! THIS IS NOT A JOKE NOR A WARNING. ""There's a lot to digest here, but we'll start by explaining what treaty the e-mail is referring to.Though the e-mail calls it the ""small arms treaty,"" it's been referred to in official U.N. documents as the Arms Trade Treaty. In 2006, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution that established a path toward a ""comprehensive, legally binding instrument establishing common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms."" Backers argued that a treaty would safeguard international peace and security by curbing the international flow of weapons -- especially to ''make it more difficult for guerrilla movements, insurgents and irresponsible governments'' to obtain small arms, in the words of Mark Leon Goldberg, who writes for the liberal magazine the American Prospect and blogs for the publication UN Dispatch.The United States has not always fully supported the process. The administration of George W. Bush voted against resolutions supporting it in the General Assembly, arguing that nation-by-nation safeguards are superior to international agreements. Gun-rights groups such as the National Rifle Association also opposed participation in the treaty.But in October 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the Obama administration was open to negotiating a treaty, as long as the final text was arrived at by consensus -- a process that would effectively give every participating nation a veto. ""Consensus is needed to ensure the widest possible support for the treaty and to avoid loopholes in the treaty that can be exploited by those wishing to export arms irresponsibly,"" Clinton said in a statement.That announcement disappointed some backers of the treaty, who said giving every nation a veto would effectively water down the substance of the agreement while also producing major procedural hurdles. But gun-rights advocates were unhappy for a different reason, saying that rejoining the talks could open the United States to one day having to adjust its own gun laws to mirror those in the new international standards. John Bolton, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. under Bush, echoed the arguments of the chain e-mail when he told the Washington Post after Clinton's announcement that ""this has little or nothing to do with the international trade in conventional arms. This will strengthen the hand of a government that wants to regulate private ownership of firearms. ""No final treaty text exists yet. As a result, it's impossible to say definitively that the final version of the treaty will, or will not, impinge upon domestic gun rights in the U.S. Also, the e-mail is incorrect that the treaty would be operative once it is signed. Rather, it would become operative once it is signed and the Senate ratifies it by a two-thirds margin. (For that matter, the e-mail is also wrong to say that the Secretary of State has signed it -- that hasn't happened yet. )But let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the final treaty did include provisions that ran counter to the Second Amendment of the Constitution -- the one that protects ""the right of the people to keep and bear arms."" And let's assume that an administration was actually bold enough to sign that treaty, and that the U.S. Senate mustered the two-thirds vote required to ratify it, even though doing so would inspire a popular backlash among Americans who believe strongly in gun rights.Even if all of that happened, a half-dozen constitutional and international law experts we spoke to agreed that there is solid Supreme Court precedent guaranteeing that those provisions could not be enforced domestically.This fail-safe mechanism is the 1957 Supreme Court decision in Reid v. Covert. In that case, the majority ruled, among other things, that if a provision of a U.S.-ratified treaty were to run counter to the U.S. Constitution, it could not be enforced.The majority wrote that the Supreme Court had ""repeatedly taken the position that an act of Congress, which must comply with the Constitution, is on a full parity with a treaty, and that, when a statute which is subsequent in time is inconsistent with a treaty, the statute to the extent of conflict renders the treaty null. It would be completely anomalous to say that a treaty need not comply with the Constitution when such an agreement can be overridden by a statute that must conform to that instrument. ""Our experts -- including scholars from across the ideological spectrum -- added that Reid v. Covert has attracted little dissent in subsequent years, so they consider it a strong bulwark against the kinds of threats envisioned by the author of the chain e-mail. ""No treaty can validly abridge a constitutionally-protected individual right,"" said Kal Raustiala, a UCLA law professor. ""That issue was decided long ago. So the scenario laid out here is simply not accurate. ""We found wide agreement that a ""complete ban and confiscation"" of guns, as the e-mail darkly put it, is not in the cards anytime soon. But some of our experts added that over a much longer period, a U.N. treaty could indirectly shape the course of U.S. gun control policy.This could happen if new standards set by an international treaty begin to influence how courts in the U.S. interpret the Second Amendment. The legal positions of other countries have occasionally been cited in court decisions, as recently as May 17, 2010, when the Supreme Court decided in Graham v. Florida that it's unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile offender to life in prison without parole for a crime other than homicide. Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority that ""there is support for our conclusion in the fact that, in continuing to impose life without parole sentences on juveniles who did not commit homicide, the United States adheres to a sentencing practice rejected the world over. This observation does not control our decision. The judgments of other nations and the international community are not dispositive as to the meaning of the Eighth Amendment. But 'the climate of international opinion concerning the acceptability of a particular punishment' is also 'not irrelevant. '""It's possible to imagine the Supreme Court at some future date using an international gun control standard as one piece of evidence when writing a majority opinion on the Second Amendment, though that's hardly a foregone conclusion. ""Over the really long term, do (gun-rights advocates) have something to worry about? The answer is absolutely yes,"" said Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor. ""It's smart for the NRA to be mobilized on an international level. ""But even scholars who agree with this position make clear a difference between the e-mail's claims, which they consider overheated or worse, and something that could, theoretically, happen many years from now. Ted R. Bromund, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said that ""while this is a serious long-term problem, it is not a matter of gun confiscation tomorrow,"" as the e-mail suggests. The possible long-term evolution of how the Second Amendment is interpreted ""points in the same general direction as this e-mail,"" Bromund said. ""But the difference between what is going on and the claims (it makes) are considerable. ""Ultimately, then, it's possible -- if a treaty is passed, and if Supreme Court justices use the treaty as a foundation for overturning longstanding interpretations of the Second Amendment -- for the treaty to influence U.S. gun laws. But it is simply not true that, in the e-mail's words, ""once the US Government signs these international treaties, all US citizens will be subject to those gun laws created by foreign governments."" Rather, in the unlikely event that the president and two-thirds of the Senate agreed to a treaty that banned guns and required their confiscation from ordinary Americans, a longstanding Supreme Court precedent would make those provisions unenforceable within the United States. So we rule the e-mail ."
|
12419
|
"For 22 percent of N.H. Meals on Wheels recipients, the delivery driver is ""the only human contact in their life from week to week."
|
"Kuster said for 22 percent of Meals on Wheels home recipients, the driver ""is the only human contact in their life from week to week, the only person they see."" The depressing statistic is backed up by the data collected by a coalition of Meals on Wheels providers in New Hampshire."
|
true
|
New Hampshire, Federal Budget, Food, Population, Ann McLane Kuster,
|
"New Hampshire could be considered one of the main exhibits of the ""silver tsunami,"" a term used to refer to the aging population in the United States. Tied for second in the nation for the oldest population in terms of median age, the state is bracing for the effects of a declining workforce, strained medical services and ballooning public retirement benefits. But economists’ focus on those issues fails to capture the experiences of seniors living alone in their homes – sometimes after all their peers have died. U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster reminded listeners this week of the isolation of needy seniors with a depressing statistic she picked up from a ridealong with a local Meals on Wheels program. Kuster, a Hopkinton Democrat who was discussing the potential detrimental effects of President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, said for 22 percent of home delivery participants, ""Meals on Wheels is the only human contact in their life from week to week, the only person they see."" The claim was striking. Do so many needy seniors in New Hampshire have no one else in their lives but the Meals on Wheels driver? Kuster made the statement to group of nonprofit officials from the fields of child care, mental health and nutrition. She said the cuts proposed in Trump’s budget outline, especially an 18 percent reduction to the Department of Health and Human Services, were ""so dramatic and so Draconian."" To be clear, the president’s budget is just a spending plan and it does not earmark any specific cuts to Meals on Wheels. It's premature for us to project what could happen to Meals on Wheels spending, so we not checking whether Trump's budget is Draconian; rather, we’re examining Kuster’s claim about the lonely lives of New Hampshire seniors. Meals on Wheels is a national program that serves 2.4 million people. It’s funded partly through federal dollars and delivered more than 137 million meals in 2016. We reached out to Kuster, who said her claim was about New Hampshire Meals on Wheels recipients, not a nationwide statistic. The best figures on this subject are kept by a coalition of Meals on Wheels affiliates in six New Hampshire counties that all administer the same survey each year. These organizations cover both the most rural and also the most densely populated parts of the state. Meghan Brady is the longtime president of St. Joseph Community Services, which is based in Merrimack and is one of the members of the New Hampshire Coalition of Aging Services. As a group, the coalition served more than 1.1 million meals to more than 13,000 older and disabled adults in 2016, Brady said. It’s made up of the Community Action Program of Belknap-Merrimack Counties (in Concord), the Grafton County Senior Citizens Council (in Lebanon), Ossipee Concerned Citizens (in Center Ossipee), Tri-County Community Action Program (in Berlin) and St. Joseph Community Services (in Merrimack). In the fall, the coalition delivers a survey along with its meals to everyone who’s in the program at the time, she said. The return rate is better than half. ""On any given day, the likelihood is the delivery person is the only individual the Meals on Wheels recipient will see, but for 21 percent of them, the driver is the only person they’ll see all week,"" Brady said, quoting last year’s statewide statistics. For her program in particular, the 22 percent statistic that Kuster cited is dead on, she said. At the event Kuster's staffer offered a different statistic, but she said 22 percent, so we'll stick to that number. Brady, who has been working for St. Joseph Community Services for 22 years, said she’s seen this situation grow worse in recent years. ""Over the last several years, all of us have seen an increase in isolation and hunger,"" she said. ""We measure this by the annual surveys, by the requests we receive for additional food and by the number and type of follow-ups we do,"" such as calling social workers on clients’ behalves, putting them in touch with additional services and sometimes calling 911. Some of the other findings, she said, are significant: 63 percent reported that because of the Meals on Wheels program, they can continue to live in their homes, and 36 percent reported that they don’t always have enough money or food stamps to obtain the food they need without the deliveries. ""We have a gentleman who’s in our program who is 102. How old do you think his kids are?"" she asked. ""People are living longer. We have people who have outlived family and friends, so this is very important."" St. Joseph’s Community Services raises about 30 percent of its budget privately, she said, but it also relies on a few sources of government funding, which was the context in which Kuster originally made her claim. Some news media outlets reported Trump’s budget director allegedly claiming that Meals on Wheels is ""not showing results."" The Washington Post’s fact-checker investigated that claim and found he never said that. As for the budget’s impacts on Meals on Wheels, it’s not exactly clear yet, Brady said. ""My understanding is that the proposed budget includes an 18 percent decrease at the Department of Health and Human Services at the federal level,"" she said. ""Two of our funding sources are in that area. What impact that cut would have, we do not know."" On thing that is clear in the budget is that it seeks to nix funding for a federal Housing and Urban Development program called Community Development Block Grants. Brady said her organization has received a $42,000 block grant, but that’s only a sliver of the total $3.6 million in revenue and support the nonprofit reported last year from the government and donors. Nationally, Meals on Wheels doesn’t keep data specific to human interaction, said Jenny Bertolette Young, the vice president of communications. ""We do know that 51 percent of home-delivered meal recipients live alone,"" she said in an email. ""One would assume that homebound recipients that live alone likely lack human contact outside of the Meals on Wheels volunteer."" She said it’s a ""common anecdote"" that the driver is oftentimes the only person a recipient will see in a given day. Our ruling Kuster said for 22 percent of Meals on Wheels home recipients, the driver ""is the only human contact in their life from week to week, the only person they see."" The depressing statistic is backed up by the data collected by a coalition of Meals on Wheels providers in New Hampshire."
|
28048
|
"A photograph shows an African child on display in a ""human zoo"" at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels, Belgium."
|
"What's true: A photograph shows white tourists interacting with an African child who was part of a zoo-like ""Congo village"" exhibition at the Expo '58 world's fair in Brussels, Belgium. What's false: The exhibition wasn't billed or advertised as a ""human zoo"" (the term is mostly used by critics to point out the inhumanity and racism of such displays), nor were the Congolese people who populated the mock village kept confined there or forced to participate against their will."
|
true
|
Fauxtography
|
The history of the subjugation of darker-skinned peoples by Western Europeans is exemplified not only in the transatlantic slave trade that thrived from the 16th through the 19th centuries, but also in the phenomenon of global colonialism, which lasted even longer. The colonies of Africa were among the last to gain independence from European rule, most not until the mid-20th century. Among them was the Belgian Congo, a Central African territory claimed by Belgium’s King Leopold II for his personal exploitation in 1885. Leopold’s 23-year misrule over his so-called “Congo Free State” was so flagrant that his own government wrested control of it from him in 1908. It would remain a Belgian colony until 1960. Leopold II introduced his countrymen to a colonialist tradition that would come to be known, in retrospect, as “human zoos.” These were public showings (“ethnological exhibitions” was what they were called at the time) of indigenous people plucked from their homelands, shipped across oceans, and put on display — usually in recreated “native” habitats, but also, in some cases, literally in cages — for the edification and amusement of mostly European audiences. They were very popular attractions at international expositions (world’s fairs) during the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, when smaller versions of the same could also be found in museums and traveling shows, in the United States as well as Europe, featuring so-called “primitive” peoples from many different parts of the world, including the Americas. Leopold mounted such a display on his estate in conjunction with the Brussels International Exposition of 1897. What it was like and what it revealed about the deep racism implicit in the colonialist mindset was captured in a National Public Radio feature in September 2018: The Royal Museum for Central Africa began as a temporary exhibition in 1897 in Tervuren, where Leopold had his country estate. The most talked-about part of the exhibition was the “human zoo” — a mock African village set up in the estate’s woods and ponds. King Leopold, who never set foot in Congo, imported 267 Congolese men, women and children to Tervuren and displayed them behind a fence. “When Leopold heard they were getting sick because of candy they were eating that was tossed to them by the crowd, he put up an equivalent of a ‘Don’t Feed the Animals’ sign at a zoo, saying, ‘the blacks are fed by the organizing committee,'” [Adam] Hochschild said in a documentary based on his book [King Leopold’s Ghost]. Seven Congolese died of pneumonia and influenza at this human zoo and were buried in Tervuren. Marie-Claire Lusamba, a Congolese businesswoman living in Belgium, leaves flowers at their grave before exploring the serene park that used to be the human zoo. She says the racism she sees in Belgium is directly tied to colonialism. “If they acknowledge that, then we can move forward,” she says. “Because it did not stop with Leopold and this human zoo.” Indeed, 61 years later, in 1958, the spectacle would be repeated as if nothing had been learned in the intervening half-century. Among the exhibits seen by visitors to that year’s Brussels World’s Fair (“Expo ’58”) was a reconstructed Congolese village populated with hundreds of “inhabitants” brought over from Africa. Some contemporaneous press accounts conveyed a sanguine impression of the quaint tableaux of native life presented in the Congo Pavilion. This is how it was described by an American visitor in the 30 May 1958 edition of the Battle Creek Enquirer and News: Amid all the presentations of the future at the Brussels Universal Exposition are many exhibitions of distinctively national and regional character. Here, for example, is a Congo native farm set up on the grounds. During exhibition days natives work here, creating swords and tools with Iron Age methods, and weaving designs that vie for beauty with the most advanced shown in any of the many pavilions. But a disquieting photograph taken at the exhibition reveals a darker side. The image often appears in historical retrospectives of Expo ’58 and is frequently shared on social media as an example of colonial racism: Girl in a human zoo in Brussels, Belgium in 1958.’Visitors’ fed them as if they were animals.#racism #colonialism pic.twitter.com/FrLwz8twes — Jan Busselen (@JanBusselen) January 14, 2014 In the photograph, white exhibition-goers are seen interacting with a black child standing alone in an enclosure marked off by crude fencing. It’s unclear from the grainy image what the precise nature of that interaction was, but the standard description is plausible: Visitors were feeding the child as one might feed an animal in a zoo. The description “human zoo” is clearly apt in a figurative sense — the human beings on display were gawked at and to some extent treated like zoo animals, but the exhibition wasn’t billed or promoted as such. The Congolese people who took part in it did so voluntarily and weren’t confined there. That they were free to go is demonstrated in what ultimately became of the Congo village display — it was abandoned. According to Zana Etambala, a Royal Museum historian interviewed by NPR, the Congolese people who played the roles of villagers in the Congo Pavilion had come to Brussels under the impression that they were participating in a “cultural exchange.” The experience proved to be anything but: Instead, they found themselves standing behind a bamboo fence, on live display for Europeans, some of whom made monkey noises to get their attention. “They were throwing bananas and peanuts to [the Congolese],” says Etambala, who grew up in Belgium and Congo. “And the Congolese protested against that. They wanted to be respected and not seen as animals in a zoo.” An account of the Congo Pavilion in The Guardian, also from 2018, noted that at a certain point the Congolese packed up and went home: The Congolese on display were among 598 people – including 273 men, 128 women and 197 children, a total of 183 families – brought over from Africa to staff the wider fair. The colonial office was “very nervous about what this stay of such an unprecedented number of Congolese in Belgium might do”, according to Dr Sarah Van Beurden, a historian of central Africa. But housed in a dedicated building isolated from the Expo from which they could be bused in and out, the Congolese complained of cramped accommodation, the strict limitations on visitors or excursions from the building, and, of course, daily abuse at the fair. By July, the Congolese artists and artisans, and their families, could take no more and some went back home. The human zoo, as the Congolese recognized it to be, closed down, and the rest of the fair carried on. Film footage and photographs of the mock village (including the now-infamous image of white tourists gawking at the Congolese child) were featured in a 60th anniversary retrospective aired by Belgium’s Flemish Radio and Television Broadcasting Organization (VRT). As noted in VRT’s online commentary, Expo ’58’s colonialist trappings apparently had the unintended consequence of accelerating the Congo’s push for independence. A backlash took place in the Belgian press against the treatment of the Congolese, as noted by historian Gonzague Pluvinage in his 2008 book Expo 58: Between Utopia and Reality: Children had given bananas to the Congolese and passers-by had insulted them. This had already occurred in 1897 and the press took issue with it on both occasions. This time, in 1958, the authorities decided that the Congolese should not be exposed to such treatment. De Standaard concluded therefore that by placing Africans before a white public, this type of Exhibition led to a misunderstanding and belittling of the artists equating them with animals in a zoo. As it happened, members of the Congolese intelligentsia also attended the fair as invited guests of the Belgian government. Among them, reportedly, was a political activist named Patrice Lumumba, who, upon returning to Africa, helped found the Congolese National Movement, which immediately pressed for decolonization. “The fundamental aim of our movement is to free the Congolese people from the colonialist regime and earn them their independence,” Lumumba would say in a December 1958 speech, mere months after the Expo ended. “We base our action on the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man — rights guaranteed to each and every citizen of humanity by the United Nations Charter — and we are of the opinion that the Congo, as a human society, has the right to join the ranks of free peoples.” Led by Lumumba, who would become the nation’s first prime minister, the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared its independence from Belgium on 30 May 1960.
|
9423
|
Drinking hot tea linked to lowered glaucoma risk
|
Getty Images This Reuters story reports on an observational study showing a possible association between drinking caffeinated hot tea and lowering the risk of glaucoma. The story does a good job describing the study design and the lack of treatment options for glaucoma. It also included comments from two independent sources. However, it fell short by not providing enough perspective on how many limitations can occur with this kind of research. Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness in the world and affects over 55 million people globally. Because vision lost to glaucoma can’t be recovered, much of the research focuses on either slowing progression once it is diagnosed, or preventing the disease by identifying and modifying risk factors. Given that the role of caffeine as a risk factor is controversial, well-conducted research that suggests a protective effect of caffeinated tea is newsworthy, though news stories need to be cautious not to overstate the measured benefits.
|
true
|
glaucoma
|
Tea is widely available and relatively affordable compared to other prepared drinks. The story mentions that study participants who drank one cup or more of hot caffeinated tea daily “had 74 percent lower odds of having glaucoma” compared to those who don’t drink hot tea. Our standard response to a statement like this is to ask, “74% lower than what”? A 74% reduction from an already-small number might not be very meaningful. Absolute numbers would have helped–here’s more about how to provide them and why this is important. Only potential harm to be considered would be those people who respond to this study by abusing caffeinated tea thinking that more consumption might offer more protection from glaucoma. Excess caffeine can have deleterious health effects. Not including this unlikely scenario in the story seems reasonable. This was a tough call, as the story does a good job explaining how the research was designed. But it should have been more clear that this was an observational study that can not establish cause and effect. Self-reported dietary information is also notoriously unreliable. There was no disease mongering. Two opthalmologists who weren’t involved in the study were interviewed, and we could detect no conflicts of interest. The story does make brief mention of lifestyle, environmental and diet interventions that may influence glaucoma, but could have made it more clear that none of these have been proven to prevent glaucoma. Other than water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. Although there is existing research investigating the role of caffeine in glaucoma, this study specifically compared the effects of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, tea, and soft drinks on glaucoma. The story makes that clear. The story does not appear to rely solely on the news release. It quotes two independent sources not affiliated with the study.
|
1600
|
Finnish 'pulled oats' maker wants a bite of the meat substitutes market.
|
Nordic oats and broad beans are the main ingredients for a new plant-based product that looks like pulled pork and tastes a bit like chicken which a Finnish start-up company hopes will soon be tempting consumers’ growing appetite for meat substitutes.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Maija Itkonen and Reetta Kivela, founders of the Finnish food technology start-up Gold & Green Foods, call the product “pulled oats”. “The oats are sheared and heated under the right conditions and combined with the beans. The amino acids that are lacking in oats are in the beans, so they are a good combination,” said Kivela, a food scientist, at a lunchtime tasting session in a local restaurant in Helsinki. “We have patented our production method that allows us to produce the fibrous texture of oats and beans” she said. The company now aims to have products in stores in Finland and Sweden by the end of the year. “We want to first prove our point in our home market and then look for licensing opportunities for further expansion,” Itkonen said. Consumers have already embraced protein-packed meat substitutes made from wheat, soy and other beans, while newer companies are pushing boundaries with products based on fungi and insects in a global market worth $1.8 billion last year and projected to be worth $2.2 billion by 2020, according to Euromonitor International. The two leading players, which each have about 13 percent of the market, are Kellogg, which owns the U.S. brands Morningstar Farms and Gardenburger, and Monde Nissin Corp from the Philippines, which last year bought British firm Quorn Foods for 700 million euros ($763 million). Behind them are Nestle, Pinnacle Foods and Hain Celestial Group. Itkonen and Kivela, both in their thirties, only started Gold & Green in April last year as a result of Kivela’s research on oats at the University of Helsinki. Industrial designer Itkonen, who is chief executive, brings her entrepreneurial skills to the venture, having founded wireless phone charger company Powerkiss in 2008 which was acquired in 2013 by Powermat Technologies. Gold & Green says its product stands out from soy-based foods because it is a non-GMO and potentially gluten-free alternative and unlike the mycoprotein meat substitute Quorn, the oat-based product is also non-allergenic. Nutrionist Heli Reinivuo from Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare said the product promised to be a healthy alternative to meat. “It has good quality protein and high protein content. It also contains fibre called beta-glucan ... I believe we could recommend the product to consumers once it’s on the market,” she said. Gold & Green raised 300,000 euros last year and Itkonen said the company is now looking for a larger sum from its second funding round to set up and start production. “It looks like a product that could strike a chord with the big trend of ecological consumption. In the western world, innovations in this sphere have a good chance of succeeding,” said Niclas Catani, an equity analyst at OP Financial Group. “It will hardly bring a revolution overnight but the start-up can nevertheless make good money out of it.” ($1 = 0.9177 euros) (This version of the story adds the dropped word “Foods” in name of company in second paragraph.)
|
22505
|
Most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for benefits, nor for pay.
|
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for benefits or pay
|
true
|
National, Labor, State Budget, Scott Walker,
|
"In an interview with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, NBC's Meet the Press host David Gregory zeroed in on the issue at the heart of the union showdown. ""What's so wrong with...collective bargaining?"" Gregory asked. Walker began with a comparison to federal employees. ""Well, our proposal is less restrictive than the federal government is today,"" Walker said. ""Under Barack Obama, he presides over a federal government where most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for benefits, nor for pay. So what we're asking for is something less restrictive than what the federal government has."" Whether Walker's proposal is less restrictive than what the federal government has today is a matter of opinion (and we'll explain why later), but we were curious whether Walker's was correct that most of the roughly 2.8 million federal workers do not have collective bargaining rights to negotiate pay and health or pension benefits. We turned first to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) which represents 600,000 federal government workers in 65 agencies, including the Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Social Security, and the Environmental Protection Agency. It is the largest federal employee union. It's , said Beth Moten, legislative and political director for AFGE, that most federal employees don't have collective bargaining rights over pay and benefits. ""So what's the point?"" Moten asked. ""Should employees in Wisconsin be treated as badly as federal employees are?"" There are some exceptions to this rule. Air traffic controllers, for example, can bargain over wages under a 1996 law that granted full bargaining rights to a number of federal workers covered under the Federal Aviation Administration, said Kate Bronfenbrenner, a labor expert at Cornell University. Some also point to the U.S. Postal Service, which has nearly 600,000 career employees, most (but not all) of whom have collective bargaining rights for pay and benefits. But theirs is a somewhat different situation. Although the U.S. Postal Service reports to Congress, it is an independent agency of the United States government. Unlike the private sector, explained U.S. Postal Service spokesman Mark Saunders, postal employees cannot strike, nor can management lock them out. Walker said ""most"" federal employees. And by that measure, he is correct, Bronfenbrenner said. ""Unlike all the other state, county and municipal workers in the country who have collective bargaining rights, federal workers have their pay and benefits set by Congress,"" Brofenbrenner said. ""But federal workers can bargain over terms and conditions of employment besides pay and benefits. ""This has not created stable labor relations in the public sector by any means,"" she said. ""Instead it has meant that senators and congressional representatives with large numbers of federal employees in their districts end up fighting to have money put into bills for federal workers in their districts the same as if they were lobbying to get money for a large federal contract. Thus, instead of being done in the very open transparent process of state and local public sector bargaining it is all done at a higher level, mostly behind closed doors, but the money still is getting there, just not as equitably as it would if there were collective bargaining."" Moten, of the American Federation of Government Employees, also stressed that federal employees do have collective bargaining rights over working conditions. And that's an important right. It affects vacation time, work hours, safety issues -- all sorts of things important to workers. Under Gov. Walker's plan, collective bargaining for state workers would be limited to base pay rate (and raises would generally be limited by the rate of inflation). In a fact-check our colleagues at PolitiFact Wisconsin did regarding limiting labor negotiations to only wages, they quoted Candice Owley, president Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, who said wages are only part of what’s important to nurses when they negotiate with hospitals. ""We spend very little time these days on wages and a whole lot of time on working conditions,"" she said, such as seniority, schedules, the length of shifts, and what happens when a nurse is assigned to a different department. Said Owley: ""We bargain every kind of working condition imaginable."" Bottom line, negotiations over working conditions are important, and so Walker's larger point -- that he is asking for ""something less restrictive than what the federal government has"" -- is debatable. But in saying that most federal workers don't have collective bargaining rights to benefits and pay, though, Walker is accurate. Although there are some federal workers who have collective bargaining rights for benefits and pay, ""most"" do not."
|
3492
|
Man blamed for green I-696 ooze left barrels on Thumb land.
|
Environmental regulators found barrels scattered across land in Michigan’s Thumb region that’s owned by the now-imprisoned owner of a shuttered electroplating business that leaked a green substance containing a known cancer-causing contaminant onto the shoulder of a suburban Detroit freeway last month.
|
true
|
Environment, General News, Michigan, Detroit
|
Employees with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy found on Tuesday 55-gallon (208-liter) barrels, including one labeled for the toxic chemical trichloroethylene, at property owned by Gary Sayers in Sanilac County’s Marion Township. Results of soil and water samples the agency collected at that site are now being tested for the potential presence of a variety of industry-related contaminants, EGLE spokeswoman Jill Greenberg said. The testing could take at least a week to be completed, she said. Marion Township trustee Jon Block said at a township board meeting Tuesday that EGLE staff has indicated that the barrels were found empty and had been for “quite some time,” the Detroit Free Press reported Thursday. “Any resident anywhere near that property would be on a private well,” Block said. “There was discussion that the county could probably help in making sure those wells get tested immediately, while we’re awaiting results on whether or not there is contamination.” Sayers owns Electro-Plating Services Inc., a now-closed chrome-plating company in suburban Detroit blamed for a green, hexavalent chromium-laden goo seeping onto the I-696 freeway late last month. An inspection found high levels of multiple contaminants in soil and groundwater at the old industrial site located in Madison Heights, according to state regulators. Hexavalent chromium is associated with cancer, kidney and liver damage, among other health effects. Sayers pleaded guilty to illegal storage of hazardous waste last February and was sentenced to a year in federal prison. Cleanup efforts are continuing in Madison Heights, leaving an eastbound lane on I-696 closed. More than 11,000 gallons of contaminants have been removed so far, Greenberg said. “It’s working — we’re getting it out,” she said. “Our next step is to determine where the contaminant has migrated to. Is it moving? Has it stopped? And what contaminants are in the ground.”
|
9843
|
Eating Fish May Be Good for Brain Health
|
The story allows the researcher to say, “More fish, more brain, less Alzheimer’s.” Pithy. Quotable. But simplistic and not proven by this study. At least the competing HealthDay story interviewed an independent source who wondered about other possible confounding factors in the research and stated, “For now, the connection must be viewed as an association, rather than a cause-and-effect.” So even though the WebMD story scored better, the HealthDay story did slightly better on this critical piece of analysis. (The HealthDay story had its own flaws – for example, burying that “association” line instead of placing it high in the story and overwhelming it with cause-and-effect language throughout the story.)
|
true
|
Alzheimer's,health food claims,WebMD
|
The cost of fish is not in question. Even more than the competing story by HealthDay, this story focused only on the surrogate marker of what brain scans showed. Did that make any difference in anyone’s actual cognitive abilities? The story never said. At least HealthDay mentioned – although inadequate in its brevity – that those who ate baked or broiled fish showed better “working memory” enabling them to more effectively execute routine tasks. Better than the competing HealthDay story, at least WebMD reminded readers: “The Environmental Protection Agency recommends that pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children avoid eating shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish and limiting albacore tuna to 6 ounces per week because of concern about levels of mercury in these fish.” The story didn’t even hint at the limitations of observational studies. It used boilerplate language at the end about the limitations of drawing conclusions from talks at scientific meetings, but that doesn’t get at the heart of evaluating the evidence being reported. No disease mongering of Alzheimer’s disease. The story turned to the chief medical and scientific officer of the Alzheimer’s Association for comment. But the quote used from him didn’t contribute much to an evaluation of the study. The story at least hinted at “other risk factors for memory loss that could affect the results, including age, gender, education, obesity and physical activity.” The availability of fish is not in question. The story at least stated that “the new study is the first to establish a direct relationship between fish consumption, brain structure and Alzheimer’s risk” and that “Several studies have linked a diet rich in certain fish to a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease.” It’s clear that the story did not rely on a news release.
|
7714
|
California battles its biggest ever wildfire, Trump vows support.
|
U.S. President Donald Trump struck a more conciliatory tone over California’s raging wildfires on Tuesday, saying he was in constant contact with officials there, a day after blaming the state’s environmental policies for exacerbating the fires.
|
true
|
Environment
|
One of the 17 major fires in California, dubbed the Mendocino Complex, became the biggest in state history on Tuesday, eclipsing a previous record set only eight months ago, as hot, windy conditions fanned the blazes in what Governor Jerry Brown has called a “new normal.” The Mendocino Complex, made up of two fires, grew to nearly 300,000 acres (117,700 hectares) - almost the size of Los Angeles - and was expected to burn for the rest of the month, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said. The blaze has surpassed the Thomas Fire, which burned 281,893 acres (114,078 hectares) in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in southern California last December, destroying over 1,000 structures. In the last two days, Trump has said California was letting water run into the ocean instead of using it to fight blazes and blamed California’s environmental policies for worsening the fires. The comments baffled California firefighters, who said they had more than enough water to douse the flames. “We’re going to have to have some meetings about it because there are ... things you can do to mitigate what’s happening,” Trump said at a dinner in New Jersey. The fires have killed seven people, destroyed over 1,500 structures and displaced tens of thousands of people over the past month. Climate change is widely blamed for higher temperatures that have fueled wildfires in California, and as far afield as Portugal, Sweden and Siberia. Temperatures in Northern California could reach 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) over the next few days, the National Weather Service said, making it easier for fire to spread. The Mendocino Complex has burnt 75 homes and forced the evacuation of 23,322 people. Firefighters are trying to keep fire out of communities like Nice, Lucerne and Clearlake Oaks. “It’s going into residences, backyards, farmland,” said Mitch Bosma, a spokesman with Cal Fire. The fires are on track to be the most destructive in a decade, prompting Brown and Republican leaders such as state Senator Ted Gaines to call for thinning and controlled burns of forests to reduce fire danger - moves opposed by environmentalists who say they kill wildlife. “We have to re-examine the way we manage our forests, the way we build our houses - how we build them, where we build them - and how much we invest in our fire protection services,” Brown said at a weekend news conference after touring an area destroyed by the deadly Carr Fire in Shasta County.
|
11863
|
"Kayla Moore Says Doug Jones ""is for full-term abortion."
|
"Kayla Moore said Jones is for full-term abortion. The language of the abortion debate is imprecise, but the phrase ""full-term abortion"" had virtually no track-record before Moore said it. Jones said he supports laws that allow abortions after 20 weeks or so of gestation, commonly known as late-term abortions, to protect a mother’s life or health. He hasn’t addressed a situation that, in the view of a leading medical researcher, doesn’t exist in practice. Moore measured Jones against a term that is disconnected from reality."
|
false
|
Abortion, National, Elections, Women, Kayla Moore,
|
"As Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore wrestles with accounts of sexual encounters with underaged teens, his Democratic opponent faces political attacks about abortion. Doug Jones is unabashedly pro-abortion rights, and Moore’s wife Kayla spoke at a rally in Montgomery, Ala., about his position. Reading from a prepared statement, Moore called Jones ""an ultra-liberal."" ""Who was an Obama delegate,"" she said of Jones on Nov. 17. ""Who is for full-term abortion? Who is for more gun restrictions? Who is for transgender bathrooms? Who is for transgender in the military?"" The list continued, but we wanted to look at whether Jones is for full-term abortions. First of all, while the phrase ""late-term abortion"" is familiar, ""full-term abortion"" is not. We asked the Moore campaign what Kayla Moore meant. ""Kayla was referring to Doug's statement on Chuck Todd (on Meet the Press) where he refused to support an abortion ban after 20 weeks,"" said Hannah Ford, deputy campaign manager. We’ll take a look at that Meet the Press segment, as well as another interview Jones gave to Alabama newspapers when he talked about late-term abortion law. Regarding ""full-term abortion,"" Moore has used a phrase that virtually didn’t exist before she said it. Jones appeared on MSNBC’s Meet the Press in late September. Near the end, host Chuck Todd pressed him on abortion. Here’s the full exchange: Todd: ""What are the limitations that you believe should be in the law when it comes to an abortion?"" Jones: ""I am a firm believer that a woman should have the freedom to choose what happens to her own body. And I’m going to stand up for that, and I’m going to make sure that continues to happen. I want to make sure that as we go forward, people have access to contraception, they have access to the abortion that they might need, if that's what they choose to do. I think that’s an issue that we can work with and talk to people about on both sides of the aisle."" Todd: ""So you wouldn't be in favor of legislation that said, ban abortion after 20 weeks or something like that?"" Jones: ""I'm not in favor of anything that is going to infringe on a woman's right and her freedom to choose. That's just the position that I've had for many years. It's a position I continue to have. But I want people to understand that once that baby is born, I’m going to be there for that child. That’s where I become a right-to-lifer."" Jones added more detail to his position on abortion in a Nov. 2 interview with AL.com. ""I fully support a woman's freedom to choose to what happens to her own body,"" Jones said. ""Having said that, the law for decades has been that late-term procedures are generally restricted except in the case of medical necessity. That's what I support. I don't see any changes in that."" Jones had said largely the same thing in mid October in a statement released by the campaign. ""This is a deeply personal decision,"" the statement said. ""I support the current law on a woman’s freedom to choose, which has been in place for decades, where late-term abortions are permitted to protect the life or health of the mother."" While Jones spoke of late-term abortions, the phrase itself has no fixed legal definition. Broadly speaking, the term refers to a dividing line set at different points in different states. Before that point (20 weeks post-fertilization in Alabama, for example) a woman can have an abortion for any reason. After that point, she can have one only if her life is endangered or her physical health is severely compromised. So Jones has said he supports laws that allow abortions beyond a certain number of weeks in order to protect the health of the mother. The Moore campaign’s definition of what qualifies as a full-term abortion — meaning, abortions that occur after 20 weeks — does not match the medical definition. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a full-term pregnancy falls between 39 weeks of gestation to 40 weeks and six days. That span falls well beyond the 18 to 25 weeks set by state law that determine when abortion restrictions apply. From the earliest days when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed abortion’s legality based on the rights of the mother, fetal viability has helped define the dividing line. But as medical knowledge has pushed back the time when a premature infant can survive, the breakpoint has changed. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists focuses on the period in which independent life outside the womb is at tipping point. In 2017, a panel of doctors determined that period ranges from as early as 20 weeks after fertilization to just under 26 weeks. In that span, ""outcomes range from certain or near-certain death to likely survival with a high likelihood of serious morbidities."" In common parlance, anything beyond 20 or 25 weeks is often referred to as a late-term abortion. So where does Moore’s use of full-term abortion fit? And Jones’ use of late-term? ""I have not heard the phrase ‘full-term abortion’ used in the debates over abortion, but neither have I heard the phrase ‘late-term’ abortion used without specifying gestational limits,"" said O. Carter Snead, associate professor of law at the University of Notre Dame. ""They are both speaking in more colloquial terms rather than using terms of art deployed in the legal and political debates."" That said, the use of the phrase late-term abortion empirically is far more common. A Nexis search for it between New Year’s Day 2017 and the day before Moore gave her speech produced 569 hits. The same search for full-term abortion produced one. It was in a letter to the editor that appeared in a Maine newspaper. Law professor I. Glenn Cohen at Harvard University said he hadn’t heard the term and found it ""puzzling."" Lisa Harris, a physician who studies abortion practice, law, policy and ethics at the University of Michigan Medical School, said "" ‘full-term abortion’ is not a term I have heard before, and doesn’t exist as a matter of routine practice."" ""If there's a reason someone needs to deliver early, then you induce labor, or you perform a C-section,"" she said. Harris said the only situation that might match Moore’s ""full-term abortion"" are rare cases of third trimester abortion. ""Third trimester abortions are incredibly infrequent,"" Harris said. ""My understanding is that these are difficult and unusual situations that generally involve a fetal anomaly that makes life untenable for the fetus."" At its roots, abortion law sorts out the moral rules during the time when the baby depends on the mother for survival. The idea of full-term abortion lies beyond that window of time. By definition, at full-term a baby without significant anomalies is able to survive outside the womb. Kayla Moore said Jones is for full-term abortion. The language of the abortion debate is imprecise, but the phrase ""full-term abortion"" had virtually no track-record before Moore said it. Jones said he supports laws that allow abortions after 20 weeks or so of gestation, commonly known as late-term abortions, to protect a mother’s life or health. He hasn’t addressed a situation that, in the view of a leading medical researcher, doesn’t exist in practice. Moore measured Jones against a term that is disconnected from reality."
|
1506
|
Forest rangers, fire crews brace for eclipse watchers to descend on U.S. West.
|
Forest rangers and fire managers across the U.S. West will be on high alert as motorists flock to Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming for next week’s total solar eclipse, clogging roads and straining scarce resources at the height of summer wildfire season.
|
true
|
Environment
|
The rare spectacle of the moon passing directly in front the sun, combined with the appeal of the West’s great outdoors, is expected to draw tens of thousands of eclipse enthusiasts to rugged, remote national forests and rangelands from the Cascades to the Northern Rockies. Authorities face an unprecedented challenge from the throngs in a region swathed in tinder-dry vegetation vulnerable to ignition from unattended campfires, discarded cigarettes and hot tailpipes. “It’s all hands on deck,” said U.S. Forest Service ranger Kurt Nelson, who works in the Sawtooth National Forest near the affluent resort of Sun Valley in central Idaho. Even without the added threat of careless humans, lightning-sparked wildfires are common at this time of year, raising fears that larger-than-normal crowds of tourists may end up in harm’s way and need to be evacuated. U.S. fire managers last week elevated the nation’s wildfire readiness status to its highest for the first time in two years, citing heightened danger from thunderstorms. Besides public safety issues confronting officials, drifting plumes of smoke, even from distant blazes, could end up obscuring the views of eclipse watchers on an otherwise clear day. The Aug. 21 event marks the first total solar eclipse visible anywhere in the lower 48 states since 1979. And it will be the first in 99 years spanning the entire continental United States, offering a brief glimpse of the sun completely blotted out - except for the corona of its outer atmosphere - across a 70-mile- (113-km-) wide, coast-to-coast path through 14 states. Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming are the first three states traversed by the narrow 2,500-mile (4,000-km) “path of totality,” mostly through rural areas unaccustomed to heavy traffic. BUMPER-TO-BUMPER TRAFFIC Roads through Idaho’s Sawtooth, for example, are likely to see bumper-to-bumper traffic in the days before and during the eclipse, Nelson said. That has prompted a regional hospital to park a life-flight helicopter nearby in case of a medical emergency. Extra firefighting crews are also on standby. Months of bone-dry heat have already brought restrictions on campfires and smoking in many Western forests. But authorities see the fire risks ratcheting up with the influx of travelers, few of whom may understand the dangers. A wildfire in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest prompted the closure this month of access to Mount Jefferson, the state’s second-highest peak and a would-be destination for those hoping to see the total eclipse, said Kirk Copic, visitor services information assistant for the forest. On Thursday, a separate blaze 30 miles south near the town of Sisters, Oregon, also in the path of totality, prompted Governor Kate Brown to invoke the state’s Emergency Conflagration Act, freeing up additional firefighting resources. She cited the need “to keep community, visitors and property safe” in the run-up to the eclipse. In Idaho, state police spokesman Tim Marsano warned that first responders there may not be able to help travelers as quickly as in a normal situation, adding, “The 911 system is going to be pushed to its limit.” In the Sawtooth alone, forest rangers expect as many as 30,000 people to inundate an area around the small town of Stanley, home to just 68 year-round residents. Nelson said the grass has been mowed down in eight eclipse-viewing areas set up for the public, to ensure fire-safe temporary roadside parking. Smoke from wildfires already burning in Idaho, Oregon, Montana and elsewhere could impair eclipse-viewing for some, but forecasters say smoke conditions, driven largely by wind speeds and direction, will remain uncertain until a day or two before. The sun will be so high in the sky that smoke should be of little consequence, unless it’s extremely thick, said Michael Zeiler, an avowed “eclipse-chaser” who made a 650-mile (1,000- km) drive, to Casper, Wyoming from his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in hopes of witnessing his ninth total solar eclipse. “This will be the most amazing event you have seen in your life,” said Zeiler, a member of an American Astronomical Society panel for public guidance.
|
39886
|
Various warnings have been circulating on the Internet that the sugar substitute, Splenda, may do more harm than good.
|
The Potential Dangers of Splenda / Sucralose – Disputed!
|
false
|
Food / Drink
|
According to a June 12, 2013 article by Fox News, a nonprofit public watchdog group called “The Center for Science in the Public Interest” issued a downgrade in “its safety rating of sucralose from ‘safe’ to ‘caution,’ meaning that the additive ‘may pose a risk and needs to be better tested. '” The article said that Italian researchers in an unpublished study discovered that “sucralose caused leukemia in mice,” and the watchdog group is still investigating the credibility of the report. Another study was condu cted by Dr. Joseph Mercola and posted on his website. Mercola wrote that “Adverse health effects related to Splenda have been reported by people around the globe, from gastrointestinal problems, seizures, dizziness, migraines, blurred vision, weight gain, and blood sugar elevation to allergic reactions.” The Splenda Frequently Asked Questions page said that “SPLENDA® Brand Sweetener has no known side effects.” They also denied that their product caused headaches, tooth decay or damaged kidneys. Splenda users should practice moderation as such heavy tests are conducted in mass doses on lab rats. TruthOrFiction.com checked the website for any updates to the safety rating and to date there are none. We will post any new findings on this page when we get them. Posted 02/21/14 Comments
|
34702
|
Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow was born when his mother declined to undergo an abortion after experiencing a life-threatening illness during her pregnancy.
|
Ultimately, the issue was a private matter between Pamela Tebow and her doctors which (absent additional information) doesn’t lend itself to independent verification, so we can’t make any definitive statement about what she might or not not have been advised.
|
unproven
|
Glurge Gallery
|
Rumor has it that former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow was born after his mother experienced a life-threatening illness during her pregnancy. Example: [Collected via e-mail, January 2012] In a recent email, I read about a woman named Pam, who knows the pain of considering abortion. More than 24 years ago, she and her husband Bob were serving as missionaries to the Philippines and praying for a fifth child. Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite found in contaminated food or drink. She went into a coma and was treated with strong antibiotics before they discovered she was pregnant. Doctors urged her to abort the baby for her own safety and told her that the medicines had caused irreversible damage to her baby. She refused the abortion and cited her Christian faith as the reason for her hope that her son would be born without the devastating disabilities physicians predicted. While pregnant, Pam nearly lost their baby four times but refused to consider abortion. She recalled making a pledge to God with her husband: “If you will give us a son, we’ll name him Timothy and we’ll make him a preacher.” Pam ultimately spent the last two months of her pregnancy in bed and eventually gave birth to a healthy baby boy August 14, 1987. Pam’s youngest son is indeed a preacher. He preaches in prisons, makes hospital visits, and serves with his father’s ministry in the Philippines. He also plays football. Pam’s son is Tim Tebow. The University of Florida’s star quarterback became the first sophomore in history to win college football’s highest award, the Heisman Trophy. His current role as quarterback of the Denver Broncos has provided an incredible platform for Christian witness. As a result, he is being called The Mile-High Messiah. Tim’s notoriety and the family’s inspiring story have given Pam numerous opportunities to speak on behalf of women’s centers across the country. Pam Tebow believes that every little baby you save matters. I pray her tribe will increase! For those who don’t follow American sports, Tim Tebow was a standout quarterback at the University of Florida from 2006-09 (during which time the Gators won two national championships and Tebow was awarded the prestigious Heisman Trophy as the outstanding college football player of the year, the first sophomore to be so honored). He was the starting quarterback for the NFL’s Denver Broncos, and played for several other NFL teams before becoming a professional baseball player. He currently plays for the Syracuse Mets. Tim Tebow’s displays of religiosity have prompted the creation of a couple of eponyms associated with him. During his college years, Tebow often inscribed references to Bible verses (e.g., “John 3:16,” “Proverbs 3:5-6”) in his eyeblack, the grease athletes apply under their eyes to reduce glare from the sun and stadium lights. When the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) banned the display of eyeblack messages in 2010, the new regulation was quickly dubbed the “Tebow rule,” as he had been its most notable practitioner. (However, other college stars such as Reggie Bush and Terrelle Pryor also wore eyeblack messages, and the NCAA denied that the new rule had been prompted by Tim Tebow specifically. The NFL already had a rule in place prohibiting such messages.) Tim’s practice of “taking a knee in prayerful reflection in the midst of an athletic activity” has also spawned the creation of the neologism “Tebowing” to describe such an activity. Tim’s entry into the world was not an easy one. His parents, Bob and Pamela Tebow, met when they were both University of Florida students in the late 1960s, went on their first date a year later, and married three years later. In 1985 the Tebows, already the parents of four children, moved to the Philippines to serve as Christian Baptist missionaries, where in late 1986 Pamela became pregnant with the couple’s fifth child. However, when Pamela suffered a life-threatening infection due to a pathogenic amoeba, the drugs she was treated with resulted in a severe placental abruption. According to an account Pamela Tebow provided to the Gainesville Sun in 2007, her doctors expected that her child would not survive and recommended an abortion to avoid endangering her own life: As the couple reached out to families across the island, they prayed to expand their own. “We started praying for Timmy by name, and then we got pregnant so we just felt like God had a special plan for him,” she said. But while their prayers were answered, the pregnancy proved difficult from the beginning. Just before her pregnancy, Pam fell into a coma after contracting amoebic dysentery, a bacteria transmitted through contaminated drinking water. During her recovery, she received a series of strong medications. And even though she discontinued the regimen when she discovered the pregnancy, doctors told Pam the fetus had been damaged. Doctors later told Pam that her placenta had detached from the uterine wall, a condition known as placental abruption, which can deprive the fetus of oxygen and nutrients. Doctors expected a stillbirth, Pam said, and they encouraged her to terminate the pregnancy. “They thought I should have an abortion to save my life from the beginning all the way through the seventh month,” she recalled. Pam said her decision to sustain the pregnancy was a simple one — because of her faith. “We were grieved,” she said. “And so my husband just prayed that if the Lord would give us a son, that he would let us raise him.” In her seventh month of pregnancy, Pam traveled to the country’s capital, Manila, where she received around-the-clock care from an American-trained physician. For the next two months, Pam — steadfastly praying for a healthy child — remained on bed rest. And on her due date — Aug. 14, 1987 — Pam gave birth to Timothy Richard Tebow, who she described as “skinny, but rather long.” “We were concerned at first because he was so malnourished, but he definitely made up for it,” she said, between laughs. Today Tim stands at a solid 6’3″ and 235 pounds. In early 2010, rumors that Pamela Tebow and her son Tim would be appearing in a commercial sponsored by Focus on the Family to be aired during the upcoming Super Bowl drew attention to the Tebows’ story and prompted protests from groups who believed it would promote an anti-abortion message. However, the commercial proved much tamer than many expected; it merely featured Pam talking about (and being tackled by) her “miracle baby” who “almost didn’t make it into this world” without including any overtly pro-life message: Nonetheless, the controversy prompted critics to question Pam’s story, maintaining (as in the following example) that doctors in the Philippines were unlikely to have counseled her to seek an abortion, as the procedure has long been illegal in the Philippines: One glaring [inconsistency] is the fact that the act of abortion is totally illegal in the majority Catholic country of the Philippines — under all circumstances including rape and incest, and even without a provision in the circumstance that the mother’s life is in danger. The law has been in effect since 1930. It [is] an impossible scenario to believe that Philippino [sic] doctors would have ever suggested abortion as a viable option for Tebow in the first place. And when you learn that physicians and midwives who perform abortions in the Philippines face six years in prison, and may have their licenses suspended or revoked, and that women who receive abortions — no matter the reason — may be punished with imprisonment for two to six years, it’s easy to see why. The illegality of abortion in the Philippines doesn’t in itself mean that Mrs. Tebow couldn’t possibly have been advised by doctors to seek one, however (especially since, as noted in a 2005 report, “despite the law’s severity, abortion appears to be widely practiced” in Philippines, including “medical procedures performed for better-off women by trained personnel”). Certainly several alternative explanations are plausible, such as the possibility that Filipino doctors informed her an abortion might be necessary to preserve her own life without specifically offering to perform the procedure. (As an American, she had the means to return to the United States for the procedure or seek medical care outside the Philippines.) It might also be the case that doctors explained the various risks associated with her condition to her, leaving her to her own judgment and choices, thereby suggesting (but not explicitly counseling) abortion.
|
15558
|
"Sarah Silverman Says Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has stated that supporting the ""right to health care ... means you believe in slavery."
|
"Silverman forwarded a social media meme that said Paul has stated that supporting the ""right to health care … means you believe in slavery."" The meme has been abridged from the full quote, but we see no significant change in his meaning. We also found no evidence that Paul had backtracked on the views he expressed."
|
true
|
Health Care, PunditFact, Sarah Silverman,
|
"Comedian Sarah Silverman’s liberal leanings are almost as well-known as her raunchy style. Her 2008 pro-Barack Obama video ""The Great Schlep"" attracted 2.2 million views on YouTube; a follow-up from 2012 attracted another 1.1 million views. Recently, a reader forwarded us this shareable meme from Silverman’s feed at WhoSay, a social media site, that’s critical of presidential candidate and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. The meme -- which Silverman had passed along from the Twitter account of actor Michael Sheen -- shows Paul seated at a congressional hearing. The meme purports to quote Paul equating the right to health care with slavery. What do the facts say? We were able to track down the source of the comments. They stem from a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions subcommittee hearing on May 11, 2011. Paul’s unusual comparison attracted a flurry of media attention at the time, as well as sniping by Paul’s critics. The meme shortened Paul’s comments to fit the available space, but the abridgement doesn’t strike us as twisting the gist of his comments. Here’s the full excerpt: ""With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have to realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses. ""Basically, once you imply a belief in a right to someone’s services, do you have a right to plumbing? Do you have a right to water? Do you have right to food? You’re basically saying you believe in slavery. You’re saying you believe in taking and extracting from another person. Our founding documents were very clear about this. You have a right to pursue happiness but there’s no guarantee of physical comfort. There’s no guarantee of concrete items. In order to give something concrete, you have to take it from someone. So there’s an implied threat of force. ""If I’m a physician in your community and you say you have a right to health care, do you have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That’s ultimately what the right to free health care would be. If you believe in a right to health care, you’re believing in basically the use of force to conscript someone to do your bidding."" A few days after the speech, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a free-market group, posted a longer version of Paul’s speech on YouTube, suggesting that the next 30 seconds or so provided more nuance to Paul’s comments and had been overlooked by commentators. Here is the additional comment: ""Now just because it's a noble thing to believe that we are obligated as Christians, we are obligated to the Hippocratic Oath, we have always done this. Since the beginning of modern medicine we have always provided 100 percent access. I do it in exchange for privileges. I do it because I believe in the Hippocratic Oath. But my hospital also says to me you can only operate in this hospital if you agree to see everyone coming through the emergency room. I always have. People have always had 100 percent access to our emergency room. Those are for emergencies -- those are not the best place for primary care."" We don’t think Paul’s subsequent comments greatly change what he said earlier, since he’s saying he’s consenting to the servitude of treating non-paying patients as a condition of being allowed to practice at certain hospitals. In this comment, he still sees it as a burden to be borne. In addition, Paul says he’s referring to emergency-room care, not to primary care. Primary care was the point of getting uninsured Americans covered under the Affordable Care Act, so they wouldn’t have to resort to going to emergency rooms for basic services. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. -- who, as it happens, is also running for president in 2016 -- used his perch as the chairman of the subcommittee to ask a witness, physician Dana Kraus, whether she felt like a ""slave"" working at her federally qualified health center. ""I love my job,"" she responded. ""I do not feel like a slave."" Even Matt Welch, the editor of the libertarian magazine Reason, had harsh words for Paul, who has long been identified with the libertarian movement. ""Could slaves free themselves by changing professions?"" Welch wrote. ""Do doctors in Switzerland get taken away at gunpoint? To treat the analogy with technical seriousness, even setting aside (as if you could) the colossal weight of America's most lasting shame, is to render it ridiculous, in my opinion."" We could not find an instance of Paul addressing these comments further, and Paul’s staff didn’t respond to a pair of inquiries. Our ruling Silverman forwarded a social media meme that said Paul has stated that supporting the ""right to health care … means you believe in slavery."" The meme has been abridged from the full quote, but we see no significant change in his meaning. We also found no evidence that Paul had backtracked on the views he expressed."
|
9235
|
Study puts Weight Watchers to the test for type 2 diabetes
|
This news release issued by the Medical University of South Carolina describes results of a multi-center study funded by the Weight Watchers corporation to assess the value of its dietary and communal approach to weight loss in adults with type 2 diabetes. Over a year’s time, half of the 563 patients with diabetes and obesity or were overweight in this randomized, partially blinded study received standard care including nutrition counseling and written educational materials. The other half were assigned to attend community-based Weight Watchers meetings, had access to the company’s online educational materials, and also had phone consultations and email contact with special diabetes educators who advised them about how to adapt the Weight Watchers meal plans to their diabetes medications and other factors. The results were statistically significant but very modest: both groups lost modest amounts of weight: 4 percent of body weight in the Weight Watchers group and 2 percent of body weight in the standard-of-care group and similarly small increases in the overall rates of long-term blood sugar control. The release would have been improved had it disclosed the numerous ties the lead researchers have with the Weight Watchers corporation and some hard numbers to describe the study’s outcomes and the overall small impact of the Weight Watchers program. As the release duly notes, obesity and one of its most serious consequences — type 2 diabetes — is a serious and growing public health problem, both in terms of prevention and control. Weight Watchers and other commercial weight loss programs are popular, relatively accessible, but still somewhat costly. In some cases sponsors of weight loss products have made claims of success that were not scientifically demonstrated. Trials published in peer reviewed journals that seek to measure benefits scientifically are welcome but demand scrutiny — particularly those funded by sellers of these weight loss services.
|
false
|
Medical University of South Carolina,Type 2 diabetes,Weight Watchers
|
The release notes that there are more than 20 million Americans with type 2 diabetes, but inexplicably says it “can lead to about $85,000 in medical costs,” without noting if that is an average, lifetime, annual or other measure of diabetic — presumably per-person — health care costs. We appreciate the nod to costs but nowhere is there any mention of the cost of Weight Watchers programs. In addition, the release promotes MUSC’s weight management program but does not say whether insurance covers it, or anything about the costs of standard weight management and glycemic control efforts. The release implies that this program will result in less cost when compared to medical costs of diabetes but that remains unproven. The release provides minimal quantification of the weight loss results in the two groups of participants: “After a year, people in the Weight Watchers group had an average weight loss of about 4 percent of their starting weight, compared to 2 percent for the standard care group.” But we wanted it to go further, especially with respect to outcomes most specific to type 2 diabetes which is the focus of the headline. The release states, “The Weight Watchers group also had a bigger improvement in a measure of long-term control of their blood sugar, which can reduce the risk for serious problems related to Type 2 diabetes.” It would have been helpful had the release told us what measure they are talking about, how much it changed, and provided readers with a target or range of preferred blood sugar levels. We would also liked to have seen weight loss described in actual pounds lost, since that is how most people track their own weight. In general, the release got the headline right, but overall took far too long to make clear exactly what the end points of the study were (weight loss primarily) and how small — albeit statistically significant — they were. Most interventions pose some kind of potential harms and Weight Watchers is no exception. For some, particularly those without access to a dedicated dietitian as the study participants had, the amount of sodium in a WW points-based meal plan may be too high, or the vitamins insufficient to maintain nutritional needs. Although the release provides some information about the participants in the study, it offers no information about their gender, the range of obesity or blood sugar control baselines in the two groups. It does not describe the randomization of the subjects, potentially confounding factors (such as exercise levels) or what medications the participants were taking. It also doesn’t highlight that results may be different for someone embarking on the meal plan on their own without the follow up calls and discussions with dietitians that the study participants had. No mongering here. The release makes clear that Weight Watchers funded the study but does not disclose the lead investigators other financial ties to Weight Watchers. The published study states that several of the authors were Weight Watchers employees, held stock in the company, served on its board or were Weight Watchers product patent holders. The release offers some comparison of the intervention group vs the standard of care group, but does not mention other possible approaches to weight loss such as competing meal replacement plans, liquid supplement diets, exercise-based programs, bariatric surgery and primary prevention in the form of nutritional education among high risk groups. We already know that intensive interventions for exercise and diet are needed for weight management. It would be useful to know how Weight Watchers compares to these other intensive interventions in terms of cost and effectiveness. In its assessment of a review of comparable meal control programs, the American Academy of Family Physicians found that: “At 12 months, Weight Watchers participants achieved at least 2.6 percent greater weight loss than the control group, and Jenny Craig users saw at least 4.9 percent greater weight loss than the control group.” “Other programs, including NutriSystem, showed comparable weight-loss results in the short term, but the study said additional research is needed to determine their long-term results.” The release notes that because Weight Watchers “has centers all over the country, including sites in small towns with limited or no medical facilities, its program could help meet this need if combined with diabetes-specific counseling.” We’ll give this a marginal satisfactory because while there are, indeed, many Weight Watchers centers, the program will be too costly for many. The release claims that “The Weight Watchers study is new evidence of what that help might include when it comes to a side effect of weight gain: Type 2 diabetes.” But the research doesn’t appear truly novel. Earlier this year Indiana University publicized its own Weight Watchers-funded study relating to type 2 diabetes, weight loss and glucose control. The release doesn’t employ sensational language. Those who stick with the release to the end will probably come away with an understanding of the modest benefits of the Weight Watchers program in terms of weight loss and blood sugar control. But some of the language in the lede and early paragraphs of the release are overstated and somewhat misleading.
|
4300
|
2 scientists share $500,000 prize for work on cancer biology.
|
Two scientists will share a $500,000 medical prize for work that has spurred advances in cancer research, immunology and regenerative medicine.
|
true
|
Albany, Biology, Cancer, New York, General News, Medical research
|
Dr. Irving Weissman, of Stanford University, and Dr. Bert Vogelstein, of Johns Hopkins University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, will receive the 2019 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, the medical center announced Tuesday. They’ll be awarded the prize on Sept. 25 in Albany, New York. Vogelstein and Weissman have made major advancements in understanding what causes a tumor to grow and how it becomes malignant, said Dr. Vincent Verdile, dean of Albany Medical College. “They have revolutionized our understanding of cancer biology and its application to earlier detection and treatment, leading to novel approaches capable of prolonging the lives of those who would at one time have been considered incurable,” Verdile said. Weissman is renowned for his research on stem cells and its application to cancer therapy. His research has produced therapies that target cancer stem cells and has led to new treatments for breast cancer, leukemia, bladder cancer, malignant melanoma, sickle cell anemia and other diseases. Vogelstein and his colleagues have been involved in research on cancer genes that has led to new cancer therapies and new tests for earlier detection and diagnosis of some forms of the disease. The Albany Medical Center Prize has been given annually since 2001 to those who have altered the course of medical research. It was established by the late Morris “Marty” Silverman, a New York City businessman.
|
9278
|
New rapid diagnostic test for Ebola could be game changer in the fight against the disease
|
This release from the The Lancet plays up a first-of-its-kind rapid diagnostic test for Ebola virus disease (EVD). We’re told the ReEBOV Antigen Rapid Test (made by Corgenix) could be a powerful future tool in detecting, monitoring, and controlling outbreaks of EVD. The excitement stems from a recent field study conducted during an Ebola outbreak. After that trial, the release explains, clinicians found the test to be faster than and as reliable as the current standard method for detecting EVD, called real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The release helpfully quantifies both the sensitivity and specificity of the test, giving readers a thorough overview of the test’s performance both in identifying cases of Ebola and ruling it out in people who don’t have it. What’s more, the release tells us, the new rapid-diagnostic test requires just a drop of blood instead a vial of blood, and takes minutes to get a result instead of days. The new test sounds like a potentially critical new tool in rapidly diagnosing EVD, but it has strings attached. The release does disclose these caveats — e.g. the test missed some early cases, it requires refrigeration, and it’s ability to detect EVD early on is limited. Our wish list for this otherwise very complete release includes context about how deadly EVD is and how it’s transmitted; what the symptoms are; what regions its endemic to; etc. We’d also like to know a bit about the regulatory side of things — which of these tests have been approved, and what are the roadblocks to approval/bringing the test to the field? On average, the Ebola virus kills about half of the people it infects. Recent outbreaks in Africa have claimed tens of thousands of lives. Although standard diagnostic tests take hours to process, it might take days for samples to reach a lab from remote places where an outbreak is happening. In addition, there have been reports in Guinea of potentially infected individuals not wanting to travel for testing due to a cultural mistrust of authority figures. So any fast and reliable diagnostic test — especially one requiring only a finger prick — could help workers on the ground detect and control the spread of an outbreak, as well as reduce the risk of infection to themselves (since Ebola virus spreads through bodily fluids).
|
true
|
Ebola,The Lancet
|
We don’t see any dollar signs in this release, either for the new test or RT-PCR. According to a New York Times blog post, they cost $60-$200 each. The release dedicates two paragraphs to describing the results, including comparing them to standard tests made by two different companies. We were particularly pleased to see reporting on the sensitivity and specificity of the test, as well as descriptions of what those numbers mean. We think those figures are important to include in any discussion of screening or diagnostic testing, but they’re often not provided or reported incompletely. The release explains how not having a rapid-diagnostic test could expose people who are otherwise healthy to Ebola. But there are some less obvious harms this release probably should have addressed. For example, there’s only brief mention of how the new test missed some early cases of EVD. Waiting a few minutes for a result is better than hours or days, of course, but letting infected patients with a false-negative test out of quarantine is a serious concern. It would also be useful to talk about the impact of a false-positive result (since specificity was 92%). What are the consequences of telling someone they have Ebola when they don’t, in fact, have the infection? The release runs through key statistics with the efficacy of the new test. It also discusses its shortcomings, attaches numbers to those, and discloses that further testing is required to better understand the limitations. No excessively scary descriptions of Ebola virus infections are anywhere to be found. But because the release didn’t include any general information about EVD, it has an opposite problem — a journalist might not grasp the scope and urgency of controlling outbreaks, and how intimately a new test might play a role. For example, few understand that there continues to be widespread transmission that is poorly controlled in Guinea in particular. We’ll rate this Satisfactory with reservations. We’re told the Abundance Foundation funded the test and the maker of the rapid-diagnostic test, Corgenix, provided the kits. This is definitely a strong part of the release — the new test is compared to two manufacturers’ versions of the standard RT-PCR test. But the release doesn’t mention other diagnostic tests, including virus isolation and ELISA. We’re told the following, via a quote from a researcher: “Although the RDT requires refrigeration, this is already available in many health centres in endemic areas, particularly those that store vaccines and other medical products.” Although we’d like to know more about the regulatory approval status of the test, we’ll award a Satisfactory here. The release does a fine job of establishing novelty: this new test takes minutes instead of what might take days; results can happen on-site; it only takes a few drops of blood from a finger instead of a vial’s worth by vein. There are a couple of points of contention here. The term “game-changer” used in the headline is rarely justified, but we think the release provides the evidence to show that this test could, in fact, be a game changer. In addition, we’re not sure that the test is “as sensitive as a conventional laboratory-based molecular method used for clinical testings.” In reality, it did as well as one manufacturer’s test in the field, but worse than another’s. But we’re inclined to give this a Satisfactory rating, since the rest of the release is well-hedged and caveated.
|
5961
|
NY officials: No major public health threat from steam blast.
|
An aging steam pipe containing cancer-causing asbestos exploded beneath Fifth Avenue in Manhattan early Thursday, spewing a geyser of white vapor 10 stories high and forcing an evacuation of 49 buildings, but city officials said there was no major public health threat.
|
true
|
Aging, U.S. News, New York, Manhattan, North America, Health, Manhattan Explosion, Evacuations, Bill de Blasio, Public health, Explosions
|
Five people, including three civilians, suffered minor injuries from the 6:40 a.m. blast on 21st Street, and officials warned people who may have gotten material on them to bag their clothes and shower immediately as a precaution. On a street near the blast site, firefighters stripped off their heavy outerwear, bagged it and entered a red decontamination tent in their gym shorts and T-shirts to take showers. “There was asbestos in the steam line casing,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said about eight hours after the explosion, but “the air cleared fairly quickly after the incident. ... There is no meaningful presence of asbestos in the air at this point.” Nevertheless, responders continued to wear masks and their vehicles were hosed off. De Blasio said it could take days to check and clean the buildings, which include 28 in a “hot zone” closest to the site where the blast left a crater roughly 20 feet by 15 feet (6 meters by 4.5 meters) in the street and temporarily displaced 500 people from their homes. It was not immediately determined what caused the blast in the 20-inch (50-cm) pipe. The mayor said no work was being done on the pipe at the time. Daniel Lizio-Katzen, 42, was riding his bike home to the West Village when he saw the plume from the high-pressure steam explosion. “It was a pretty violent explosion,” Lizio-Katzen told the Daily News. “The steam was shooting up into the air about 70 feet. It was pushing up at such a high pressure that it was spewing all of this dirt and debris. The cars around were coated in mud. ... It left a huge crater in the middle of the street.” Brendan Walsh, 22, a senior at New York University, had just gotten off a train and was headed to class when he saw the plume and “a large scatter of debris. ... I was standing behind the police line when a Con Ed worker came rushing over and screaming at police and firefighters to push everyone north because he was worried that there could be secondary manhole explosions.” “Everyone — including the police and firefighters who were standing by — started moving back,” he said. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed the state Department of Public Service to conduct a full investigation into the cause of the explosion and whether any “utility activities contributed to it.” “In conjunction with that investigation, the Departments of Environmental Conservation and Labor are standing by to assist in asbestos testing, assessment and with the disposal of contaminated material,” Cuomo said in a statement. Businesses were braced for the worst as the response dragged on and police and firefighters blocked access to buildings close to the explosion, crippling their neighborhood and their workday. Subway trains were diverted around the blast area. Similar explosions over the year have drawn attention to the aging infrastructure beneath the streets of the nation’s largest city. Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the pipe that blew was installed in 1932. More than 100 miles of steam pipe run beneath Manhattan, delivering vapor that powers heating and cooling systems, among other functions, in thousands of buildings. The pipes share the crowded underground with subway and commuter rail tunnels, telecommunications and electric cable, and water pipes. A July 2007 blast tore a deep crater in an intersection near Grand Central Terminal and sent a scalding geyser into the air, leaving one woman dead from a heart attack as she fled. Dozens of people were injured; some suffered horrible burns or had limbs severed. The 2007 explosion happened after water accumulated in a manhole and traps that were supposed to have relieved pressure became clogged with sealant. Thursday was just a day after the 11th anniversary. Another deadly Manhattan steam pipe explosion, in August 1989 in the Gramercy Park neighborhood, killed one resident and two Con Ed workers.
|
15466
|
This type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency.
|
"Obama said after the church shootings in Charleston that ""this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency."" The data shows that it clearly happens in other countries, and in at least three of them, there’s evidence that the rate of killings in mass-shooting events occurred at a higher per-capita rate than in the United States between 2000 and 2014. The only partial support for Obama’s claim is that the per-capita gun-incident fatality rate in the United States does rank in the top one-third of the list of 11 countries studied. EDITOR’S NOTE, June 22, 2015: We heard from several of you regarding Obama's use of the word ""frequency,"" and that frequency could refer to the incidents of mass shootings, not deaths as we examined. Looking at Obama's claim by incident, the United States has a higher rate of incidents than Finland, Norway and Switzerland. We agree that there is no preferred comparison and each is valid, and we've changed some language in this article to reflect that. We also agree that China has a larger population than the United States, a fact we weren't initially clear about but have since fixed. That said, we are sticking with our rating, in large measure because of Obama's claim that ""this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries."" That is incorrect. We know some of you will disagree, and we'll be sure to air out some of your objections in our next reader mailbag."
|
false
|
National, Corrections and Updates, Criminal Justice, Crime, Guns, Barack Obama,
|
"After a gunman shot and killed nine worshippers in a historic African-American church in Charleston, S.C., President Barack Obama took to the White House podium the next day to ""express our deep sorrow over the senseless murders."" In his June 18, 2015, remarks from the White House, Obama said, ""Now is the time for mourning and for healing. But let’s be clear: At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it."" A flurry of PolitiFact readers -- some of them prompted by articles objecting to Obama’s claim -- wrote to us to ask us to check it, so we did. An important point to make right off the bat is that many of the critics have pointed to the first part of Obama’s claim -- that ""this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries."" As we’ll explain, the critics have a point here -- mass violence, including mass shootings, happen in a wide variety of countries. However, the critics have truncated the quotation, leaving off the next sentence -- that ""it doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency."" That’s also not fully correct, but it’s not quite as wrong as the first claim. The White House argues that Obama's second sentence qualifies the first, and added that PunditFact rated Mostly True the claim that ""Americans are 20 times as likely to die from gun violence as citizens of other civilized countries."" However, that claim refers to gun violence generally, not mass killings specifically, the topic of Obama's comment. For a look at the statistics, we checked with two researchers, Jaclyn Schildkraut of the State University of New York in Oswego and H. Jaymi Elsass of Texas State University. They have been collecting and analyzing mass-shooting incidents in 11 countries, covering the period from 2000 to 2014. Aside from the United States, the countries they studied are Australia, Canada, China, England, Finland, France, Germany, Mexico, Norway and Switzerland. (They also looked at less-developed countries, but we will exclude those since Obama specifically mentioned ""advanced"" countries.) Schildkraut and Elsass shared the summary information from their database with PolitiFact. Here’s their table: The chart does show that the United States has more mass shootings -- and more people cumulatively killed or injured -- than the other 10 nations combined, partly because it has a much bigger population than all but China. Still, using this data, it’s easy to dispense with the first claim Obama made -- that ""this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries."" Over the decade and a half studied, the researchers found 23 incidents of mass shootings in the other 10 countries, resulting in 200 dead and 231 wounded. In the United States over the same period, there were 133 incidents that left 487 dead and 505 wounded. Here are a just a few examples of mass shootings in other countries: • On July 22, 2011, a total of 80 people were killed in Norway when Anders Behring Breivik, a political extremist, bombed a government building in Oslo and then went on a shooting rampage on the island of Utoya, just outside the city. • On March 11, 2009, in Winnenden, Germany, a teenage gunman killed 15 people. The majority of the victims were children and teachers killed when the shooter opened fire in three classrooms in a local secondary school. The gunman shot two other people before killing himself after being cornered by the local police. • On Sept. 23, 2008, in Kuahajoki, Finland, a gunman shot 10 people to death after opening fire on a classroom in the Kuahajoki School of Hospitality. After killing the students, the shooter burned the victims’ bodies. In sum, then, Obama is wrong to say that ""this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries."" Clearly it does happen elsewhere, and not in trivial numbers. Seven of the countries saw double-digit numbers of people killed in mass shootings during that period. By contrast, the second part of Obama’s claim -- that ""it doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency"" -- isn’t entirely off-base. We compared mass shooting incidents across countries is to calculate the number of victims per capita -- that is, adjusted for the country’s total population size. Calculating it this way shows the United States in the upper half of the list of 11 countries, ranking higher than Australia, Canada, China, England, France, Germany and Mexico. Still, the U.S. doesn’t rank No. 1. At 0.15 mass shooting fatalities per 100,000 people, the U.S. had a lower rate than Norway (1.3 per 100,000), Finland (0.34 per 100,000) and Switzerland (1.7 per 100,000). We’ll note that all of these countries had one or two particularly big attacks and have relatively small populations, which have pushed up their per-capita rates. In Norway, that single attack in 2011 left 67 dead by gunfire (plus additional bomb casualties). Finland had two attacks, one that killed eight and one that killed 10. And Switzerland had one incident that killed 14. Still, while the United States did rank in the top one-third of the list, the fact that three other countries exceeded the United States using this method of comparison does weaken Obama’s claim that ""it doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency."" In at least three countries, the data shows, it does. Elsass warned PolitiFact of a few caveats about the data. While they believe their database ""to be among the most exhaustive compilations available,"" Elsass noted that it may not include every instance of mass shootings. It also doesn’t include every example of mass killings -- just those committed by firearms, even though mass stabbings are not uncommon in such places as China. Finally, their database doesn’t include acts generally considered to be terrorism, such as the attack in Paris on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. ""If these were included, we are likely to see something much different statistically as there have been a number of very high-profile terrorist attacks in Europe, some including the use of firearms, that are excluded from the current analysis,"" she said. But in all likelihood, this would only make the case against Obama’s claim stronger. The bottom line is that it’s unwise to take these numbers as gospel -- but the figures from this database are clear enough to cast significant doubt on the accuracy of the specific claim Obama made. Our ruling Obama said after the church shootings in Charleston that ""this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency."" The data shows that it clearly happens in other countries, and in at least three of them, there’s evidence that the rate of killings in mass-shooting events occurred at a higher per-capita rate than in the United States between 2000 and 2014. The only partial support for Obama’s claim is that the per-capita gun-incident fatality rate in the United States does rank in the top one-third of the list of 11 countries studied. EDITOR’S NOTE, June 22, 2015: We heard from several of you regarding Obama's use of the word ""frequency,"" and that frequency could refer to the incidents of mass shootings, not deaths as we examined. Looking at Obama's claim by incident, the United States has a higher rate of incidents than Finland, Norway and Switzerland. We agree that there is no preferred comparison and each is valid, and we've changed some language in this article to reflect that. We also agree that China has a larger population than the United States, a fact we weren't initially clear about but have since fixed. That said, we are sticking with our rating of , in large measure because of Obama's claim that ""this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries."" That is incorrect. We know some of you will disagree, and we'll be sure to air out some of your objections in our next reader mailbag."
|
35976
|
U.S. border agencies have refused donations of flu shot vaccines for immigrant detainees, despite in-custody deaths due to influenza.
|
On the hairpin bend of a Swiss mountain pass, a Victorian-era hotel built for tourists to admire the Rhone Glacier has been abandoned now that the ice has retreated nearly 2 km (1.2 miles) uphill.
|
true
|
Fact Checks, Viral Content
|
Where mighty glaciers once spilled into Swiss valleys like frozen rivers of ice, a residue of gray scree and boulders remains, spliced through with raging streams. A Reuters montage of images - showing photos of modern-day mountain landscapes next to archive shots of the same scenes decades earlier - reveals the dramatic change. More than 500 Swiss glaciers have already vanished, and the government says 90% of the remaining 1,500 will go by the end of the century if nothing is done to cut emissions. Their retreat is expected to have a major impact on water levels - possibly raising them initially as the ice melts but depleting them long term. Officials fear the changes could trigger rockfalls and other hazards and affect the economy. The Belvedere Hotel, built in the 1880s during a surge in Alpine tourists, was an early victim of the decline. Once the scene of wild parties, it features in a James Bond car chase in “Goldfinger”. Visitors can still walk into a cave carved into the glacier. But the ice above is now draped with huge white sheets to reflect the sun’s heat. Despite such efforts, melt waters have formed a green lake. Down the valley, a mid 19th century photograph shows the glacier’s bulging snout more than 100 meters thick. Now, animals graze and a river meanders on the same spot. In another archive photograph taken in the late 19th century in front of the Aletsch glacier - the largest in the Alps - a man sits on a boulder in front of a huge ice channel that merges with the main ice stream below. Today, they no longer join. Landlocked Switzerland is warming at twice the global rate and over the last year its glaciers have lost 2% of volume, said Mathias Huss, who heads Switzerland’s glacier monitoring institute GLAMOS which has data stretching back 150 years. “We have never seen such a fast rate of glacial decline since the measurements have started,” he said. Some hope that politics can make a difference, especially after the Greens surged in an October election. The “Glacier Initiative” calling for more climate measures collected more than the 100,000 signatures required to trigger a referendum and will be sent to Bern this week. But the glaciers will keep shrinking, scientists say. “The Alps will still be beautiful in my opinion, but they will be different,” Huss said.
|
8578
|
China snake village scales down as coronavirus prompts wildlife trade ban.
|
Since China began frantic efforts to curb a coronavirus epidemic in late January, residents in the tiny snake breeding village of Zisiqiao have had to come to terms with a ban on wildlife trading, its lifeline for decades.
|
true
|
Environment
|
Zisiqiao employed hundreds of people to breed three million snakes a year. Now, the rows of wooden slats that housed the captive reptiles stand empty, and abandoned. The Chinese character for “snake” has even been removed from the sign on the front wall of a specialty snake meat restaurant on the village’s edge. “In the village now, there’s definitely no one breeding snakes,” said Yang Heyong, a 71-year old former breeder. “It must be because of the epidemic. Zhong Nanshan (China’s top medical adviser) has already said it is related to bats and snakes!” Zisiqiao has been an unlikely centre of China’s snake industry for nearly four decades. It is dotted with small factory farms and its “snake culture” museum is a tourist attraction. Snakes also form part of the village’s informal economy, with families keeping them in backyard holds to sell to restaurants or traditional medicine traders. The global coronavirus pandemic is believed to have originated in exotic animals on sale in the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan. The broad consensus suggests SARS-CoV-2 originated in bats, and early research suggested it reached humans via snakes, but many say pangolin - also on sale in the Wuhan market - are a more likely culprit. China issued a temporary ban on the trade and consumption of wildlife on Jan. 23 and vowed to amend animal protection and epidemic prevention legislation to make that ban permanent. Thirteen provinces have implemented their own local regulations to ban wildlife consumption. In Zisiqiao, built along the edge of a canal about 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Shanghai, snake breeding permits were cancelled in January. Winter is the off-season and breeding normally begins in April or May, so the economic impact hasn’t yet hit home. While some residents said they expected restrictions to be relaxed once the crisis ends, government officials insisted they were permanent, and even if new licenses are issued later this year, the criteria will be far stricter. “At the end of the epidemic, it still won’t be permitted,” said Lu Jinliang, vice-chief of the local village Communist Party. “They will have to switch professions, raise other species.” Even before the coronavirus outbreak, the snake trade was under scrutiny. A study by Wuhan University published last December looked at snakes collected from the city’s seafood markets, including the one blamed for the coronavirus pandemic. China trades 7,000-9,000 tonnes of snake a year, and intensive farming may have enhanced the transmission of parasites and other infectious diseases, the study said. However, Yu Xuejie, professor of the School of Health Sciences at Wuhan University and one of the study’s authors, told Reuters that he did not believe snakes were the origin of the coronavirus. Another paper published last month said that while the virus originated in bats, genetic evidence suggests snakes may have been the intermediary species. However, its findings have been disputed, said Patrick Aust, research associate with the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford. “The source is most likely mammalian, probably bats but other suspects too, including pangolins,” he told Reuters, adding that there was no reason for snakes to be singled out as a health risk. Animal welfare organisations have welcomed China’s wildlife ban, including the snake farming restrictions, and are urging the government to make it permanent. But no species should be singled out for blame, they said. “This is a disease issue: it is not just one animal’s problem or responsibility,” said Aili Kang, executive director of the Asia Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society, a non-government organisation “This is not one species’ problem: it is a human problem.” -- For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread of coronavirus: here
|
10144
|
Ankle replacement gives D.M. woman ‘full day’
|
This news brief tells the story of a single patient who has a happy outcome after ankle replacement. It accurately describes the cost, availability, novelty, and some of the potential harms of the operation. But the story runs out of steam when it comes to assessing the evidence. Armed only with the testimony of one podiatrist newly trained to do the surgery, the article neglects to characterize the larger body of scientific evidence on ankle replacement for traumatic injures or osteoarthritis. And limited by the endorsement of just one patient, the article fails to quantify the benefits of the operation in a large population of people suffering with similar problems. Is this patient’s experience typical? What do cohort studies show? Are there other treatments that might help? (See “Treatment Options” above.) Are there randomized trials comparing ankle replacement to other treatments? Is there high-quality evidence to suggest any intervention provides a satisfactory outcome over the long run? Regrettably, these questions remain unanswered. The implication of stories such as this is that when there is nothing to lose, people should be willing to subject themselves to the potential harms of something new. The story would have been helped by a simple declaration that there is no evidence currently available to help patients weigh the risks and benefits of this operation.
|
mixture
|
The article says that the full charge for the operation is about $45,000, which insurance companies may negotiate down to about $25,000. The news article chronicles one patient’s experience before and after ankle replacement surgery. Though the patient reports that she now walks “100 percent better,” the story makes no attempt to quantify the benefits in a reliable, scientific manner. The news story mentions harms and potential disadvantages of ankle replacement, including infection, tissue scarring that could limit the ankle’s range of motion, and failure requiring a fusion operation. However, the article doesn’t mention that because this device is new, no one truly knows the range of risks or how common they are when used in routine practice. This is a critical piece of context that is lacking in the story.
|
|
10074
|
Sleep apnea gives way to air mask
|
The introduction of the Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machines represented an important development for the treatment of sleep apnea. Today, CPAP machines are standard therapy for those who are suffering from the condition. This story does a good job of explaining CPAP machines and some of the drawbacks of using them as well as laying out the alternative treatments that are available. The story also adequately describes the treatment alternatives and does not engage in disease mongering. Because the story quotes multiple sources, the reader can assume that the story does not rely on a press release as the sole source of information. The story does not describe the costs of CPAP or its alternatives. Nor the does story adequately quantify the benefits of CPAP treatment or describe the strength of the available evidence to support its use. It would have been helpful to see an estimate of the prevalence in the population and in overweight individuals, as well as estimates of the prevalences of the serious complications. Depression, drop in sex drive, heart attacks are mentioned and one person who died at 38 of complications from sleep apnea are all mentioned but there is no indication of how commonly these occur in this syndrome.
|
true
|
"The story does not mention costs of CPAP or the alternatives. The story does not adequately quantify the benefits of treatment. Although the story does state how many patients are able to comply with the treatment and presents the success rate of surgery, it does not quantify the benefits of CPAP. Furthermore, the sleep expert states that a CPAP machine ""works 100 percent of the time."" In reality, this appears to be an overstatement of how effective the machines are. The story comments on some of the drawbacks of using CPAP machines, particularly on how difficult many patients find it to use on a regular basis. The story could have mentioned some of the possible harms of CPAP, such as sinus problems and sores on the nose. The story states that CPAP is very effective, but it does not comment on the strength of the available evidence to support the use of CPAP. The story does not appear to exagerate the seriousness or prevalence of sleep apnea. However, it would have been nice to see an estimate of the prevalence in the population and in overweight individuals, as well as estimates of the prevalences of the serious complications. Depression, drop in sex drive, heart attacks are mentioned and one person who died at 38 of complications from sleep apnea are all mentioned but there is no indication of how commonly these occur in this syndrome. The story quotes multiples experts. The story discusses several surgical options and dental appliances as alternatives to CPAP. The story clearly states that CPAP machines are available. The story clearly states that CPAP machines are not a novel treatment for sleep apnea. Because the story quotes multiple experts, the reader can assume that the story does not rely on a press release as the sole source of information"
|
|
34280
|
Under Armour garments are more flammable than other garments of their type.
|
Thank you for your concern. [Under Armour garments are] not flame-retardant, unless specifically labeled that way. In fact, other than certain children’s pajamas labeled as such, very little clothing is flame-retardant. Accordingly, due to the unpredictable nature of fire, especially open flames, always exercise caution no matter what you are wearing.
|
unproven
|
Business, consumer protection, cpsc, flammable
|
In June 2018, a Facebook user shared a screenshot of another user’s post about a purported incident involving flammable Under Armour brand children’s garments: The original poster also shared an abbreviated version of the story to a public Facebook group: The post questioned whether the brand’s clothing was “fireproof,” but since affordable, ordinary wear clothing cannot be made completely impervious to fire, government safety regulations for clothing typically address flammability (i.e., the speed at which clothes catch fire and the rate at which they burn once alight), with higher standards typically applied to children’s sleepwear. Relevant regulations came into effect with the U.S. Flammable Fabrics Act of 1953 [PDF, PDF], following a series of deaths in the 1940s related to rayon garments for children. A portion of the law pertained to classifications of the flammability of clothing, including baseline standards for general flammability in garments. At the Act’s inception the Federal Trade Commission enforced its provisions, then responsibility for enforcement was transferred to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC) in 1967. The CPSC established additional standards for “for the flammability of clothing textiles, vinyl plastic film (used in clothing), carpets and rugs, children’s sleepwear and mattresses and mattress pads.” In April 2006, the Department of Defense confirmed that certain lines of synthetic clothing (including ones sold under the Under Armour brand) had been banned on Marine bases and camps in Iraq for posing a “substantial burn risk”: Marines conducting operations outside forward operating bases and camps in Iraq can no longer wear synthetic athletic clothing containing polyester and nylon, Marine Corps commanders have ordered. The ban on popular clothing from companies like Under Armour, CoolMax and Nike comes in the wake of concerns that a substantial burn risk is associated with wearing clothing made with these synthetic materials, officials said. When exposed to extreme heat and flames, clothing containing some synthetic materials like polyester will melt and can fuse to the skin. This essentially creates a second skin and can lead to horrific, disfiguring burns, said Navy Capt. Lynn E. Welling, the 1st Marine Logistics Group head surgeon … The Under Armour company, a favorite among many servicemembers here, advertises that the fabric used to make their garments will pull perspiration from the skin to the outer layer of the clothing. This, the ads say, allows the person wearing it to remain cool and dry in any condition or climate. Separate testing found that synthetic garments from brands such as Under Armour tended to melt and could exacerbate burns [PDF]. Clothing recommended specifically for environments in which exposure to sparks or fires is common is known as “flame-resistant,” but a manufacturer of flame-resistant clothing noted that even garments held to a high standard of fire resistance are not wholly “fireproof”: [“Flame-resistant” clothing] means that the garment’s flame-resistant properties ensure it will resist catching fire, and if it does catch fire, it will not continue to burn once the source of combustion is removed. Flame-resistant clothing can and will burn when introduced to open flame from a flash fire, arc flash, combustible dust explosion or other fire sources. Remember, FR clothing is NOT fireproof. It is after the flame source is removed, that the FR “magic” happens. Flame-resistant workwear will not contribute to the severity of burn injury. The CPSC has not announced any recalls we could find related to the flammability of Under Armour clothing, and we found no information to suggest the brand’s items were not in compliance with federal regulations. We contacted Under Armour and the CPSC for further information and received the following response from the manufacturer:
|
9457
|
Study: Whooping cough vaccination during pregnancy protects newborns
|
A Philadelphia Inquirer story covers the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that asked how much pregnant mothers’ vaccines for pertussis — more commonly called whooping cough — helped their babies in the first 2 months of life. As the story notes, this is a compelling research question because a mother’s antibodies transfer to her newborn, offering a temporary form of protection after birth (until a baby develops her own immunities after receiving the appropriate childhood vaccines). The piece does a good job of explaining the core research question and the stakes. However, while the key numbers used in the story appear straightforward, they are derived from a statistical method that is not, i.e. odds ratios. It would have helped to see the study’s results characterized in more absolute terms, and the quality of its evidence discussed in slightly more detail. Pertussis, or whooping cough, can be a deadly disease for non-immunized infants. Because infections are increasing in the U.S., it is important to look at various public health interventions to prevent new cases from occurring. This information is newsworthy and especially relevant for pregnant mothers, as they may have the ability to lower their child’s risk of getting infected during a vulnerable time in their baby’s life.
|
true
|
vaccines
|
The cost of a Tdap vaccine for mothers isn’t noted, and it should be: It’s free under any insurance plan, per the Affordable Care Act (sometimes called “Obamacare”). For anyone paying out of pocket, though, it’s about $64 per dose. The story notes that a mother getting a Tdap vaccine in her third trimester cuts the risk by 78% of a baby less than 2 months old of getting pertussis — and that even when a mother-vaccinated baby did get the disease, 90% of cases were mild. However, the story cites risk numbers calculated from odds ratios — a statistical concept that most readers are not familiar with. A clearer way to present the results would have focused on absolute numbers. For example: 7% of vaccinated mothers had babies who contracted pertussis within the first 2 months of life, and 90% of those cases were mild. A comparison of unvaccinated mothers showed the infection rate to be about 43%. That said, this was a retrospective case control study, which can have many “confounders” that could have affected the results (see evidence quality, below). There is a brief mention of side effects, so this skirts by as Satisfactory. However, it would have been helpful to explain that about 1 in 10 adults experience nausea, vomiting, or chills. Painful swelling in the injected arm that requires medical treatment is “rare,” according to the CDC. The reporter mentions there is no live bacteria, which is good, but probably should also have mentioned there is no thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative. The story notes how a mother’s vaccine-created antibodies can transfer to a newborn, but should have thrown out a few more descriptive numbers, including that just 107 cases of pertussis were used in the study. This is a relatively small sample size to draw wide-reaching conclusions, though the story did note these cases were sampled from six different U.S. states. The type of study was a case control, which is a type of observational study that sits low in the hierarchy of evidence and isn’t capable of proving cause and effect. The story should have made this clear. Also, it’s worth noting that the story’s headline goes too far in stating that the vaccine “protects” newborns because it’s beyond the scope of this study to prove that any reduction in whooping cough rates was due to the vaccine rather than some other factor. We didn’t see any unwarranted or scary language. Included in the story is a quote from vaccine expert Dr. Paul A. Offit, and we detected no potential conflicts of interest. The alternative would be not getting a Tdap vaccine as a pregnant mother, so we’ll rate this N/A. It is widely understood that these vaccines are available to almost everyone. The story notes only half of pregnant mothers receive the vaccine, which is important and why the CDC is researching the topic. The novelty is touched on, though indirectly — this is a relatively new recommendation by the CDC, in 2012, to immunize every pregnant patient during every pregnancy, and this study is an attempt to figure out how protective it is to babies, looking at which trimester the vaccine was given. There is a quote from a CDC news release, though it is clearly sourced. However, a hyperlink to the release itself would have benefitted readers.
|
2153
|
"Roger Ebert calls himself ""happy"" despite surgeries."
|
Film critic Roger Ebert has opened a window on his life since losing his ability to speak four years ago, telling Esquire magazine he communicates through Post-it notes but there is “no need to pity” him.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Actor, director and Sundance Film Festival founder Robert Redford (R) smiles next to film critic Roger Ebert following a news conference on the first day of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah January 21, 2010. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson The magazine also shows a new photo of Ebert revealing the effects of drastic reconstructive surgeries on his jaw since his diagnosis with thyroid cancer in 2002. Ebert, one of America’s most influential film critics, writes for the Chicago Sun-Times. But he is best known for reviewing movies on TV, creating the trademark “two thumbs up” with late film critic Gene Siskel until Ebert lost the ability to speak in 2006. Since then, he has continued to write, reviewing films, keeping an online journal and publishing books. He communicates with friends and family using Post-it notes and a computer program that turns text into speech. During his interview with Esquire, Ebert wrote on a piece of paper, “There is no need to pity me...Look how happy I am.” To show that he is laughing, he closes his eyes and slaps both hands on his knees, according to Esquire. Ebert told Esquire that in his dreams he can talk. “Never yet a dream where I can’t talk,” he wrote in a Post-it. He also told the magazine that he misses Gene Siskel, his late movie reviewing partner on the television show “Siskel & Ebert,” who died of brain cancer in 1999. After Siskel’s death, Ebert appeared on TV alongside critic Richard Roeper. Since the surgeries on his jaw, Ebert’s mouth is shaped into a permanent smile. He told Esquire that the surgeries were so difficult that he refuses to go under the knife any more. Ebert, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his film criticism, has a forthcoming book titled “Great Movies III” and a collection of recipes called “The Pot and How to Use It” that will also come out this year.
|
3256
|
4 flu deaths reported so far in Maryland.
|
State health officials say at least four adults in Maryland have died from the flu this season.
|
true
|
Immunizations, Health, Frederick, General News, Flu, Maryland
|
The state has now seen widespread, high influenza activity for the past few weeks, and visits to the emergency department due to flu-like symptoms have been rising since November, the Frederick News-Post reported. The Maryland Department of Health’s most recent weekly flu index report shows the majority of cases have been caused by the Type B Victoria strain, which is covered by the flu vaccine this season. Kelley Smith, a nurse and immunization coordinator with the Frederick County Health Department, said the flu vaccine is available and it’s never too late to vaccinate.
|
10773
|
Magnetic stimulation of the brain may help patients with cocaine addiction
|
This release reports the findings from a small pilot study asking whether rTMS (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation) to certain parts of the brain in cocaine users can limit their use and affect their cravings for the drug. The results showed a decrease in both use and cravings for cocaine among the experimental group, as compared to a control group which only received medicinal drugs to address the effects of cocaine. The release did not address costs or the availability of rTMS treatments; otherwise it was a good, readable overview of an intriguing study. While cocaine abuse is widespread in the developed world, there are no proven therapies for this addiction. Some pharmacologic approaches appear to be helpful but they are still under investigation. Medicines given to such patients are intended to affect the symptoms but not the underlying disease. If a non-invasive method such as rTMS proved effective in reducing cocaine use and if it were readily available, it would bring significant improvement to those users willing to take advantage of it.
|
true
|
Association/Society news release,Journal news release
|
While the release clearly labels this work as preliminary, the overall inference of the news is that this is a potential successful treatment for cocaine addiction. But there is no mention at all of the potential cost of using this new approach.The FDA approved rTMS for major depression in December 2008. A 2013 article in Scientific American said a typical rTMS therapy session cost $300. In this study, patient volunteers underwent eight sessions which would have totaled $2,400 if paying out of pocket. The costs of the drugs used to treat persons in the control group are well-known so at least those costs could be compared to that of the magnetic stimulation treatments to give readers an idea of whether the two approaches were financially comparable. The release does an adequate job of pointing to improvements in both a reduction of drug cravings and an apparent reduction in cocaine use, based on regular urine tests. In addition, the release points to a greater relapse rate among those in the control group versus those who received the brain stimulation — using absolute numbers to describe the differences. The study is promising and exciting, but the findings are only a suggestion and not a conclusion. We think the news release makes the distinction clear. The release states that the magnetic stimulation treatment is safe and non-invasive and is already in use to treat patients with depression and neuropathic pain. This release does a good job of positioning the findings early as preliminary and stating that replication will be required among a much larger group of patients. It also points out that future larger studies should include a sham group as a control, rather than a group receiving pharmacological interventions. Moreover, it points out that participants were all patients who sought out treatment in a hospital setting, meaning that they were perhaps more motivated toward ceasing drug abuse than other users. This release does not promote disease mongering. The release fails to point out the funding sources for this work, or to address any possible information on potential conflicts of interest, even though that information is readily available in the research paper. The published study states that funding was provided by several public and private sources in Italy and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse (US), and that the study authors had no financial or potential conflicts of interest. The release states, “There is no effective drug treatment for cocaine addiction, with behavioural therapies being the main element of any treatment regime.” The medicinal drugs used on members of the control group were intended to treat accompanying symptoms brought on by cocaine use. In addition, addiction specialists have found that some drugs do offer some small benefits clinically, but they are not FDA approved for cocaine addiction treatment. While the release does state that this particular form of brain stimulation is being used to treat some other conditions, there is no suggestion that the treatment is readily available in most hospital or out-patient facilities, information which would help readers gauge the practicality of seeking such treatments. The release states that, “As far as we know, this work represents the first clinical report indicating that rTMS treatment results in significant reduction in cocaine use.” That pretty clearly states the novel nature of the work, especially given the fact that there are no other effective treatments for cocaine addiction. This release does not seem to use any language that appears unjustifiable.
|
7378
|
Despite slow start, Ricketts confident in TestNebraska.
|
Nebraska may not make its goal of conducting 3,000 coronavirus tests per day by the end of May through the state’s TestNebraska program, but Gov. Pete Ricketts expressed confidence Thursday that testers will reach that pace “at some point” if residents continue to sign up.
|
true
|
Pete Ricketts, Omaha, Health, General News, Nebraska, Virus Outbreak
|
His comments came after state officials reported that the program produced 2,358 results last week — well short of the 3,000 per day that was expected by the end of the month, when the ramp-up period is supposed to end. Ricketts announced the $27 million coronavirus testing contract with Utah-based Nomi Health and three other firms on April 21, along with plans for a five-week ramp-up period to reach the estimated 3,000 tests per day. The state has opened four mobile testing sites so far in different cities, with plans to open six and a goal that each will see 500 residents daily. “We’re working toward that right now,” Ricketts said Thursday. “It’s a new system, it’s been up about a week and a half now. We’re continuing to make improvements to it. So, I’m confident that we will get to that 3,000 tests a day at some point. But part of it’s going to be people have to sign up for it.” States are scrambling to test as many people as possible for the virus to keep it from spreading and overwhelming local hospitals. The TestNebraska contract gave state officials access to 540,000 coronavirus testing kits, lab equipment, technology support and other assistance, but public officials are responsible for administering and analyzing the tests. The program has faced criticism from some Nebraska state lawmakers and problems have been reported in Iowa and Utah, which have similar contracts. In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Thursday only 4,000 people have been tested since the program’s launch, but she expects the pace to accelerate now that testing machines have been validated. Nebraska saw four more deaths Wednesday from COVID-19, and local health department officials expressed growing concern over the high number of infection among minorities. The state’s total deaths from COVID-19 since the outbreak began earlier this year is now at 107, state health officials said. The state also saw a surge of 383 new coronavirus cases confirmed on Wednesday, bringing the state’s total number of cases to 9,075. Nebraska’s hospitals still have a large number of beds, intensive-care unit space and ventilators if needed, according to Department of Health and Human Services. The new numbers were released as health department officials in Omaha and Lincoln said a disproportionate number of COVID-19 cases are being seen among minority populations. In Douglas County, the health department says more than 40% of its cases have been confirmed in the Latino community. In Lincoln, the mayor’s office said in a news release that nearly 70% of cases in Lancaster County are Asian, Latino or black. For some infected people, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause severe illness or death. But for most people, it causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. Nebraska also plans to expand the number “contract tracers” who help track people who may have been exposed to the virus. Nebraska now has 277 state employees who are helping local public health departments with the task and plans to build up to 1,000 by contracting with another private firm. Felicia Quintana-Zinn, a state health employee who is helping lead that effort, said Nebraska typically had about 30 contract tracers statewide before the pandemic. “We really needed to ramp that up and support our local public health departments,” she said. ___ Associated Press reporter Margery A. Beck contributed from Omaha. ___ Follow Grant Schulte on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte
|
494
|
Six bodies retrieved from New Zealand volcanic island, two still missing.
|
A New Zealand military team in gas masks and hazmat suits recovered six bodies on Friday from the volcanic island that fatally erupted earlier this week, as doctors worked to save badly burned survivors.
|
true
|
Environment
|
An eight-person bomb disposal squad set off before dawn and spent four hours on White Island, which experts said could erupt again. Six of the eight bodies on the island were successfully retrieved and taken to a naval patrol vessel for transfer to the mainland for disaster victim identification. “Today was all about returning them to their loved ones,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a media conference in Whakatane, the mainland coastal town where about 100 family and local community members prayed and sang together. “We know that reunion won’t ease that sense of loss, of suffering because I don’t think anything can but we felt an enormous sense of duty as New Zealanders to bring their loved ones home.” The team was unable to find and recover the remaining two bodies as the cumbersome protective equipment they needed to wear slowed down the tricky operation. Police said dive teams deployed in the waters around the island, which is also known by its Maori name of Whakaari, had not found anything and would try again on Saturday. “It’s not over yet,” New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush told reporters in Whakatane, some 50 km (30 miles) west of the island. Pictures showed pairs of military personnel wearing breathing apparatus scouring the lunar-like landscape as inflatable dinghies and a police launch waited offshore. The volcano, a popular tourist destination for day-trippers, erupted on Monday, spewing ash, steam and gases over the island. Among the 47 people on the island at the time were Australian, U.S., German, Chinese, British and Malaysian tourists. The official death toll stands at eight as the bodies on the island have been classified as missing until they are formally identified. More than two dozen more people are in hospitals across New Zealand and Australia, most with severe burn injuries. A blessing was held at sea with the victims’ families before the mission was launched. Locals Boz Te Moana, 24 and Michael Mika, 28, came to support families gathered at the marae, a Maori community center, in Whakatane. “Where we come from we don’t leave anyone behind, no one gets left behind,” Te Moana said of his Maori community. “We all move as one.” Relatives sat among the coffins of those who were recovered on Friday, not knowing which belonged to their family member, senior legislator Kelvin Davis told reporters. “But it was just an opportunity, as they said, regardless of whether we’re from Australia or New Zealand or wherever, that the moment we’re one whanau (family) and will mourn everybody as if they are our own.” GRAPHIC: Volcanic Eruption in New Zealand (here) Australians made up the majority of the tourists visiting the island at the time of the explosion and those recovered on Friday. Many of them were passengers on a Royal Caribbean Cruises ship on a day tour to the island. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said 11 injured Australians have been transferred from overloaded burns units in New Zealand, with one more to be repatriated in the “coming days”. Peter Haertsch, the doctor in charge of the burns unit caring for the returned Australians, said they been exposed to fast-moving clouds of very hot volcanic gas, pumice and ash. “They have suffered severe contact skin burns with severe injuries due to inhalation of gas and ash, and we are looking at extensive and intensive care for these patients, some of whom are still in a life-threatening condition,” Haertsch said in an emailed statement. Payne said Australia was working with the United States and other countries to source some of the urgently needed 1.2 million square cms (186,000 square inches) of skin, an amount that far exceeds annual donations in New Zealand and Australia. “It’s jarring for us to hear just the sheer scale of that need because it amplifies just how horrific some of the injuries are,” Ardern told ABC Radio. GRAPHIC: Volcano map of New Zealand (here) Authorities had faced growing pressure in recent days from families of some victims to recover the bodies as soon as possible. There has also been criticism that tourists were allowed on the island at all, given the risks of an active volcano. Pressed to discuss whether the island should have been open, Ardern said she didn’t want to preempt an inquiry which has been launched. “I think families would be best served by that, rather than speculation.” GRAPHIC: Volcanic alerts for White Island since 1995 (here)
|
32145
|
A diet rich in vitamin D can reverse tooth decay and regrow portions of teeth lost to cavities.
|
Finally, to actually generate anything close to a natural dentin “filling”, you would have to generate new dental pulp cells, the living tissue that leads to the creation of dentin. Food — vitamin D notwithstanding — doesn’t spontaneously turn into living dental pulp cells, nor does it facilitate the spontaneous generation of them. Unless your diet consists of a healthy serving of human stem cells and has the benefit of an extremely precise set of laboratory-regulated conditions, the food you eat will not produce new ones.
|
false
|
Fauxtography, david avocado wolfe, Doctor Doctor, Medical
|
David Avocado Wolfe, an alternative health guru/meme generator who believes, among other things, that chocolate is an octave of masculine solar energy, authored a widely shared post titled “Reverse Cavities and Heal Tooth Decay with THESE 5 Steps!” While the meat of his post was a list of five dietary suggestions of varying scientific validity aimed at cavity prevention, he opened his article with this questionable statement about reversing tooth decay through the use of Vitamin D: Cavities are a type of tooth decay that occur when specific types of bacteria produce acid that destroys the tooth’s enamel as well as the underlying layer, the dentin. Many people believe that once tooth decay sets in, it’s impossible to reverse it, but the truth is, there are several ways to naturally reverse cavities. According to a study published in the British Medical Journal, cavities and tooth decay can potentially be reversed with diet. The study divided 62 children with cavities into three diet groups. Group 1 ate a standard diet plus oatmeal, which is rich in phytic acid. Group 2 ate a normal diet and supplemented with Vitamin D, while Group 3 ate a grain-free diet and also took Vitamin D. Researchers found that Group 1, who had a diet high in grains and phytic acid, had an increase in cavities. Group 2 showed improvements in cavities, while Group 3, who followed a grain-free diet with nutrient-rich foods and a Vitamin D supplement, saw the greatest improvements. Nearly all of the cavities in Group 3’s participants were healed. The claims of “reversing” tooth decay were misrepresented with before-and-after photographs of a tooth exhibiting a deep cavity that was seemingly restored to its original pristine state, which were also used as the featured image when the post was shared on social media: The study Wolfe cited was published in a 1932 issue of the British Medical Journal under the title “Remarks on the Influence of a Cereal-Free Diet Rich in Vitamin D and Calcium on Dental Caries in Children,” and its actual conclusions were outlined well by the three points included in its summary: 1. A group of children averaging 5.5 years of age were given a cereal-free diet rich in vitamin D and calcium for a period of six months. The teeth of the children were defective in structure (hypoplastic), and much active dental caries was present at the beginning of the investigation. 2. Initiation and spread of caries were almost eliminated by these diets, and the results were better than those of the previous investigation in which-the vitamin D alone was increased in a diet containing bread and other cereals. 3. Active caries was arrested on this cereal-free diet to a greater extent than in the previous investigations, when cereals were extensively used. Wolfe claimed that this study showed it was possible to regenerate the material lost to cavities (or dental caries), but it does not. Instead, it reported that children with previously documented cases of thin or deficient (i.e., hypoplastic) enamel displayed signs that the progress of their tooth decay slowed or “almost” halted when they were put on a vitamin D-rich diet that also restricted cereal, thus preventing additional cavities from forming. Affecting the processes that regulate tooth enamel through diet is not a new or groundbreaking concept. Enamel — a mineral not composed of living cells — is constantly being destroyed or remineralized based on the ecology of one’s mouth, as described in a review paper published in the Journal of the American Dental Association: The process of demineralization and remineralization is a dynamic process, with periods of demineralization interspersed with remineralization. The effects of demineralization can be reversed if there is adequate time between acidogenic challenges to allow for remineralization to occur. Claims that vitamin D can aid in the remineralization part of that process are not universally accepted, however. A 2013 meta-analysis of clinical studies investigating links between vitamin D and cavities made the (qualified) suggestion that vitamin D might play a role in the prevention of cavities, but this finding has been challenged by more recent research. Regardless, creating or repairing dentin — the deeper but still primarily mineralized portion of your tooth whose decay necessitates a filling — is an entirely different beast. Of the three different kinds of dentin (primary, secondary, and tertiary), tertiary is the only kind that does anything close to regrow, and this new material acts only to slow or stop the growth of a cavity, not reverse it. Even if it could refill the area degraded by a cavity (which it can’t), that replacement material would be weaker than the material it replaced.
|
9984
|
Study: Avid’s Imaging Dye Can Detect Alzheimer’s From Scan
|
The story provides little information about the benefits or harms of the compound, only that the company making the compound intends to submit it for approval to the FDA in the next 6 months. Even if the WSJ reported on scanning research back in April, readers needed a little more meat in this updated story. Although there are no effective treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease, the ability to diagnose the disorder early and prior to the development of symptoms opens doors to new research. An early diagnosis would allow researchers to test new approaches to slowing the inevitable decline of the disease and would allow those who otherwise would be inaccurately diagnosed to rule the disorder out. However – the story did not provide readers with sufficient context for evaluating the actual benefit from early diagnosis.
|
mixture
|
"Although the test is still under study, the costs of a diagnostic test is an important consideration even in reporting on a drug under study. PET scans are extraordinarily expensive, so much so that the business implications are noted but the costs are not. Noting the expected size of the market for this test without discussing projected or estimated cost of use even in vague terms seems inconsistent. There was no real discussion about the potential benefits to be derived from early and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Ideally, a diagnostic test should reliably distinguish between those with and those without the disease. In addition the test should have a low incidence of side effects. The potential benefits of the use of florbetavir are noted as a strong association. The strength of the association is not provided leaving the average reader (amplified in the headline) with the impression that the test works and can distinguish between those with and without Alzheimers. The story did explain that ""Another study presented at the conference looked at people with mild cognitive impairment, which can precede Alzheimer’s. It found that 22% of patients with plaques identified using florbetapir (vs. 3% of those without plaques) progressed to full-blown Alzheimer’s within a year.’ But it didn’t comment on the quality of that evidence. There was no discussion of potential harms beyond mention that the tracer was radioactive. What is the radiation burden? The story mentioned it was reporting about results of a study released in an abstract that was presented at a meeting. Although this is an apt description, the headline of the story is misleading in that it indicates that the dye ""can detect Alzheimers. "" While this may turn out to be true, the results of the research have yet to be published and have not been subjected to peer review nor has the test agent been approved by the FDA. Suggesting that the test works is an overstatement. The story did not engage in disease mongering. There are no experts or independent sources that were quoted as part of this story. This story mentions that this compound is among a group of compounds being studied for their ability to accurately identify Alzheimer’s disease prior to post mortem examination of the brain. It is unfortunate that this story (not whatever was reported in April) failed to discuss how the compound in the study, florbetavir differs from the other compounds under study. Because PET tracers must be produced in a cyclotron and used quickly. This limits the use of PET scans to those center that have a cyclotron or are located near a commercial supplier. Florbetavir has a longer interval that other tracers under study and may well be the most notable attribute of the drug. We’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. This story mentioned that the company producing the labeling compound would be applying for FDA approval this year. The story reported accurately about the novelty of the material reported on. It is not clear whether this information comes directly from a news release and/or entirely from Bloomberg News."
|
|
34803
|
Two British teens who killed a child when they were ten years old were granted anonymity for life by the courts and released from custody in June 2001.
|
Image caption: Denise Fergus, the mother of murdered two-year-old James Bulger, attends a press conference to launch an appeal to raise funds for bullied children on March 14, 2008 in Liverpool, England. The Red Balloon learner Centre bearing James Bulger’s name will be a sanctuary for bullied children.
|
mixture
|
Crime
|
On 12 February 1993 two-year-old James Bulger was brutally murdered by Jonathan (Jon) Venables (10) and Robert (Bobbie) Thompson (10) in Liverpool, England. Example: On February 12, 1993 a small boy who was to turn three in March was taken from a shopping mall in Liverpool by two 10 year old boys. Jamie Bolger walked away from his mother for only a second and Jon Venables took his hand and led him out of the mall with his friend Robert Thompson. They took Jamie on a walk for over 2 and a half miles, along the way stopping every now and again to torture the poor little boy who was crying constantly for his mommy. Finally they stopped at a railway track where they brutally kicked him and threw stones at him and rubbed paint in his eyes and pushed batteries up his anus. They then left his beaten small body on the tracks so a train could run him over to hide the mess they had created. These two boys, even being boys, understood what they did was wrong, hence trying to make it look like an accident. This week Lady Justice Butler-Sloss has awarded the two boys anonymity for the rest of their lives when they leave custody with new identities. We cannot let this happen. They will also leave early this year only serving just over half of their sentence. One paper even stated that Robert may go on to University. They are getting away with their crime. They need to pay, and we have to do something to make them pay for their horrific crime. They took Jamie’s life violently away, and in return they get a new life. Please add your name and location to the list and forward to friends and family. Please copy this email instead of forwarding so we do not get > at the beginning of sentances. If you are the 200th person to sign please forward this email to st.ser.cs@gtnet.gov.uk attentioning it to Lady Justice Butler-Sloss. Then start the list over again and sent to your friends and family. The Love-Bug virus took less that 72 hours to reach the world. I hope this does too. We need to protect our family and friends from creatures like Robert and Jon. One day they may be living next to your and your small children without your knowledge. If Robert and Jon could be so evil at 10, imagine what they could do as adults? With only one exception (the batteries in the victim’s anus — they went into his mouth) the details of the crime as outlined in the e-mail are accurate. The boy was taken from a shopping mall while there with his mother. (A video surveillance camera captured footage of the two killers leading James away.) The child was brutalized as he was forced to walk along with the boys. (Witnesses later reported seeing the boys dragging, pushing, and carrying the weeping-two-year old during a disjointed journey through the streets of Liverpool.) And they did kill him in the manner described, albeit more brutally than even the text of the e-petition lets on. Two days after the murder, James’ remains were found on a lonely stretch of railroad track. He was naked from the waist down — his shoes, socks, trousers, and underpants had been taken off. His penis had been manipulated by his abductors, but he had not been anally penetrated (by batteries or anything else). He’d been beaten to death with rocks, bricks, and an iron bar. As the boys hammered at him, they splattered him with model airplane paint stolen days earlier. Once he was dead, his killers laid him on the tracks, and his body was cut in two by a passing train. (The killers hoped to hide their crime by having it mistaken for an accidental death of a young child who’d foolishly played on the tracks.) Venables and Thompson were taken into custody a few days later. Each sought to blame the other for the killing, but both eventually confessed. They were tried, found guilty of murder, sentenced, and placed in separate detention homes. The killers have not seen each other since the trial. All this is true. And horrifying. Yet even so, there’s no point in signing the petition or urging others to. Beyond all the usual problems with e-petitions, one issue specific to this case rules against the utility of such a plan: the situation being decried is already a done deal. On 8 January 2001, the High Court of England guaranteed both Venables and Thompson lifelong anonymity plus an unprecedented open-ended injunction barring any publicity about them. Each of these young men were released in June 2001 when they were 18. The e-mail states that two killers “will also leave early this year only serving just over half of their sentence.” That statement is false. Although there is no theoretical maximum length of sentence imposed, a minimum sentence of 8 years had been set. And that 8-year minimum was satisfied. The boys were detained “at Her Majesty’s pleasure” (without a maximum fixed term). Her Majesty’s Pleasure (HMP) sentences are imposed only in cases of murder and manslaughter committed by children under 18. In these cases, the judge sets a tariff (minimum term, defined as the period required for retribution and deterrence). Once the tariff has been satisfied, the prisoner is assessed on the basis of the likely risk he will pose to the outside community. Therefore, a killer sentenced to such a term is eligible for release once the tariff has been served, provided he does not impress the court as posing a danger to society. The judge at Venables’ and Thompson’s November 1993 trial set an 8-year tariff. In early 1994, Lord Taylor, then Lord Chief Justice, recommended increasing this minimum to 10 years. Michael Howard, Home Secretary, imposed a 15-year sentence on Venables and Thompson in July 1994, but his actions were ruled unlawful by the High Court, and the Court of Appeals in 1996, and struck down. Lord Woolf, the current Lord Chief Justice, ruled in 2000 that the killers’ tariff was 8 years, a term that was reached on 21 February 2001. Venables’ and Thompson’s sentences were thus 8 years each, and they have been served. Had the sentences unlawfully imposed by Michael Howard been upheld, then the e-petition’s claim about the killers’ only having served “half their sentences” would be relevant. The anonymity guarantee and publication ban were set in place by Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, president of the High Court’s Family Division. She was convinced the pair would be genuinely at risk if their identities and locations were disclosed, hence her ruling. “Although the crime of these two young men was especially heinous, they have the right of all citizens to the protection of the law.” She said people other than James Bulger’s family “continue to feel such hatred and revulsion at the shocking crime and a desire for revenge that some at least of them might well engage in vigilante or revenge attacks.” She may well have been right, especially in light of threats received. Dame Butler-Sloss banned the media from publishing any information leading to the identification or disclosure of whereabouts of Venables or Thompson, including photographs and descriptions of their appearance. She also banned, for 12 months, publication of information about their eight-year stay in local authority secure units. Even after that, confidential information relating to their treatment and therapy cannot be published. The judge admitted she was aware the injunctions she imposed might not be fully effective outside England and Wales. She banned the domestic media from giving wider circulation to material from the Internet or media elsewhere if it was likely to breach the injunction. Was it right for Venables and Thompson be protected from the public? Some said yes, that otherwise they’d have been torn limb from limb (and that would render society no better than those it would prosecute for such crimes), or that children (which the defendants were at the time of the Bulger murder) should not be held accountable for a crime — even a heinous one — in the same manner that we hold adults. Others said no, that the public had a right to know where potentially dangerous felons are, and others on that side of the fence laid claim to there being some crimes which cannot fully be expiated by time served. Jon Venables’ reprieve from incarceration proved to be temporary when he violated the terms of his release by downloading and distributing indecent images of children and was returned to jail in March 2010. In July 2013 the U.K. parole board confirmed that Venables had been granted parole for a second time, although that body declined to provide details about when he would be released. In June 2006 the following related item began circulating: Hello friends I am just so angry, frustrated and really upset at what has happened at the Livingston Shopping Centre that I needed to let you all know the “truth” behind the mongrel murderer. About 3 yrs ago when I was working at the prison we found out that one of the boys (at the time aged about 12) that abducted James Bulger from a shopping centre in the U.K., then brutally raped and murdered him, had reached the age of 18 and had been sent out to Australia with a new identity for his family, etc. Long story short is that he was given the name of Dante Arthurs, his grandfather’s name is Arthur Dante, and his family moved into a house in Canning Vale. When the prison staff got wind of this it was all supposed to be kept hushed up, it was some sort of prisoner exchange deal the Aust Govt set up. Soon after he got here he assaulted a 12 yrd old girl in a park in Canning Vale and consequently came to Hakea prison but for only about 6 weeks as they couldn’t get enough evidence on him and the incident was brushed under the mat. His parents used to visit him and their photos were on the computers at work and I clearly recall seeing his mum at the Livingston shops one day. I even had his address and because I’ve got friends and family in the area, I felt I had a right to tell them, stuff the prisons!! I had even driven past his house in Lakeview Rise estate in Canning Vale! Anyway when this happened yesterday I said to Ron, it’d be interesting to see if it’s that Dante Arthurs guy from the U.K. and sure enough today we find out that it is him. I am, along with a lot of others, absolutely furious that the mongrel arsehole was allowed to come here via the Govt in the first place and that he was allowed to appear to live a normal life!! Why haven’t the police done something about this – he should not be allowed to breathe air, he is the scum of the earth. And tonight he would be sitting back in a comfortable cell in prison, having just had a reasonable hot dinner and be watching TV! That innocent little girl and her poor family will never ever be the same again – all because the piss weak Justice System and Govt allowed him to live in our country! There is a register for paedophiles so that the community are allowed to know where they’re living and yet this piece of shit can live on our back door step with a new identity. People winge about illegal immigrants, what about this? It will be interesting to see what unfolds over the next few days, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s whisked out of the country in the same manner he was bought here, then again knowing our pathetic laws, we’ll probably keep him here in our justice system, costing tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars to feed and entertain him PLUS the do-gooders will believe in their minds that they can rehabilitate him! I was just going to type “sorry ” but I’m not at all sorry for alerting my friends to something that should be publicly known. Stay safe, talk soon. This message refers to the rape and murder of 8-year-old Sofia Rodrigez-Urrutia-Shu in a suburban shopping center restroom in Canning Vale, Australia, on 26 June 2006. A 21-year-old man named Dante Wyndham Arthurs was arrested and charged in connection with that case, and the message reproduced above claims Arthurs was also one of Jamie Bulger’s killers, renamed and relocated to Australia after having served out his sentence as a juvenile in England (even though both of the principals in the Bulger murder were then at least 23 years old). The British High Commission and Australian police have denied any link between the Sofia Rodrigez-Urrutia-Shu and Jamie Bulger killings: The British High Commission has ruled out claims that a man charged over the rape and murder of a Perth schoolgirl was one of two notorious English child killers. Perth police also denied that Dante Wyndham Arthurs, 21, of the Perth suburb of Canning Vale, was one of the killers of British boy James Bulger. Clive Hunton, of the British High Commission in Canberra, said there was “no connection between the man arrested in Western Australia and the individuals involved in the James Bulger case.” Arthurs was remanded in custody after appearing in Perth Magistrates Court charged with wilful murder, sexual penetration of a child and deprivation of liberty. He was charged following the discovery of the body of Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia-Shu on the floor of a shopping centre toilet. The fact that Dante Arthurs was born in Australia (and was not an English immigrant using an assumed identity) has been confirmed by both his birth notice and the doctor who delivered him. Also, his fingerprints do not match up with those of Jonathan (Jon) Venables or Robert (Bobbie) Thompson, the murderers of James Bulger. The e-mailed rumor quoted above was presented as if it were written by a prison officer. According to the West Australian, that message is being investigated by Australian authorities: The Department of Corrective Services has confirmed that an investigation was under way into an email claiming to be from a prison officer which was sent to thousands of people across Australia. ‘The email appears to have come from outside the department,’ a spokeswoman said. Nonetheless, rumors persisted that Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were relocated to Australia, and in May 2008 Australian MP Liz Cunningham raised the issue of investigating whether the pair had been accepted by Queensland authorities. In March 2010, the BBC reported that Jon Venables (then age 27) was back in prison for after having breached the terms of his release.
|
32338
|
Mike Pence called for a condom ban because he said their use leads to abortions.
|
Newslo, Politicalo, and Religionlo articles are almost always comprised of a paragraph containing true information and a balance of embellishments about that grain of truth. Previously, those sites advanced claims Chris Christie said a female version of Viagra would lead to an uptick “lesbianism” and voted down a gender pay parity bill for Bible-based reasons, an Alabama politician proposed saliva-based “hunger tests” for food stamp recipients, Ted Cruz said the death of Antonin Scalia was suspiciously timed, Pat Robertson asserted David Bowie was still alive after his death, and that Mike Pence opined that if abortion was allowed in instances of rape that women would attempt to “get raped” in order to obtain an abortion.
|
false
|
Junk News, abortion, condoms, mike pence
|
On 16 August 2016 the Newslo web site reported that Indiana governor and GOP vice presidential candidate Mike Pence had once called for a ban on condoms, maintaining their use “leads to abortions”: The Patheos blog recently published an item titled “Mike Pence: Condoms Are Too Modern” reporting that the Indiana governor and Republican vice presidential nominee had dismissed the prophylactic devices as “too modern and too liberal”: “Donald Trump’s running mate is a dangerous Christian extremist who wants creationism taught in public schools and believes the government should pay for gay conversion therapy. In addition, in 2015, as Governor of Indiana, Pence allowed an HIV outbreak to spread, choosing prayer over a clean needle exchange. But perhaps one of the most idiotic claims made by Pence is that condoms are too “modern,” too “liberal,” and offer a poor defense against sexually transmitted infections and diseases,” the item reads. Asking him to comment on his alleged statement, Pence was interviewed by The Huffington Post … Pence (then a Congressman) actually made in this regard stemmed from a February 2002 CNN panel discussion about abstinence education. Anchor Wolf Blitzer opened the segment by explaining a current controversy over remarks made by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had just appeared on MTV and was asked about the Pope’s stance on condom usage by Catholics. “You know, the thing that got me riled up back then, and even does right now,” Pence recalled, “is the fact that Christian youth gets so easily accustomed to using condoms at a very young age. And you know, statistics show, even the manufacturers agree, that they’re just not 100% safe, they’re something like 97 or 98%. That’s not what we want for our kids, is it?” “I mean, at the end of the day, what condoms actually do is they give our kids a false sense of security, they’re actually tricking them into thinking they’re having safe sex, when in fact, very often, those intercourses result in unwanted teen pregnancies. And the reason why that’s happening is because condoms are designed to be hip, to be modern, to be practical and what not, and the truth is that that’s a lie. The only way to stay safe from premature pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases is to practice abstinence and pray to God, that’s the only real way to stay safe,” Pence argued. “At the end of the day, it’s the unjustified trust in condoms that plays a huge part in abortion rates going through the roof … If you want to risk ruining your life before it’s even started, go ahead, gamble with condoms. But I say we need to ban them and make the right decision for those who clearly aren’t capable of making it themselves. What we don’t need are condoms that are unsafe; what we DO need are smarter kids, apparently,” he concluded. The item referenced a genuine controversy pertaining to remarks made by Pence about condoms back in 2002 during the course of a CNN panel discussion. But as with all articles published by Newslo (as well as sister sites sites Religionlo and Politicalo), the piece featured a fact-based introduction before introducing believable untruths. Like all articles on those three fake news sites, the Pence piece included a “show facts” or “hide facts” button (though all items displayed by default in “hide facts” mode, obfuscating subsequent fabrications to new readers): All claims aside from those about Pence’s controversial 2002 remarks were embellishments typical of Newslo and its brethren. But readers unfamiliar with the site’s tendency to exaggerate topical subjects used Newslo‘s fabricated quotes as a basis for political images, advancing the idea Pence genuinely said the things attributed to him by the Newslo article (he did not).
|
2893
|
Utah University probing possible sperm swap at fertility clinic.
|
The University of Utah is investigating what it calls “credible information” that a woman at a Salt Lake City area fertility clinic was artificially inseminated with sperm, not from her husband, but from a part-time lab employee.
|
true
|
Health News
|
The school released a statement saying no records remained at the now-closed lab, Reproductive Medical Technologies Inc, to prove the woman’s claim, and that the part-time employee died in 1999. A University of Utah spokeswoman declined on Friday to comment beyond the statement, which said the university did not own or operate the lab, but contracted with it for specimen preparation and semen analysis. “Through genetic testing, a woman who received artificial insemination in 1991 discovered the biological father of her child was not her husband, as she had assumed,” the university statement said. “She traced the genetics of her child to a man who was a former employee of a now-defunct medical lab, Reproductive Medical Technologies Inc.” Three of the clinic’s owners were faculty or staff at the University of Utah, which also owned an adjacent lab, and the employee whose sperm was involved also worked part-time at the lab between 1988 and 1993, the statement said. The mother at the center of the possible sperm swap was not identified by the university, but told local television channel KUTV in an interview that she discovered the situation through DNA tests she had conducted on her family. “When I called my daughter and my husband’s DNA up next to one another, they didn’t share any DNA at all and I just thought to myself, ‘Oh my God!’” the woman told KUTV. The station did not disclose her name. The woman, who was not shown on TV, told the station that she and her husband went to the lab in the early 1990s after they had trouble conceiving and that their daughter, who is now 21, was born in 1992. The university said it had been unable to determine how the sperm could have been swapped, but said there was no evidence that any other couples were affected. It said it was offering free paternity testing for women who received artificial insemination at RMTI or at the adjacent university-owned lab between 1988 and 1993.
|
17629
|
"Obamacare is a ""massive, massive income redistribution"" with ""$250 billion a year in Medicaid expansion (and) in the subsidy structure that's basically being paid for by people on Medicare, through Medicare cuts, and a lot of tax increases."
|
Capretta said Obamacare represents a massive redistribution of income, with the expansion of Medicaid and premium subsidies paid for by people on Medicare and through a host of other taxes. He is correct that money is being redistributed to fund the expansion of public and private health insurance. It it also true that higher income earners will pay an estimated $46 billion more in taxes. But that amount represents only about 15 percent of the total dollars generated by the Affordable Care Act. The rest of the burden will skew toward the upper half of the income ladder but those making less will also shoulder some of the burden. Massive is a subjective term but in this case, particularly relative to the total economy, the case is weak. Regarding the reduced payments to Medicare providers, there is a range of possible outcomes. Providers could get by with lower compensation, they could become more efficient, they could reduce access to services or they could reduce the quality of service. It is not a foregone conclusion that Medicare patients will suffer. The likely exception is for people who currently pay for Medicare Advantage, a program that loses its present subsidies. Capretta oversimplified a complex situation.
|
mixture
|
Health Care, Taxes, PunditFact, James Capretta,
|
"Conservatives have many reasons to dislike Obamacare but one of the most fundamental is, as with any government program, it interferes with private-sector decisions by collecting money from some people and spending it in ways that might not benefit them directly. This point came up on Fox News Sunday when host Chris Wallace asked if Obamacare involved massive income redistribution. One of his guests, James Capretta with the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a group with ties to conservative organizations, agreed wholeheartedly. ""If you think about it, it's $250 billion a year in Medicaid expansion, in the subsidy structure, that's basically being paid for by people on Medicare, through Medicare cuts, and a lot of tax increases,"" Capretta said. ""It is a massive, massive income redistribution."" In this fact-check, we look at whether the new health care law is a ""massive, massive income redistribution"" that has taken $250 billion a year out of taxes and from people on Medicare and moved it into Medicaid expansion health care subsidies. Capretta told PunditFact that he drew his numbers from the entity that lays down the benchmark for all of these discussions, the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan analytic arm of Congress. In a May 2013 report, that office projected that in 2023, the Affordable Care Act would spend $250 billion specifically to offer Medicaid to a larger number of poor people and subsidies to make private insurance more affordable to people making up to 400 percent of federal poverty (about $92,000 a year for a family of four). Capretta argued that since the law reduces deficits, that $250 billion, and more, must come from somewhere and he correctly points to reductions in Medicare spending and a variety of tax increases. The Obamacare balance sheet The most detailed figures from the Congressional Budget Office are for 2022, not 2023, but the pattern remains the same. A quick reminder: The Medicare spending reductions we’re talking about are not cuts in the sense that Medicare will spend less than it does today. The reductions are in the future growth of Medicare spending, not a cut in existing programs. That said, on the government balance sheets, in 2022 the health care law ""saves"" $133 billion from Medicare, Medicare Advantage (an alternative insurance program within Medicare), and a program that pays hospitals that serve more than their fair share of poor, uninsured patients. Another $161 billion in new revenue is collected from five different sources. That list includes penalties paid by individuals and employers for not buying or offering insurance, taxes on higher income earners (above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples), a tax on the most generous insurance plans (the Cadillac tax), a tax on medical device and drug manufacturers, and a grab bag of other taxes. That’s a total of $294 billion. What does the government do with the money? As Capretta said, it spends most of it on an expansion of Medicaid and on subsidies for people purchasing health insurance through state and federal marketplaces. Around $45 billion goes toward deficit reduction. Does that make Capretta right? John Holahan, a fellow at the Urban Institute, an academic research center in Washington, said yes and no. ""There’s definitely redistribution going on,"" Holahan said. ""All the Medicaid and subsidies clearly go to lower income people. Where he’s wrong is in calling it massive. It’s very small."" Holahan said relative to the size of the economy, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates at $21.7 trillion in 2022, the total redistribution amounts to about 1 percent, but even that, Holahan said, is ""a wild exaggeration."" The primary reason, he said, is that except for the new or increased taxes on wealthier Americans, it is difficult to know who are true losers in the new system. Insurance companies, for example, might pay more in taxes, but they also gain from the revenues they get from subsidized policies. And to one of Capretta’s main points, it’s equally unclear whether the Medicare savings come from people on Medicare. Tracking the redistribution When Capretta said that the Affordable Care Act changes are ""being paid for by people on Medicare, through Medicare cuts"" he simplified a complex situation. The single largest source of dollars to cover the cost of expanded coverage comes from paying hospitals and doctors less for the same work. Jeffrey Clemens, a health economist at the University of California - San Diego, said this will hit the incomes of providers. The question is, what happens next? ""When it becomes less profitable for providers to treat Medicare beneficiaries, they become less interested in seeing Medicare beneficiaries,"" Clemens said. ""Their time can be more profitably spent with the privately insured."" If a hospital pulled out of Medicare, that would hurt its Medicare patients. But Ann Marie Marciarille, a specialist in health policy at the University of Missouri School of Law, said providers have a track record of staying with the program, largely out of self interest. ""The federal government may not pay Medicare rates that top some commercial insurance but these rates top all Medicaid reimbursement rates,"" Marciarille said. ""Even more importantly, the federal government pays its bills eventually."" Tom Getzen, executive director of the International Health Economics Association and a professor at Temple University’s Fox School of Business and Management, said curtailing Medicare payments is nothing new. Getzen says providers can adapt through innovation, and he notes that projects in the Medicaid program show that less money doesn’t always mean less quality. ""Recipients in many ‘tight’ managed care HMOs actually feel as if they are getting better service than before under fee-for-service which was more lucrative for most providers,"" Getzen said. There is one group of Medicare beneficiaries that is likely to be hurt. These are the people who purchase Medicare Advantage policies. This program has grown through subsidies that the Affordable Care Act phases out. Marciarille said this will cause dislocations that will hit mainly those she characterizes as ""near poor."" Scott Harrington, professor of Health Care Management at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, said of all the changes in Medicare, ""insurance companies and hospitals that sell Medicare Advantage policies will take the biggest hit."" Without the current subsidies, the market for these plans is projected to shrink, although recently enrollments spiked up. A look at the Obamacare taxes Capretta also mentioned tax hikes. The ones that most clearly redistribute money are the ones on wealthier Americans. In 2022, they can expect to pay $46 billion more. But then you have tax hikes that hit various players in the health care industry, plus the penalties on individuals and employers. While there is no shortage of speculation on how those taxes will play out, Getzen offered a more general summary of their impact. ""It tends to get spread around, but probably falls more heavily on the top 50 percent,"" Getzen said. ""In part because you cannot really get much from the bottom 25 percent."" Our ruling Capretta said Obamacare represents a massive redistribution of income, with the expansion of Medicaid and premium subsidies paid for by people on Medicare and through a host of other taxes. He is correct that money is being redistributed to fund the expansion of public and private health insurance. It it also true that higher income earners will pay an estimated $46 billion more in taxes. But that amount represents only about 15 percent of the total dollars generated by the Affordable Care Act. The rest of the burden will skew toward the upper half of the income ladder but those making less will also shoulder some of the burden. Massive is a subjective term but in this case, particularly relative to the total economy, the case is weak. Regarding the reduced payments to Medicare providers, there is a range of possible outcomes. Providers could get by with lower compensation, they could become more efficient, they could reduce access to services or they could reduce the quality of service. It is not a foregone conclusion that Medicare patients will suffer. The likely exception is for people who currently pay for Medicare Advantage, a program that loses its present subsidies. Capretta oversimplified a complex situation."
|
2601
|
Beauty treatment kills Hong Kong woman, three ill.
|
A 46-year-old woman has died in Hong Kong and three others are fighting for their lives following a beauty parlor treatment that involves blood transfusion, highlighting a lack of regulation in the city’s cosmetic industry.
|
true
|
Health News
|
The cases have prompted an investigation by police and medical authorities, and renewed calls by health experts for tighter regulation of Hong Kong’s beauty industry. “Yes, the woman aged 46 died (Wednesday morning) of septic shock,” a government spokeswoman said. Three others, aged 56, 59 and 60, were in hospital with the eldest in critical condition. Septic shock is normally caused by bacterial infection and can result in respiratory and organ failure, even death. The four had recently undergone a complicated blood transfusion procedure at the DR beauty chain, according to government statements, in a treatment that was meant to boost their immune system and appearance. The women paid around HK$50,000 ($6,400) for the procedure, which experts say is at best an experimental treatment for cancer patients and which has not shown to have any aesthetic application so far. DR said in a statement on Wednesday that the procedures were carried out by a doctor who was not employed by the parlor. The procedure required their blood to be taken to isolate and culture certain types of immune cells. These “cytokine-induced killer cells” were then injected back into the women together with their own blood plasma. The four quickly fell ill with fever, dizziness and diarrhea. In an earlier blood sample taken from the woman who died, health officials found Mycobacterium abscessus, a superbug that is notoriously difficult to kill. Although the direct cause of the woman’s death has yet to be confirmed, experts say it is likely to have been bacterial infection. “They now have to find out where the bacterial contamination occurred in this whole process. Did it happen when the blood was drawn, during the culture process or when it was reinjected back into the body?” said William Chui, president of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists in Hong Kong. The cases raise fresh questions on how governments in many places in Asia regulate doctors’ conduct and sale of medicines, but exercise little or no control over what goes on in beauty parlors or what goes into “healthcare” products. In Singapore in 2002, 15 women developed liver problems and one died after consuming Chinese-made slimming pills that were later found to contain two undeclared ingredients. One of the patents, an actress, survived only after a liver transplant. Felice Lieh Mak, a leading medical expert in Hong Kong and former chairman of the Medical Council, said: “We hope that this tragedy will result in some attempt at making a legislation, or at least work towards legislating and defining what medical treatment is.” ($1 = 7.7526 Hong Kong dollars)
|
40951
|
People with Covid-19 should take aspirin 100mg and Apronax or paracetamol.
|
Trials into both of these drugs’ effectiveness in treating Covid-19 are ongoing, but haven’t concluded yet. Paracetamol can ease symptoms but isn’t a specific treatment.
|
false
|
online
|
Italy has concluded Covid-19 is not a virus, and people are actually dying of amplified global 5G electromagnetic radiation poisoning. Italy disobeyed world health law from the WHO saying not to carry out autopsies on Covid-19 patients. The WHO never said autopsies couldn’t take place. Italy has found that Covid-19 is actually disseminated intravascular coagulation (thrombosis). The way to cure this is antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and anticoagulants. Antibiotics do not directly treat Covid-19, which is caused by a virus. The anti-inflammatory ibuprofen is being trialled for use against Covid-19 and an anticoagulant has been used in some Covid-19 cases. Aspirin is not a specific cure. Covid-19 is not a virus, but a bacterium being amplified by 5G which causes inflammation and hypoxia. Covid-19 patients can get secondary infections from bacteria. Hypoxia and types of inflammation can be symptoms of Covid-19. There’s no proof Covid-19 is in any way related to 5G. People with Covid-19 should take aspirin 100mg and Apronax or paracetamol. Trials into both of these drugs’ effectiveness in treating Covid-19 are ongoing, but haven’t concluded yet. Paracetamol can ease symptoms but isn’t a specific treatment. Covid-19 clots the blood causing thrombosis, stopping blood flow and oxygenating the heart and lungs. Severe Covid-19 can cause blood clotting problems and issues like this have been seen in Covid-19 patients, but this is not the only thing that can be fatal in patients. In a day, Italy sent home more than 14,000 patients after treating them with Aspirin and Apronax. The Italian Medicines Agency doesn’t mention aspirin or apronax in its list drugs used to treat Covid-19 outside of clinical trials. And there’s no record of a day when 14,000 people were sent home from hospital in Italy. There is an order to incinerate or immediately bury Covid-19 bodies without autopsy. There is no such order. Claim 1 of 10
|
11068
|
No-Scalpel Treatment for Enlarged Prostate
|
This story puts the cart ahead of the horse in touting the benefits and resulting outcomes before good data is available about its effectiveness or safety in the target population. Although there were cautionary notes about the data discussed, because these seemingly conflicted with the more detailed information about the outcome of the study – they were easy to dismiss. Rather than help readers sort out comparisons among treatments that have demonstrated benefit and outcomes, this story provided enthusiasm for an inadequately tested approach to the problem. It is important to provide clear context about availability, extent of benefit, potential for harms, as well as if the impact is long lasting when informing readers about treatments for common conditions. This story did not. Benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) is a condition that is increasingly common as men age and therefore information about treatment options needs to be accurate, balanced and complete.
|
false
|
WebMD
|
There was no discussion of costs. The story reported on the technical success of the procedure but more importantly reported on the percentage of men who reported experiencing ‘excellent’, ‘slight’ or ‘no’ improvement. Although the starting score of the patients was reported, it would have been valuable to translate this into information that readers could grasp. The story should have mentioned whether the difference in symptom severity was something that the patient could detect or simply a change in a clinical score. And to be comprehensive, the story should have provided information about the benefit that might be expected from other treatment options (e.g. TURP) for comparison. Without a clear context about what was ‘improved’ and whether it was sufficiently better than what is was noticed by the patients themselves – it is not possible for readers to know how much value to put on what the new technique has to offer. The story did mention that one patient in the study had a serious complication that required surgery to repair the bladder. However – since the study population was small and men were only followed for ‘an average of nine months’ after the procedure – the story could have been even more explicit and emphatic that it is too soon to know the harms associated with this procedure. It did include one independent expert’s comments to that effect. More bothersome: the story described the complications of TURP without informing the reader about how often they occur or bothering to note that other, widely available treatments that have been around for a decade or more have reduced risks of these complications. Any story whose first words are “a minimally invasive procedure” may paint an unjustified picture of guaranteed safety. Special caution should be taken to counter this. One last point on harms: the major “harm” that the study could not address (and the story ignored) is the possible eventual need for requiring additional treatment. The story provided conflicting information about the treatment and failed to point out that there was no control group studied so it isn’t really possible to know how this treatment stacks up against those that are currently available. The author of the study put forth a rather all or nothing view that this treatment ‘reduced symptoms of frequency and urgency of urination without causing side effects like incontinence, sexual dysfunction, retrograde ejaculation or bleeding’. An expert in the field of BPH treatment was quoted as indicating that ‘We don’t know what the short and long-term success or complication rates are’. One saving grace: The story did acknowledge that meeting abstracts have not undergone rigorous peer review. The story provided the reader with the fact that benign hyperplasia affects 19 million American men without any additional context about the men affected. It would have been useful, for example to explain that this was a chronic condition that becomes more common as men age; some men find their symptoms severe enough to seek treatment; others are less bothered by the condition. BPH is not likely to cause serious complications. There are men who choose to watch and wait, and who bypass treatment entirely. You’d never get that notion from this story. Two individuals who seemingly had no connections with the research reported on were interviewed for this story. Their comments provide good insight though it was somewhat swamped by the promotional comments about this potential treatment. The story mentioned TURP and open surgery to treatment of BPH but failed to provide insight about how effective these might be in a population of men similar to those in the study reported on. Without this information, it is not possible to size up how the new procedure compares. Additionally, the story downplayed the extensive experience with laser prostatectomy and microwave thermotherapy–effective alternatives to TURP (and thermotherapy is also an outpatient procedure). The story did not establish whether prostatic artery embolization was currently performed in the US and if so, whether it was widely available or an option only at particular centers. The story seem to suggest that the procedure reported on was repurposed from the field of Ob/gyn where it is used for managing uterine fibroids. If this is the case, then it might have been of interest to report on what side effects, if any, are common. Nonetheless, we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt on this criterion, since it didn’t establish this approach as totally new. The story does not appear to rely solely on a news release.
|
12971
|
[The Foundation for Individual Rights] is the recipient of donations from [DeVos] totaling about 25,000 bucks over four years.
|
"U.S. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, during a confirmation hearing for Secretary of Education pick Betsy DeVos, said ""[The Foundation for Individual Rights] is the recipient of donations from you (DeVos) totaling about 25,000 bucks over four years."" IRS filings show those numbers check out. While the checks weren’t written by DeVos herself, they were dispensed by a foundation in which she and her husband were the sole donors during the years in question. However, DeVos and her husband were not the only board members."
|
true
|
Education, Pennsylvania, Bob Casey,
|
"President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Education is facing questions about her connections to an organization that has lobbied for more rights for college students accused of sexual assault. U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat who co-introduced the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act of 2013, Tuesday questioned Michigan billionaire and GOP donor Betsy DeVos about how to fight sexual violence on campus during a confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Specifically, Casey said the Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights in Education supports a bill that ""would change the standard of evidence."" He said the group is in favor of ditching the ""preponderance of the evidence"" standard most commonly used in Title IX investigations on college campuses and instead using the ""beyond a reasonable doubt"" standard used in criminal cases. But Casey went further, saying just before he ran out of time: ""The organization that has that position which is contrary to the law, the current law, and contrary to the spirit of what we’re trying to do in that piece of legislation, is the recipient of donations from you totaling about $25,000 bucks over four years… I hope that’s not a conflict of interest."" DeVos didn’t have time to respond, though a Trump transition team spokeswoman said ""had she been given the opportunity to respond to the Senator's question, she would have noted that previous donations made as a private citizen cannot present a conflict of interest."" Casey announced Wednesday he will vote against DeVos' nomination. But we were curious: Did DeVos donate to a group that wants to dismantle current campus sexual assault practices as he described? So we decided to check. First, some background. Some studies suggest one in five women are sexually assaulted before they graduate college. PolitiFact has found that it’s difficult to determine the number of sexual assaults on college campuses because underreporting is so pervasive. Casey’s bill that was passed in 2013, commonly known as the Campus SaVE Act, was passed as part of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. It was an update to the 1990 Jeanne Clery Act, which requires any college or university that receives federal funding to annually disclose campus crime, including reported incidents of sexual violence. The Campus SaVE Act doesn’t dictate what standard of evidence college campuses use to evaluate disciplinary action against a person accused of sexual assault. It only requires transparency and that schools disclose what standard of evidence they’re using. In 2011 though, a ""Dear Colleague"" letter released by the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education urged universities to adopt a preponderance of the evidence standard in the commission of Title IX investigations. This standard, which is used in civil litigation, is lower than the ""beyond a reasonable doubt"" standard used in criminal trials and requires those evaluating the claims find that it’s simply more likely than not that a violation occurred. For the most part, Democrats and women’s advocacy groups have lobbied in favor of asking colleges and universities to use the preponderance of the evidence standard during disciplinary proceedings and Title IX investigations. Other groups, including the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, say that standard strips away a student’s right to due process. The group is sponsoring a lawsuit that challenges the legality of the ""Dear Colleague"" guidance. FIRE, founded in 1999, says its mission is to ""defend and sustain individual rights at America’s colleges and universities"" including ""freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience."" During the hearing Tuesday, Casey said FIRE received $25,000 from ""you,"" referring to DeVos, over the course of four years. A spokeswoman for Casey said the claim came from staff research based on publicly available IRS filings made by the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, a nonprofit founded by DeVos and her husband that dispenses millions of dollars a year in charitable and political giving. Indeed, filings by the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation show the organization donated $25,000 to FIRE over the course of four years between 2010 and 2013 in four separate donations. The forms also list the couple as the sole donors to the foundation. The foundation and Trump’s transition team did not respond to a request for comment. It’s important to note that the $25,000 in donations is a fraction of the money dispensed by the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation in the years in question. The foundation routinely doles out more than $10 million a year in contributions to charities and conservative causes across the country. FIRE has faced criticism from women’s advocacy organizations for its stance on issues related to sexual assault on campuses. The group frequently represents students accused of sexual assault who have lodged complaints against institutions of higher education and has been critical of the White House Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault, saying it jeopardizes student due process. The nonprofit has come out against measures like California’s ""Yes Means Yes"" affirmative consent bill, a piece of legislation hailed by women’s advocacy groups. FIRE also posted a story on its website in 2011 titled ""The Politics of Campus Sexual Assault"" in which the author writes that ""much of the feminist ‘war on rape’ has conflated sexual assault with muddled, often alcohol-fueled, sexual encounters that involve miscommunication, perhaps bad behavior, but no criminal coercion."" FIRE released a statement on DeVos’ nomination, saying: ""Protecting civil liberties on campus is not, and must not become, a partisan issue."" The group wrote that while it’s most famous for its work protecting free speech on campus, it has ""long advocated for due process rights in campus proceedings more generally."" Samantha Harris, FIRE's vice president of policy research, said the organization doesn't advocate for a specific standard of evidence, but rather ""we don't think the federal government should mandate a standard."" ""When it comes to due process, it's really not a zero sum game,"" Harris said. ""It's not the rights of the accused versus victims' rights. The integrity of the process is important for everyone."" Our Ruling U.S. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, during a confirmation hearing for Secretary of Education pick Betsy DeVos, said ""[The Foundation for Individual Rights] is the recipient of donations from you (DeVos) totaling about 25,000 bucks over four years."" IRS filings show those numbers check out. While the checks weren’t written by DeVos herself, they were dispensed by a foundation in which she and her husband were the sole donors during the years in question. However, DeVos and her husband were not the only board members. Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly characterized the standard of evidence used in criminal convictions."
|
204
|
Novartis takes aim at Roche's star MS drug.
|
Swiss drugmaker Novartis on Friday stepped up its challenge to Roche’s multiple sclerosis franchise, highlighting study results for its MS hopeful ofatumumab that could compete with its cross-town rival’s drug Ocrevus.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Novartis said ofatumumab, already approved as Arzerra to treat leukemia, reduced annual relapses better than Sanofi’s Aubagio in two head-to-head late-stage studies against relapsing forms of MS (RMS). Detailed study results are due at an MS conference in Sweden next month. Novartis said it plans to start asking health authorities for approvals by the end of the year. Novartis shares rose 1.7% by 0845 GMT, compared with a rise of 0.5% in the European drugs sector index. The company’s real target with ofatumumab is Ocrevus, the $2.4 billion-per-year MS blockbuster that Roche has said is its most successful drug launch ever. Ofatumumab and Ocrevus work similarly by targeting the immune system’s B cells that damage nerve tissue, potentially putting the drugs on course for head-to-head competition when doctors choose which one to prescribe. Novartis managers have highlighted ofatumumab’s prospects against Ocrevus, pointing to its monthly home injections as a convenient option for patients who with Ocrevus get twice-yearly infusions at clinics. “If approved, ofatumumab will potentially become a treatment for a broad RMS population and the first B-cell therapy that can be self-administered at home,” said Novartis. The company is also repurposing Arzerra for MS as it seeks to strengthen its neurological drugs business, which already includes older MS drugs Gilenya and recently approved Mayzent. Across the Rhine River from Novartis’s Basel campus, Roche drugs division head Bill Anderson has countered Novartis’s ofatumumab offensive, saying rivals’ attempts to move in on the MS drugs market had only boosted its own sales, helping it to capture a 17% market share. Anderson has said that since Novartis’s Mayzent launch in March, Ocrevus has actually gained market share. Zuercher Kantonalbank analysts highlighted Novartis’s progress in advancing an Ocrevus rival, but also saw shortcomings. They pointed out that the studies compared ofatumumab not to Roche’s drug, but to Sanofi’s Aubagio, whose annual sales after seven years on the market are 1.65 billion euros ($1.84 billion). “It would have been better to see a direct comparison between two MS drugs with the same mechanism of action,” ZKB’s Michael Nawrath wrote. “As it stands, we’ll only be able to make an indirect comparison of the data to predict whether the Novartis drug will be a threat to the market leader and, at this time, the best MS medicine, Ocrevus.” Nawrath rates Novartis “overweight.” In addition to relapsing MS, Ocrevus is the only approved treatment for primary progressive MS characterized by steady advance of debilitating symptoms, rather than periodic flare-ups.
|
11491
|
Radiation tests are questioned
|
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine describes the frequency of utilization of imaging tests in the United States and the associated radiation exposure. Researchers found that a staggering nearly 70% of adults in the study population got an imaging test over the two years of the study. These results highlight the potential harms of such a high use of imaging, which is not limited to radiation exposure, but also includes the potential for diagnosing conditions which would never go on to cause a problem, leading to unnecessary treatments, not to mention stress and anxiety. This story adequately describes the current study and its implications in terms of radiation exposure. But it also focuses primarily on the economic implication of such high utilization. Given the current debate on healthcare reform, this awareness is important, however it is peripheral to the study under discussion. The study was really focused on quantifying how much imaging tests expose us to radiation, not on the high costs of these tests and the market forces behind the high utilization. Regardless, this story does remind us that as consumers we need to be aware of these market forces and confident that when tests are ordered, we are aware of the implications for own health, both good and bad.
|
true
|
"It would not be neccessary for the story to describe the costs of individual radiology tests since they are so varied. But the story does a good job of describing the overall toll of imaging costs and raises important points about the perverse financial incentives in the US healthcare economy which favors the ordering of more and more tests. The story suggests in an early quote from one of the study authors that the newer tests are ""…extremely helpful…"" but then notes that there is insufficient information to determine which tests are valuable and which ones are not. The story does a good job of describing the possible harms of imaging, including radiation exposure, overdiagnosis and pyschological distress. The story provides an adequate overview of the study under consideration. However much of the story is about the costs and potential overutilization of diagnostic testing. While appealing and timely, the story does not provide adequate evidence to support many of the comments related to these issues. The story pursues a theme that the tests are doing more harm than good – quite in contrast to a disease-mongering frame that might suggest that all imaging is necessary. The story quotes multiple sources. Clearly the alternative is no testing, particularly in the context of management of chronic diseases. The story could have described how traditional hands-on examinations and history-taking are alternatives to testing. Clearly radiology tests are widely available. Clearly imaging is not a new idea, but it is being used on an increasingly larger scale. Because the story quotes multiple sources, the reader can assume that the story does not rely on a press release as the sole source of information."
|
|
8289
|
Gilead increases enrollment target for remdesivir trial in COVID-19 patients.
|
Gilead Sciences Inc on Friday increased enrollment target by 3,600 for a trial testing its experimental drug, remdesivir, in severe COVID-19 patients, a day after a media report said the drug was showing promise.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Shares of the company rose 8% after medical news website STAT detailed rapid recovery in fever and respiratory symptoms in COVID-19 patients at the University of Chicago Medicine hospital. The enrollment estimate in the trial run by Gilead was increased to 6,000 patients from 2,400 previously, according here to clinicaltrials.gov, a register of clinical trials. Brokerage Piper Sandler said rationale for the increase was to widen access to remdesivir and to gather additional data on the drug, noting that there were no additional changes to the goals. Gilead did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on increased enrolment. The company has previously said it was shifting from a system of individual compassionate-use requests to expanded access programs. There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines for the novel coronavirus, which has infected 2.18 million globally, according to a Reuters tally, and remdesivir is one of the treatments that has captured investor attention. But analysts and the company urged caution on drawing conclusions from the STAT report that also helped buoy the broader markets. Gilead on Thursday said the totality of the data from the trial needed to be analyzed, and expects to report results from the study in severe COVID-19 patients at the end of the month, and data from other trials in May. “While the article paints a pretty picture, we think the ensuing exuberance shows a lack of critical analysis,” said Baird analyst Brian Skorney. Wall Street rose on Friday, also boosted by President Donald Trump’s new guidelines to reopen the economy and Boeing’s plans to resume production. The benchmark S&P 500 index has fallen nearly 12% this year. [.N] Gilead’s shares, which have risen 17.8% this year, were up nearly 8.1% at $82.71 in noon trading. “There will no doubt be cautionary announcements by various scientific bodies about the validity of a partial set of results from a tiny trial,” said Jeffrey Halley, a markets analyst at OANDA. “Markets, though, will likely do their very best to ignore those, preferring to concentrate on ... a potential treatment for COVID-19 symptoms.”
|
1869
|
Ad campaign shows smoking's scary side.
|
Health officials launched a $54 million advertising campaign on Thursday depicting the health risks of smoking in gruesome detail, offering the latest salvo in the government’s campaign to deglamorize cigarette smoking.
|
true
|
Health News
|
An ash try with cigarette butts is pictured in Hinzenbach, in the Austrian province of Upper Austria, February 5, 2012. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner The 12-week advertising blitz, called “Tips From Former Smokers,” is an effort to counteract the estimated $10.5 billion a year spent by tobacco companies to market and promote cigarettes in the United States. “This is really a David versus Goliath fight. The tobacco industry has spent more than $100 billion on marketing and promotion. They continue to spend more than $10 billion a year. That’s a million dollars every hour,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a telephone interview. Some 8 million Americans have smoking-related illnesses, and as many as 443,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related causes. And while U.S. health officials have succeeded in getting many smokers to quit, recent evidence suggests the message is not getting through to America’s youth. According to the U.S. surgeon general’s report on youth smoking released last week, one in four high school seniors is a regular cigarette smoker, and because few high school smokers are able to quit, some 80 percent will continue to smoke as adults. CDC says its ads - a combination of paid advertising and public service announcements - are intended to encourage smokers to quit and to build awareness for the damage caused by smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke. “Basically these are ads about the real effects of smoking on real people. They show cancer, heart attacks, stroke, amputation and what it’s like to live with those conditions,” Frieden said. One print ad, for example, depicts Brandon, a 31-year-old double amputee from North Dakota who was diagnosed at age 18 with Buerger’s disease, a rare blood-vessel disorder that cut off blood flow to both his legs. Brandon’s tip: Allow extra time in the morning to put on your legs. One of the TV spots depicts an emaciated, 51-year-old former smoker from North Carolina named Terrie getting ready for work by putting in her teeth, then putting on her wig and artfully arranging a scarf around her tracheostomy tube. The tagline of the ad is: Smoking causes immediate damage to the body. You can quit. Frieden said frank stories about the real health effects of smoking have been proven to discourage new smokers and to get people to quit. “This is absolutely what works. The science is very clear,” Frieden said. A 2008 report by the National Cancer Institute found that anti-smoking media campaigns reduce smoking among both youth and adults, especially those with strong messages that play on the emotions. And a 2012 review of published studies found that testimonials warning about the risks of smoking are especially effective at getting people to quit. Frieden estimates that about 50,000 smokers will quit as a result of these ads. “It could be higher, but that’s our conservative estimate.” The advertising campaign will run on a wide range of media, including TV, radio, print, billboards, bus shelters, movies and online via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The push follows big tobacco’s success in federal court at blocking regulations that would have required companies to put pictures on their labels of rotting teeth, diseased lungs and other images illustrating the long-term health consequences of smoking. But Frieden said the advertising effort was planned long before that decision was handed down earlier this month. Dr. Len Lichtenfeld of the American Cancer Society said the ads are a good step, but they need to be part of a coordinated anti-smoking effort that includes talking about clean indoor air, tobacco taxes and smoking cessation programs. “We have hit a barrier of smoking in this country where about 20 percent of adults are regular smokers,” Lichtenfeld said in a telephone interview. “In the past number of years, we haven’t been able to reduce that number. If this campaign sends a message to people that this is a habit that has risks that can cause harm, that’s a good thing,” he said.
|
11096
|
Breakthrough Study Stops Fat-Eating Prostate Cancer Cells
|
This news release on a study of a drug’s potential to help inhibit tumor growth in certain types of metastatic prostate cancer never informed readers that the study was done in mice and not men. Maybe the best way to summarize this release is by parsing what the headline does and does not say: “Breakthrough Study Stops Fat-Eating Prostate Cancer Cells” may be literally true but completely and utterly misleading, lacking both evidence or relevance to real humans who may be suffering from castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) whose poor prognosis is due to their cancer’s ability to resist anti-androgen hormone therapy. The study itself examines the use of CPT1A inhibitors and anti-androgen therapy which could increase a cancer’s sensitivity to enzalutamide in mice. But we think readers are left without even the most basic evidence to support the release’s claim that the study is a “huge development for men with CRPC that previously did not have many options.” This study may have some relevance to men with a certain type of cancer somewhere in the distant future when it has been tested in those specific patients and proven to be safe and effective. A study that shows, somewhat, a drug’s ability to increase the potential effectiveness of another drug, in rodents, might prove to be an advance in basic science, but this study’s relevance to humans is not at all clear or well defined.
|
false
|
Prostate cancer,University news release
|
The drug in question, enzalutamide, is advertised and sold as Xtandi. The cost of the drug could easily have been included in the news release. According to GoodRx, the out-of-pocket cost for 120 capsules of 40 mg Xtandi is roughly $11,000. Ranolazine (marketed as Ranexa), the other drug discussed, is priced at about $350 for a 60 day supply of 500-mg tablets. Even though the researchers found that adding “ranolazine to anti-androgen therapy made tumors more sensitivity (sic) to the anti-androgen drug enzalutamide,” according to the release, we have no idea of the magnitude of those benefits to people. The scope of the benefits in mice is not even described with any precision. It is a huge leap to translate these basic science findings to clinical care. The drug’s potential harms to people are known and reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. They include “fatigue, constipation, and back and joint pain as well as hypertension.” The release doesn’t tell us if the mice in the study experienced any side effects from the drug. The release explains how the drug inhibits fat-eating prostate cells but offers no explanations on how this would apply to human men with prostate cancer. This is not a comment on the quality of the evidence, but on how the evidence applies to the treatment of castration resistant prostate cancer. There is no overt disease mongering here except to say that those actual men with actual prostate cancers who read a story based on this news release may be mightily concerned, wondering if they have the “fat-eating” type of prostate cancer and thus may be even more worried than they normally are. The funders aren’t named in the news release. There is no information suggesting that the researchers are connected to the companies that make the drugs in question or are otherwise invested in this particular treatment paradigm, but it would have been nice to be informed if this was or was not the case. Are there other drugs that have the same pharmalogical effect as enzalutamide? We learn nothing about what else is out there that treats this particular type of cancer and how effective it might be. Another approach to treating castrate-resistant prostate cancer is the drug abiraterone (marketed as Zytiga), an androgen synthesis inhibitor, used in combination with prednisone. The key drug in question, enzalutamide, (trade name Xtandi) is already widely marketed as a treatment for prostate cancer. This fact was not included in the news release. The news release says: “In fact, we are already able to block the action of the CPT1A enzyme. The drug ranolazine is a fat oxidation inhibitor that earned FDA approval in 2006 to treat angina. When Schlaepfer and colleagues experimented with fat burning inhibitors and anti-androgens in cancer cell lines, they found that the addition of ranolazine to anti-androgen therapy made tumors more sensitivity to the anti-androgen drug enzalutamide.” We interpret this as saying in a round-about way that the drug is not claiming any novelty that it doesn’t have. This news release is almost a poster child for unjustifiable language including use of the word, “breakthrough” in the title. Then there is the suggestion that “This is a huge development for men with CRPC that previously did not have many options.” This might be a huge breakthrough for mice with a certain type of cancer but that hardly justifies the use of the term “breakthough” in applying the study’s finding to human men.
|
30806
|
"A former CIA agent named ""Bill Oxley"" confessed on his death bed to killing Bob Marley."
|
Whether or not there was anything more to Bob Marley’s death than natural causes — and there is no solid evidence to the contrary — we can say with certainty that a CIA agent named “Bill Oxley” did not confess while on his death bed in Maine to assassinating the singer.
|
false
|
Junk News, bob marley, CIA, conspiracy theories
|
Bob Marley died of brain cancer in May 1981, but a conspiracy theory has emerged in the ensuing three decades that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency infected the reggae singer with cancer five years earlier. In November 2017, the disreputable web site Your News Wire, which has a history of publishing fake articles and sensationalist clickbait, added a new twist. A 79-year-old retired officer of the CIA, Bill Oxley, has made a series of stunning confessions since he was admitted to the Mercy Hospital in Maine on Monday and told he has weeks to live. He claims he committed 17 assassinations for the American government between 1974 and 1985, including the music icon Bob Marley. According to the article, Oxley first confessed that the shooting of Bob Marley in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1976 was a CIA assassination attempt and then said that the agent himself had followed up on it by tricking the singer into injecting himself with “cancer viruses and bacteria”: According to Mr. Oxley, he used press credentials to gain access to Bob Marley during his Blue Mountains retreat. He introduced himself as a famous photographer working for the New York Times, and gave Bob Marley a gift. “I gave him a pair of Converse All Stars. Size 10. When he tried on the right shoe, he screamed out ‘OUUUCH.’ That was it. His life was over right there and then. The nail in the shoe was tainted with cancer viruses and bacteria. If it pierced his skin, which it did, it was goodnight nurse.” Your News Wire did not provide a single source for the story, despite including extensive quotations from the supposedly dying Oxley. The site also has a history of writing false articles, including ones about deathbed confessions from CIA agents. We could find no record of a Bill or William Oxley having any association with the CIA, and neither his name, the quotations attributed to him, nor the basic facts of Your News Wire’s story are corroborated anywhere else. On 3 December 1976, gunmen shot up Marley’s home on Hope Road in Kingston, Jamaica, injuring the singer, his wife Rita and his manager Don Taylor. The assailants were never formally identified or brought to justice. However, some people in Marley’s entourage believed the attackers were connected to Edward Seaga, an opposition politician, according to an account by Vivien Goldman, a journalist who knew Marley and was his publicist during the 1970s. At the time, tensions were rising between factions supportive of Jamaica’s Prime Minister Michael Manley and his socialist People’s National Party, who were sympathetic to Fidel Castro’s Cuba, and Edward Seaga and his conservative Jamaica Labour Party, who were sympathetic to the United States. Although Marley had previously been explicitly supportive of Manley, he organized the Smile Jamaica concert in a non-partisan effort to ease political tensions and inspire unity and peace. According to Goldman, Marley was angry at the Prime Minister when he rescheduled the 1976 general election to coincide with the concert, which gave the appearance that Marley was backing Manley. There were reports in the 1970s that the CIA was active in Jamaica, that they attempted to destabilize Manley’s government in 1976, and even that they considered assassinating him. The agency denied those claims. Taylor also claimed that the CIA had plotted to assassinate his client, but this conclusion appears to be based solely on the belief that “the son of a prominent CIA official” had infiltrated a film crew at the December 1976 music festival. In his memoir Marley and Me, Taylor wrote: As a sequel, I would later find out that among the crew hired to come to Jamaica was the son of a prominent CIA official who had travelled under an alias. This information convinced me that the CIA had been behind the plot to kill Bob Marley because of his possible influence on Jamaican politics and on the wider world. Marley was shot in the arm and chest, but recovered quickly from his injuries and was able to perform at the Smile Jamaica festival two days later. This is where the “shoe plot” begins. According to the theory, a mysterious American man visited Marley as he prepared for the concert, which was to take place on 5 December. The man purportedly gave Marley a pair of shoes, and when the singer tried on one of them, his toe was pricked by a copper wire or nail. Throughout the Caribbean and Central America more broadly, the CIA is known to have been involved in political assassinations and regime changes, in particular in Honduras and Nicaragua, and the islands of Jamaica and Cuba are only a couple of hundred miles apart. So the prospect of the CIA seeking to establish Jamaica as a bulwark against Soviet and Cuban influence in the region by neutralizing the populist folk hero Bob Marley, who was historically sympathetic to the socialist Michael Manley, is not inconceivable. However, there is a lack of concrete proof linking the CIA to either the shooting of Marley or the cancer that eventually killed him. Claims of weaponized cancer infection are part of a broader, long-running discussion about “targeted assassinations” by intelligence agents in the United States and elsewhere. Most prominently, some adherents claimed that the CIA was responsible for the cancer which claimed the life of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, in 2013. It might be possible to externally induce cancer in another person by infecting them with a virus known to cause cancer. Marley developed skin cancer in his foot, which subsequently metastasized and developed into the brain cancer that eventually killed him, and it is conceivable that intentionally infecting a person with an immune-compromising virus such as HIV, could possibly cause them to develop skin cancer. However, it is questionable whether this would be likely to be used as an assassination method. Firstly, the precise mechanics of “infecting” someone with cancer are uncertain, meaning the desired end result, death caused by cancer, would be far from assured. And while the ultimate cause of death, cancer, would certainly have the benefit of preventing suspicions, it can take years for a person to die from cancer. This would undermine one of the principle purposes of an assassination: to quickly stop an individual doing or saying something. As implausible as the “shoe plot” might seem, the CIA is known to have made a number of unorthodox political assassination attempts, against Fidel Castro in particular.
|
3194
|
Alabama AG opposed expected medical marijuana bill.
|
The Alabama attorney general is opposing medical marijuana legislation expected to be introduced in the upcoming legislative session.
|
true
|
Legislature, Opioids, Medical marijuana, Legislation, Marijuana, State legislature, Alabama
|
In a Jan. 6 letter to lawmakers, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall called marijuana an addictive substance and drew parallels with the ongoing opioid addiction crisis. He also noted federal law continues to ban marijuana. A state study commission has recommended a medical marijuana proposal for the session that begins next month. The commission was created after legislation failed last year. The Alabama Senate approved a medical marijuana bill in 2019, but the legislation stalled in the Alabama House of Representatives. The National Conference of State Legislatures says more than 30 states have approved some form of medical marijuana program.
|
6949
|
Program shows promise of removing pythons from Everglades.
|
Charlie 5 had no plans to move that hot June morning. The 9-foot-long Burmese python was comfortably nestled in a muddy hollow, well-hidden in a thicket of saw grass and alligator flag in Big Cypress National Preserve.
|
true
|
General News, Florida, Fort Pierce, Science, Invasive species
|
His tracking device gave him away. He didn’t like it, but he had visitors. “There he is,” said Austin Fitzgerald, a biological science technician with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), bending down within 18 inches of the steamy muck. “I can just barely see his head.” Using two snake hooks, Fitzgerald and Jillian Josimovich, a biologist with the USGS invasive species science branch, persuaded the reluctant snake to come out of hiding. It’s hard to read a snake’s body language, but Charlie 5 — writhing to free himself — clearly wished he had never met Fitzgerald and Josimovich. ___ Invasive species The uninvited denizens of South Florida’s wildlands, woodlands, marshlands and swamplands have left an indelible — and possibly irreversible — mark on the ecosystem. First identified in Everglades National Park in 2000, the Southeast Asian apex predator quickly put a stranglehold on Florida’s wildlife. To a python, Florida’s rich biodiversity of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians is a veritable smorgasbord of delicacies. According to the USGS, a 2012 study in Everglades National Park revealed pythons have contributed to these population declines: — 99.3% fewer raccoons — 98.9% fewer opossums — 87.5% fewer bobcats Foxes and marsh and cottontail rabbits have “effectively disappeared,” the study says. As pythons eat their way across the Sunshine State’s landscape, there is strong evidence Florida’s bird, native snake and iconic alligator populations are also suffering. What predators the python doesn’t eat are losing the competition for food, including bobcats and panthers. The hunters are simply too large and too efficient. They are at home in warm, wet, watery climates and can swim, burrow and climb trees. About the only thing they can’t do is fly. Researchers even believe pythons have swum across the open saltwater of Florida Bay from the Everglades to islands in the Florida Keys. ___ Radio telemetry A fundamental problem in keeping up with the python’s assault on Florida is the snake’s ability to remain out of sight, said Matthew McCollister, a resource manager with the National Park Service based at Big Cypress National Preserve in Ochopee. “The tools that exist today are not sufficient” to locate pythons, he said. “We have got to invest in developing and improving tools.” The key is finding and removing breeding females, he said. A clever approach underway in Southwest Florida since 2013 has been helping scientists keep tabs on snakes. The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has been working with various groups — the USGS, National Park Service, James Madison University, zoos in Naples and Miami and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission — to develop and assess new ways to curb pythons’ proliferation. When males are discovered crossing a road or slithering along a canal dike, they are caught and taken to a Zoo Miami lab where veterinarian Frank Ridgely, donating his time and facilities, surgically inserts a radio transmitter. The pythons are released back into the wild to act as spies, hence their nickname “Judas snakes.” During the December-through-April breeding season, the males lead researchers to the females. “The radio transmitter allows you to follow it wherever it goes,” Josimovich said. “It emits a pulsating beep. We can go to our animal and potentially remove several other individuals” found in breeding populations called “breeding balls.” ___ Breeding balls Breeding balls sometimes have five or six males in close proximity preparing to mate with a single female. Charlie 5, for example, led the team to two breeding balls and two female removals in 2019. McCollister hopes he does even better next season. In the last two seasons, the Judas snake method has enabled Big Cypress staff to remove 17 pythons — out of an estimated tens of thousands living there. One was the largest ever captured there: a 17.5-foot, 141-pound female bearing 73 developing eggs. McCollister confirmed that Kilo 5 was the male snake which located her. In the last six years, the Conservancy and its partners have cleared more than 500 pythons from a 55-square-mile area in Collier County. But Big Cypress’ vastness works against it. The preserve was set aside from developers in 1974, but its 729,000 acres makes it larger than Rhode Island. Not only are the pythons scattered far and wide, they’ve dug in to hard-to-reach places. Snakes fitted with transmitters can be spot-checked by aircraft; however, finding them on foot is another story. It often requires a difficult, lengthy hike in high heat under a blazing sun, sometimes walking through swamp water, dealing with mosquitoes and challenging weather. Some places are simply too remote for field staff to reach. With only two improved roads and a few dozen trails suitable for off-road vehicles, Big Cypress’ inaccessibility requires any work with pythons be done on foot. Everglades National Park, on the southeast border, is nearly twice as large, 1.5 million acres, and has even fewer roads and trails. “The Everglades is very difficult to get into, and so is Big Cypress,” McCollister said. “You can’t go check on every snake using a helicopter. You can’t attract them. It’s really challenging.” ___ Promising results Charlie 5′s inconspicuous spot was somewhere on Windmill Prairie, about 8 miles north of Monument Lake Campground — more than a mile’s hike through thick underbrush. By summer’s end, that spot will be under 2 feet of standing water, the heat will be insufferable and the mosquitoes will be thick enough to choke a cow. But the promising Judas snake program is worth the effort, McCollister said. “We have learned a lot from them while locating breeding events,” he said. “We started the season with only six animals and have grown it to 13, while removing six females.” The snakes are “humanely euthanized,” he said. Radio telemetry is a doorway to more technological advancements in removing pythons, but it has a big drawback: Cost in manpower and resources. And transmitters for each snake run about $250 each. Similar work done in Everglades National Park a few years ago, Josimovich said, put cost estimates around $11,000 per snake mainly due to the need to use helicopters to track them. “We are trying to figure out what are the best ways to improve detection,” he said. “We still have so much to learn about their basic biology and being able to tap into their physiology and reproductive biology. We want to be able to exploit what is really critically valuable, but we are taking small steps.” McCollister said he is hopeful that state, federal and private partners working on a variety of methods eventually will be successful — whether that means eradicating or just controlling the pythons. “FWC is leading an effort to create an Interagency Python Management Plan,” he said. “We’re doing what we should do, but we’re behind the 8 ball.” Charlie 5 will help. Fitzgerald and Josimovich drew a blood sample and swabbed his mouth and scaly skin for DNA. They examined his incision where his radio transmitter, about the size of AAA battery, had been inserted. Then he slinked back into the thick brush. Whether he knew it or not, the non-native Charlie 5 has been a valuable asset to native wildlife. They rely on him to help slow his species’ invasion. ___ Information from: The Stuart (Fla.) News, http://www.tcpalm.com
|
28235
|
A collection of anecdotes about honesty comprises real quotes from President Harry S. Truman.
|
And yes, it is appropriate to render Truman’s full name with a period after the ‘S’.
|
true
|
Politics, harry truman
|
Few figures in American political history have been as reviled as President Harry S. Truman was when he left office in January 1953. After the end of the Great Depression and World War II, public dissatisfaction with 20 years of Democratic rule, the New Deal reforms enacted by Franklin D. Roosevelt, and numerous labor strikes, along with frightening political events such as the Soviet Union’s successful test of an atomic bomb, the Communist revolution in China, and the stalemate of the Korean War all combined to send Truman’s popularity plummeting to an unprecedented nadir by the end of 1952. In the half-century since the end of Truman’s presidency, though, his popular image has undergone a remarkable reversal, and he is now held up by both Republicans and Democrats as the plain-speaking, tough-but-fair exemplar of what a president should be. A collection of anecdotes about Harry S. Truman reflects his modern image as the bluntly honest chief executive who refused to use his office as a stepping stone to personal gain: “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” — Harry S. Truman After President Truman retired from office in 1952, he was left with an income consisting of basically just a U.S. Army pension, reported to have been only $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an “allowance” and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year. When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, “You don’t want me. You want the office of the president, and that doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it’s not for sale.” Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, “I don’t consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise.” We now see that other past presidents, have found a new level of success in cashing in on the presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Obviously, political offices are now for sale. Good old Harry Truman could have been correct when he observed, “My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference. I, for one, believe the piano player job to be much more honorable than current politicians.” The quote that opens this piece comes from President Truman’s Special Message to the Congress on the Internal Security of the United States, delivered on 8 August 1950, in which he spoke out against the implementation of laws curbing expressions of dissent as a means of combating subversion: [T]here are some people who wish us to enact laws which would seriously damage the right of free speech and which could be used not only against subversive groups but against other groups engaged in political or other activities which were not generally popular. Such measures would not only infringe on the Bill of Rights and the basic liberties of our people; they would also undermine the very internal security they seek to protect. Laws forbidding dissent do not prevent subversive activities; they merely drive them into more secret and more dangerous channels. Police states are not secure; their history is marked by successive purges, and growing concentration camps, as their governments strike out blindly in fear of violent revolt. Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear. When Truman left the White House and returned to life as a private citizen in Missouri in January 1953, the U.S. did not provide any form of pension to former presidents. Truman had little or no income beyond his Army pension of $112.56 per month and bore all the costs of maintaining an office and staff himself, and it was largely due to his financial limitations that Congress finally enacted the Former Presidents Act (FPA) in 1958 to provide former presidents with pensions and allowances to cover office and travel expenses. We couldn’t find a source for the quote that has Truman declining offers of corporate positions at large salaries with the rebuff that “You don’t want me. You want the office of the president, and that doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it’s not for sale.” However, even if he didn’t use those exact words, Truman did express that sentiment regarding the acceptance of corporate positions in his 1960 book, Mr. Citizen: I turned down all of those offers. I knew that they were not interested in hiring Harry Truman, the person, but what they wanted to hire was the former President of the United States. I could never lend myself to any transaction, however respectable, that would commercialize on the prestige and the dignity of the office of the Presidency. In May 1971, towards the end of Truman’s life (he died in December 1972), the House of Representatives was considering awarding the Medal of Honor to the former president. Truman quashed such deliberations by writing a letter, read to the House on 6 May 1971 by Rep. William J. Randall of Missouri, in which he maintained that the Medal of Honor was for combat bravery and that changing the requirements in his case would detract from the merit of the award: I do not consider that I have done anything which should be the reason of any award, Congressional or otherwise. This does not mean I do not appreciate what you and others have done, because I do appreciate the kind things that have been said and the proposal to have the award offered to me. Therefore, I close by saying thanks, but I will not accept a Congressional Medal of Honor. (Truman ostensibly might have been awarded a “legitimate” Medal of Honor due to his service as an artillery captain with the U.S. Army during World War I.) The legend-cum-joke about a respected, successful man who notes in retrospect that — had he enjoyed more advantages early in his life — he might have ended up as a piano player in a brothel is an old one, one which Truman echoed when he observed (as related in the book Plain Speaking) that “My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.” However, the follow-up line, “I, for one, believe the piano player job to be much more honorable than current politicians,” does not appear in that book and is possibly an apocryphal addition rather than Truman’s own words.
|
7415
|
Lawyers: Investigators recommend whistleblower is reinstated.
|
Federal investigators have found “reasonable grounds” that a government whistleblower was punished for speaking out against widespread use of an unproven drug that President Donald Trump touted as a remedy for COVID-19, his lawyers said.
|
true
|
AP Top News, Health, General News, Politics, Infectious diseases, Banks, Virus Outbreak, Donald Trump
|
Dr. Rick Bright headed the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a unit of Department of Health and Human Services that focuses on countermeasures to infectious diseases and bioterrorism. He had received a job performance review of outstanding before he was summarily transferred last month, with his agency email cut off without warning. Investigators with the Office of Special Counsel “made a threshold determination that HHS violated the Whistleblower Protection Act by removing Dr. Bright from his position because he made protected disclosures in the best interest of the American public,” his lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks said in a statement Friday. The OSC is an agency that investigates allegations of egregious personnel practices in government. The lawyers said investigators are requesting that Bright be temporarily reinstated for 45 days until they can complete their probe. OSC spokesman Zachary Kurz said his agency “cannot comment on or confirm the status of open investigations.” HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley said in a statement that the department “strongly disagrees with the allegations and characterizations in the complaint” and that the whole issue is a “personnel matter that is currently under review.” Trump shrugged off the preliminary ruling about Bright’s complaint. “I don’t know who he is, but to me, he’s a disgruntled employee,” Trump told reporters. “If people are that unhappy, they shouldn’t work. If you’re unhappy with a company, you shouldn’t work there. Go out and get something else. But to me, he’s a disgruntled guy. And I hadn’t heard great things about him either.” The public will soon get a chance to size up Bright. He’s been invited to testify before a House committee next week. Bright is a flu and infectious-disease expert with 10 years at the agency, which is known as BARDA. His particular focus was on vaccine development. He was reassigned to the National Institutes of Health to work on developing coronavirus testing. In a formal complaint that his lawyers released this week, Bright described how tension built up within HHS as the coronavirus arrived in the U.S. and quickly defied Trump’s assurances that it would be contained. Bright said his efforts to escalate preparedness “encountered resistance from HHS leadership, including Secretary (Alex) Azar, who appeared intent on downplaying this catastrophic event.” Bright described a situation in which the Trump administration failed to prepare for the pandemic, then sought a quick fix by trying to rush a malaria drug to patients, though its effectiveness for COVID-19 was unproved. His complaint detailed a frustrating attempt to jump-start U.S. production of masks and a successful effort to secure importation of testing swabs from Italy. But his most high-profile allegations involved hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug Trump had promoted as a “game changer” with little evidence. He said the Trump administration wanted to “flood” hot spots in New York and New Jersey with the drug. “I witnessed government leadership rushing blindly into a potentially dangerous situation by bringing in a non-FDA approved chloroquine from Pakistan and India, from facilities that had never been approved by the FDA,” Bright said on a call with reporters earlier this week. “Their eagerness to push blindly forward without sufficient data to put this drug into the hands of Americans was alarming to me and my fellow scientists.” He said he succeeded in limiting the use of the malaria drug to hospitalized patients. Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned doctors against prescribing the drug except in hospitals and research studies. In an alert, regulators flagged reports of sometimes fatal heart side effects among coronavirus patients taking hydroxychloroquine or the related drug chloroquine. Bright felt officials had “refused to listen or take appropriate action to accurately inform the public” and spoke to a reporter about the drug. He said he had to tell the public about the lack of science backing up its use, despite hydroxychloroquine being pushed by the president at press briefings.
|
21645
|
The (State Board of Administration) transparency issue got a great airing the last legislative session.
|
Florida state investment chief says transparency was a big issue for lawmakers in 2011
|
false
|
Financial Regulation, Transparency, Florida, Ash Williams,
|
"Facing questions about the handling of the state's $130 billion investment portfolio, the executive director and chief investment officer of the State Board of Administration tried to reassure Florida Gov. Rick Scott that everything is fine. SBA executive director Ash Williams defended SBA procedures and policies to Scott and members of the Florida Cabinet on Aug. 2, 2011. The comments came following a St. Petersburg Times analysis, which found that state investments would have yielded a better return sitting in an automated index fund than they did under high-priced investment consultants. The SBA currently invests about $130 billion for more than 1 million current and future government retirees and hundreds of state and local government agencies. Part of the concern for Scott, were questions about whether the SBA is handling its transactions in secret. ""What about the question about transparency?"" Scott asked Williams. ""Are there things that we ought to be doing that we're not doing yet?"" ""Well, I think the transparency issue got a great airing the last legislative session. We have for the most part full transparency,"" Williams said. ""All of our publicly traded activity is very readily observable or obviously subject to the public records law. We have one very narrow slice of our activity that has a very limited exception from Florida's public records law and that relates to alternative investments and subjects them to a certain type of review prior to being released."" What stuck out to us at PolitiFact Florida was Williams' suggestion that the question of transparency at the SBA ""got a great airing the last legislative session."" (After all, we witnessed the entire legislative session firsthand.) Was that what really happened? The 2011 annual legislative session came and went with lengthy debate on a number of issues. We remember hours of debate about a bill -- which ultimately failed -- that would have eliminated the automatic payroll deduction of union dues for public employees. We remember feisty arguments and a fair amount of public testimony about a bill that passed (and is now being challenged in court) altering Florida voter laws. Early in the session, debate zeroed in on an education bill that would eliminate a form of tenure for public school teachers. Late in the session, in the Senate, debate roiled over an immigration bill. We can list others -- bills about abortion, the state budget and amending the state's growth management laws all consumed hours of time in the 60-day spring session. But again, back to Williams' statement -- transparency at the SBA. We searched and found one bill on the topic -- HB 7225 (the identical Senate bill was SB 2174). The bill was filed in order to extend a public records exemption for the SBA that was set to expire. Specifically, it renews a 2006 law giving the SBA an exemption from public records requirements for ""proprietary confidential business information."" The bill passed the Senate 33-3 (one senator originally voted yes, but changed -- more on that later) and the House 114-1. It was signed into law by Scott on May 31. Williams explained the 2006 law and the extension this way to Scott and Cabinet members as part of his Aug. 12 comments: ""That law has been in effect and affects less than 10 percent of the SBA's portfolio, so the other 90-plus percent doesn’t have any of that protection,"" he said. ""That law was under sunset review last legislative session. It was heard extensively in committees and in the House and Senate, and the overwhelming vote of the Legislature was that it was in the public interest, so much so that it was reinstated and the future recurring sunset review of it was removed because it's been in place for so many years that the judgment of the Legislature in public hearings and after extensive staff review was that it actually served the public interest well."" The Florida Senate and House websites archive video of committee meetings, as well as regular floor sessions. So by retracing the path of the bill, we were able to watch the entire debate over HB 7225 and SB 2174. Lucky for us, there wasn't a lot. The measure was first heard in the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability on April 5. It was explained by a Senate staffer (the de facto sponsor, Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, was not at the meeting.) After its introduction, Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, asked several questions about the records exemption and whether it was necessary. Eventually, Williams responded to Fasano's questions directly in a back-and-forth that lasted a little less than 20 minutes. At one point, Fasano showed SBA documents that had been heavily redacted. ""It's all blank, Mr. Chairman. There's nothing. It just goes on and on,"" he said. Williams, in response, noted that the document Fasano was referring to -- an Invitation to Negotiate for legal services -- was heralded as being a model of transparency by a national group. That didn't win over Fasano, who continued to voice strong objections. Another senator, Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, also voiced concern. The proposal, which didn't get a vote that day, returned before the same committee April 14, when senators heard and discussed the bill for 10 minutes. No one from the public spoke; neither did Williams. Fasano reiterated his concerns, as did Latvala. Democratic Sen. Bill Montford of Tallahassee said he had no problem with the exemption, and Ring defended the proposal -- saying companies now doing business with the state would walk away if the public records exemption were allowed to expire. It passed the committee 11-2. On the same day, April 14, a House committee heard its version of the same bill. Discussion lasted three minutes and 15 seconds. Republican Paige Kreegel of Punta Gorda asked sponsor Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City, if there had been concerns over some of the SBA's investments. Patronis didn't directly answer the question, saying the two members could talk later, and that the bill had another committee stop. The bill passed unanimously 17-0. But it never went to another committee. Instead, it appeared on the House floor April 28, where it was read the required second and third times and passed by the full chamber 114-1 in a total of 57 seconds. The Senate then took up the House version of the legislation the next day (though the versions were identical). The Senate read the bill a second and third time as required, and without any discussion or debate -- voted 34-2 in favor. Fasano, originally a yes vote, changed his vote to no, making the final outcome 33-3. Total time on the Senate floor: One minute, 30 seconds. Overall, the SBA public records exemption was a topic for less than 36 minutes in a public meeting, according to our review of videos from committee hearings and from the floors of the House and Senate. Of that, about 25 minutes of the discussion came from one senator, Fasano, during a back-and-forth with Williams and a subsequent committee speech. And excluding the sponsors -- Ring and Patronis -- only five members of the 160-member Legislature ever discussed the exemption in a public forum: Fasano, Latvala, Montford, Kreegel and Rep. Rick Kriseman, D-St. Petersburg, who asked during a hearing what the First Amendment Foundation thought about the bill. That brings us back to what Williams said, that ""the transparency issue got a great airing the last legislative session."" At PolitiFact we're sometimes reluctant to analyze statements that are open to interpretation (what's the definition of ""great"" in this case), but we feel confident that someone seeing Williams' statement would come away with an impression that is very different from the legislative record. In fact, the public records SBA bill that moved through the House and Senate passed with just slightly more debate than is absolutely necessary to comply with state rules that a bill be read three times before it is passed. We're not saying it's Williams' fault that the Legislature decided not to speak out on this bill. But we do hold him accountable for his words."
|
5282
|
In West Africa, cancer patients forced abroad for treatment.
|
Christine’s doctor felt a small lump in her left breast at a checkup in 2015, though she was flooded with relief when the technicians assured her they had detected nothing amiss.
|
true
|
Cancer, Health, Africa, Radiation therapy, Senegal, West Africa, Dakar, International News
|
Still in pain more than a year later, she pushed for another mammogram. The 44-year-old mother of four was then diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. “It was the descent into hell,” she said. “You ask, ‘Why, why, why?’ ... I was so angry. Because why in 2015 did they not see this, and why was it left for so long?” The word “cancer” is rarely spoken in Senegal, synonymous with death in a country where many like Christine are only diagnosed in the later stages of disease and radiation therapy can be difficult to access. Cancer has become an emerging public health problem in West Africa, and the lack of strong prevention, good screening and treatment often leaves outcomes grim. For that reason, Christine and most other patients don’t share their diagnosis, and they ask not to be identified by their full names. For now, radiation treatment is impossible for Senegal’s population of 15 million people without leaving the country. The sole radiotherapy machine, donated in 1989, broke down last year. Senegal’s government had promised two new machines by December, and they were delivered weeks ago, but patients must wait until they are functional. In the meantime, their only option is to seek treatment in North Africa — more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away — or even Europe. “Wherever you go in Africa you have the same problem. Late diagnosis is a fact ... and you don’t have the same treatment that you have in Europe or the United States or other developing countries,” said Macoumba Gaye, head of the radiotherapy department of Dalal Jamm Hospital outside Dakar. The need for radiation in West Africa is greater, too. While about 70 percent of patients might need radiation in developed countries, more than 80 percent require the treatment in Senegal because their cases are caught at more advanced stages, Gaye said. The problem is only expected to worsen unless improvements are made. The number of cancer cases in Africa is projected to double between 2008 and 2030 because of an aging population, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The Senegalese Ministry of Health did not respond to several requests for an interview on the broken radiotherapy machine. The country has been planning to set up a National Cancer Institute within five years, plus a registry to track cancer patients. There is also a program to have mammogram machines in all regions of Senegal by next year. Gaye said they hope to have the two new machines up and running by September. Until then, Senegal’s government is paying for patients’ travel to Morocco, said Gaye, who is on the committee that approves who can get such funding. He says some 70 patients have been sent to Morocco so far. Treating stage 3 to 4 cancer costs at least $5,000-$10,000, he said, while preventative planning such as a pap smear costs only $20. It’s unclear how many people have had to forego the important treatment, but Gaye said it’s likely in the hundreds. Christine’s husband had insurance that allowed her to undergo radiation treatment in Casablanca after her tumor was successfully removed by surgery in Senegal in November. She was fortunate to have a daughter who already lived there, but still had to attend 30 treatment sessions by herself. Christine said she and other West Africans didn’t feel entirely welcome in Morocco, adding to the burden of being sick and trying to hide their illness. “Treatment there was frustrating because they were indifferent to me,” she said. “But when the Moroccan patients came in they got kisses, greetings and were treated with kindness.” Wearing a wig, a bright purple dress and a bra with inserts, she said she hopes to start a consultation service for others who have to fight cancer, helping them find such bras and wigs. She especially credited Dr. Abdoul Aziz Kasse, her Senegalese surgeon, with helping to save her life. Kasse has been at the forefront of Senegal’s cancer care for decades and has been pushing for improved treatment options and government planning to focus on prevention. Kasse has saved lives with mobile screening units as well, saying that screening can reduce cancer rates by some 30 percent. He now hopes to continue helping others like Christine by opening a new private clinic in Senegal’s capital that would expand treatment options. Once opened, it will offer advanced technology at a lower cost than treatment in Morocco. He and his French partners hope that their business model can be replicated with satellite facilities in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Ivory Coast and Rwanda. Burkina Faso has no radiotherapy machine but expects one by next year, said Paulin Somba, head of non-communicable and chronic diseases at Burkina Faso’s health ministry. The government has suspended since 2015 sending its citizens to other countries for medical evacuation because of the costs — the lowest coming in at about 1.5 million CFA, or $2,500, he said. Because of that, the death rate is at 50 percent, he said, adding that surgery and chemotherapy are available. Mali and Mauritania do have radiotherapy machines, Gaye said. In East Africa, Uganda has faced the same challenge as Senegal, with its only radiotherapy machine breaking down in April 2016. A new machine is being shipped and services will be restored “by the beginning of August,” said Christine Namulindwa, a spokeswoman for the Uganda Cancer institute. For now, patients who require radiotherapy are referred to a hospital in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, she said. In Senegal, patients like Christine who have had successful recoveries still worry the cancer could return. Their silence means few know of the hardships many must overcome after such a devastating diagnosis. “Most people will simply tell me I am going to die,” she said. “I don’t need their pity.” ___ Associated Press writers Brahima Ouedraogo in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda contributed.
|
28630
|
Mike Pence once said that smoking doesn't kill people.
|
"What's true: In 2000, Mike Pence publicly downplayed the risks of smoking cigarettes and stated ""smoking doesn't kill."" What's false: Pence's point was that not everyone who smokes dies from smoking-related illnesses, and he acknowledged the health risks of smoking after referencing fairly accurate statistics about them."
|
mixture
|
Politics, mike pence, smoking
|
On 10 November 2016, the IFLScience blog published an article reporting that Vice President-Elect Mike Pence “doesn’t believe that smoking kills.” The headline traversed Facebook quickly and widely: Mike Pence, the vice president-elect of the US, has said he doesn’t believe smoking kills people. He made that case in an op-ed article published in 2000 and has made no public effort to update his position since. “Time for a quick reality check,” Pence wrote. “Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn’t kill. In fact, 2 out of every three smokers does not die from a smoking related illness and 9 out of ten smokers do not contract lung cancer.” IFLS referenced a March 2015 BuzzFeed item titled “‘Smoking Doesn’t Kill’ and Other Great Old Op-Eds from Mike Pence” which similarly featured a headline claiming Pence had once stated that “smoking doesn’t kill,” and featured archival links to op-eds penned by Pence back in 2000. However, Pence’s editorial pertained to the role of “Big Government” with respect to adult tobacco use and largely railed against anti-tobacco legislation that he maintained impinged on individual freedom: In the coming weeks, Americans are going to be treated with the worst kind of Washington-speak regarding the tobacco legislation currently being considered by the Congress and Attorney Generals from forty different states. We will hear about the scourge of tobacco and the resultant premature deaths. We will hear about how this phalanx of government elites has suddenly grown a conscience after decades of subsidizing the product which, we are now told, “kills millions of Americans each year”. Time for a quick reality check. Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn’t kill. In fact, 2 out of every three smokers does not die from a smoking related illness and 9 out of ten smokers do not contract lung cancer. This is not to say that smoking is good for you … news flash: smoking is not good for you. If you are reading this article through the blue haze of cigarette smoke you should quit. The relevant question is, what is more harmful to the nation, second hand smoke or back handed big government disguised in do-gooder healthcare rhetoric. Even a conservative like me would support government big enough to protect us from foreign threats and threats to our domestic tranquility but the tobacco deal goes to the next level. Government big enough to protect us from our own stubborn wills. And a government of such plenary power, once conceived will hardly stop at tobacco. Surely the scourge of fatty foods and their attendant cost to the health care economy bears some consideration. How about the role of caffeine in fomenting greater stress in the lives of working Americans? Don’t get me started about the dangers of sports utility vehicles! Those of you who find the tobacco deal acceptable should be warned as you sit, reading this magazine, sipping a cup of hot coffee with a hamburger on your mind for lunch. A government big enough to go after smokers is big enough to go after you. Although Pence did state that “smoking doesn’t kill,” he buttressed his argument by saying that only a third of smokers died of smoking-related illnesses (and that only one in ten developed lung cancer) while unequivocally declaring that “smoking is not good for you.” The clumsy choice of wording (in a paragraph that conflicted with itself) cited statistics that were reasonably accurate at the time. Pence maintained that a third of smokers died of smoking-related illnesses, a figure that appeared to come from a 1987 study. Data demonstrating the percentage of smokers who contract lung cancer were mixed, but some indicated the number was roughly ten to 15 percent. In 2015 and 2016, a more than fifteen-year-old op-ed written by Mike Pence drew attention anew as the election of Donald Trump elevated him to the position of Vice President Elect. It was true that Pence’s commentary on tobacco restriction stated “smoking doesn’t kill,” but it went on to cite relatively accurate numbers about the risks of smoking. Moreover, Pence’s editorial had little to do with the statistical risks associated with tobacco, but rather his belief that smokers ought to be permitted to smoke if they wished without governmental interference. In his piece, Pence stated that he believed smoking was a poor health choice and that current smokers should to quit. Since 2000, Pence has made no similar comments downplaying the risks of smoking that we could find, and his current position remains unclear.
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.