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41182 | Drinking a glass of water before going to bed helps prevent stroke and heart attacks. | There’s some evidence that keeping hydrated can help prevent coronary heart disease and help improve stroke outcomes. But we found no evidence specifying that drinking water before bed was particularly beneficial. | unproven | online | Drinking a glass of water 30 minutes before a meal helps digestion. Drinking water can help digestion, but we’ve not seen evidence that specifically drinking water 30 minutes before eating helps more than drinking water at other times. Drinking a glass of water before taking a bath helps lower blood pressure. There is ... |
3742 | UW Hospital now has 14 cases of Legionnaires’ and 3 deaths. | A Legionnaires’ disease outbreak linked to UW Hospital’s water system has infected 14 people with the pneumonia-like bacteria, and three have died. | true | Wisconsin, Health, Legionnaires disease, Pneumonia, Disease outbreaks | Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Brunette tells the Wisconsin State Journal that the patients who died had other serious, life-limiting health conditions. One patient remains hospitalized. A hospital official has said the cases appear to be linked to a recent decision to reduce water flow at the hospital during low-demand tim... |
5143 | Western Wisconsin clinics merge with Planned Parenthood. | Three health clinics in western Wisconsin will become Planned Parenthood locations Aug. 19 under a merger. | true | La Crosse, Madison, Wisconsin, Health, General News, Abortion, Sheboygan, Milwaukee | None of the Essential Health Clinics in La Crosse, Sparta or Blair will offer abortions under the merger, but they could in the future. Of Planned Parenthood’s 21 existing clinics in Wisconsin, only those in Madison, Milwaukee and Sheboygan offer abortions. The La Crosse Tribune reports Friday that Planned Parenthood h... |
33810 | An actress' stage performance as Anne Frank was so bad that audience members yelled 'She's in the attic! when Nazi soldiers arrived onstage. | In the 1988 Jay McInerney’s novel Story of My Life, Allison’s acting teacher tells the urban legend of an unnamed actress who was being bankrolled by “a rich guy who wanted to make her a big star so he was basically buying her the starring roles in these plays.” | false | Entertainment, Actors | Just about every field of endeavor whose practioners are necessarily placed in the public eye (e.g., politics, entertainment, sports) has a common set of “denigration legends” — just pick the out-of-favor personality of the moment, slap his or her name into a familiar anecdote, and voilà… you have a ready-made, time-te... |
36853 | Chelsea Clinton’s apartment is a secret medical facility that Hillary Clinton visits to get treatment for conditions that she keeps hidden from the public. | Japan’s Tohoku Electric Power said on Wednesday it has won initial regulatory approval to restart a reactor at its Onagawa power plant, more than 8 years after it was damaged in the earthquake and tsunami that caused the Fukushima disaster. | unproven | Politics | Tohoku Electric said in a statement it has received a first green light from Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority to restart the No. 2 reactor at Onagawa, subject to a public consultation period. Onagawa was the closest among Japan’s nuclear stations to the epicenter of the magnitude-9 quake in March 2011, which trigge... |
9371 | Laughing gas makes a comeback for women in labor - like Kate Middleton | Is nitrous oxide (“laughing gas”) — which is frequently used to treat labor pain in other countries — gaining more acceptance in the U.S., where more aggressive pain management has traditionally been the norm? In answering this question this story draws on many sources to mostly tout the benefits of nitrous, but falls ... | true | birth | The cost of nitrous oxide for use during labor in one facility ($250) is included. It’s also mentioned that most insurance plans won’t cover it. A bonus that may have been appreciated by readers would have been comparing its price to the two most common approaches for managing labor pain (in the US): epidurals and IV n... |
9945 | Ibuprofen May Help Stave Off Parkinson’s | "This kind of study can’t prove cause-and-effect. No such explanation was given in the story. This study isn’t published, isn’t peer-reviewed yet, and won’t even be presented in a talk at a meeting for two months yet. The story discusses a 40 percent risk reduction. 40 percent of what? From what to what? How you frame ... | mixture | "Not applicable. Costs not discussed but most people know that ibuprofen products are inexpensive. We also continue to be puzzled by the number of stories that use only relative risk reduction figures, not absolute risk reduction figures. We have a brief primer on this topic. The point is that when the story discusses ... | |
10413 | Diabetes Drug Shown to Slow Plaque Buildup | "The Wall Street Journal often does such fine work; it is hard to understand why it sometimes turns to ""briefs"" like this 237-word story that falls short on many of our criteria. This story reports on a study presented at this week’s American College of Cardiology meeting showing that Actos stopped the progression of... | false | The story does not mention the costs of Actos or other diabetes drugs. The story does not quantify the benefits of treatment. Nor does the story mention that the clinical implications of plaque regression are unknown. The story does not mention any harms of the drug. The story gives some description of the design of th... | |
4653 | 2019 Report: Arkansas’ cannabis shops rake in $28 million. | Arkansas dispensaries sold about $28 million worth of medical marijuana in the first calendar year of legal sales in the state, according to a state agency. | true | Little Rock, Arkansas, Marijuana, Medical marijuana | More than 4,200 pounds (1905 kilograms) of marijuana was bought in the state this year, which accounts for more than $28.13 million in sales, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration reported. State regulators expect the industry to take off more early next year as the two remaining growing facilities begi... |
5198 | Health officials: 1 dead, several sick from Legionnaires’. | Health officials in western North Carolina say one person has died from Legionnaires’ disease and several others have been sickened. | true | Health, General News, North Carolina, Legionnaires disease, Henderson | Kim Horton is a spokeswoman for the Henderson County Department of Public Health. She tells the Citizen Times one person has died from the airborne disease. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services said in a news release earlier this week that it is working with the health departments in Buncombe and Henderson ... |
28981 | Irena Sendler, credited with saving 2,500 Polish Jews from the Holocaust, was a candidate for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize but lost out to Al Gore. | Irena Sendler, supposedly a candidate for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, is credited with saving 2,500 Polish Jews from the Holocaust. | mixture | Politics War/Anti-War | On 12 May 2008, Irena Sendlerowa (commonly known as Irena Sendler) passed away of pneumonia at the age of 98 in Warsaw. Her death prompted the circulation of an online message aimed at informing the many people who remained unfamiliar with her heroic deeds during the Holocaust: There recently was a death of a 98 year ... |
7974 | Pentagon looking to provide up to 100,000 body bags for civilians in virus outbreak. | The Pentagon is looking to provide up to 100,000 body bags for use by civilian authorities as the coronavirus outbreak worsens in the United States with a high death toll expected in coming weeks. | true | Health News | The Federal Emergency Management Agency has requested 100,000 such bags to the U.S. Department of Defense, a Pentagon official told Reuters on Wednesday. The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is working with the current contractor on additional capacity, the official said. The initial delivery will come from DLA stocks as... |
10127 | Gene Therapy Shows Progress: Melanoma Is Halted in 2 Men, Cancer Researchers Report | This story presents the results of an experimental approach to treating virulent forms of melanoma while tempering the enthusiasm that the results of this one study might generate. Although it is striking that the two patients who survived would have likely succumbed to the disease without the experimental intervention... | false | There was no estimate of the costs for this kind of individualized cancer treatment. It is appropriate that the story mentioned that although the two men who appear to have responded to the treatment were still alive, it was still too early to conclude that they could be categorized as ‘cured’. The article cautioned th... | |
8108 | Ireland tightens coronavirus restrictions, boosts rescue package. | Ireland banned all non-essential travel within the country and shut non-essential retail on Tuesday to battle coronavirus as it significantly increased income support for those already left unemployed and workers at risk of joining them. | true | Health News | The additional financial measures will cost an initial 3.7 billion euros over the next 12 weeks, on top of the 3 billion euros already committed to boost sick pay, fund the health service and offer assistance to businesses. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar asked people to stay at home “if at all possible” and only leave hom... |
35230 | "The television show ""My Secret Terrius"" predicted the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak. " | The fictional coronavirus in the show is also rather different from the strain of coronavirus (COVID-19) that was spreading around the globe in early 2020. In the show, someone “tweaked” the virus in order to make it more deadly. In reality, that simply isn’t possible. COVID-19 is not a human-made bioweapon. (You can r... | false | Entertainment | In March 2020, social media users started sharing clips from the 2018 South Korean television show “My Secret Terrius,” which supposedly showed characters using the word “coronavirus.” This is crazy . If you are home , go on Netflix now ……. Type “My Secret Terrius” and go to season -1 and episode 10 and move straight ... |
5470 | Zimbabwe’s capital runs dry as taps cut off for 2M people. | Tempers flared on Tuesday as more than 2 million residents of Zimbabwe’s capital and surrounding towns found themselves without water after authorities shut down the main treatment plant, raising new fears about disease after a cholera outbreak while the economy crumbles even more. | true | AP Top News, Harare, International News, Cholera, General News, Africa, Health, Zimbabwe | Officials in Harare have struggled to raise foreign currency to import water treatment chemicals; about $2.7 million is needed per month. Meanwhile, water levels in polluted reservoirs are dropping because of drought. For residents who have seen shortages of everything from medicines to bread to petrol in recent months... |
34449 | "Planned Parenthood enforces ""abortion quotas"" and rewards well-performing employees for promoting abortion services." | UPDATE: 18 February 2017 — Added notice that, contrary to Planned Parenthood’s statement, Sue Thayer’s lawsuit against the organization has not been completely dismissed.) | unproven | Politics, abortion, planned parenthood, zombie outrage | In February 2017 multiple web outlets covered anti-abortion group Live Action’s claims that the Planned Parenthood organization enforces “abortion quotas” and distributes awards to staff members for achieving what amounts to abortion-related “sales goals.” The claims originated with a 7 February 2017 video clip publish... |
14091 | I believe we should have tax on carbon and deal aggressively with climate change. That is not (Hillary Clinton's) position. | "Sanders said, ""I believe we should have tax on carbon and deal aggressively with climate change. That is not her position."" Unlike Sanders, Clinton doesn’t advocate for a carbon tax. And while Clinton doesn’t go as far as Sanders in her climate change plan, she does have one. The League of Conservation Voters suppor... | true | Environment, National, Cap and Trade, Climate Change, Energy, Bernie Sanders, | "Bernie Sanders still doesn’t want to talk about Hillary Clinton’s damn emails. Asked for his reaction to the State Department report of Clinton’s use of a private email server, Sanders told Meet the Press’ Chuck Todd that he’d rather talk policy differences. ""Our campaign is about defeating Secretary Clinton on the r... |
14632 | "In Virginia, ""people are going and getting marriage licenses who are 12 and 13, and 14 and 15 years old." | "Vogel said that in Virginia, ""people are going and getting marriage licenses who are 12 and 13, and 14 and 15 years old."" There’s no dispute that there are children 13 to 15 who have gotten married. But the 12-year-olds are another story. Vogel relied on Department of Health information to say that 12-year-olds are ... | true | Children, Marriage, Virginia, Jill Vogel, | "State Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel recently surprised her colleagues while pushing for a bill to prevent underage marriages. ""People are going and getting marriage licenses who are 12 and 13, and 14 and 15 years old,"" Vogel, R-Fauquier, said during a Jan. 27 appearance before the Senate Courts of Justice Committee. We w... |
7558 | Virgin Galactic posts loss, touts future potential revenue . | Virgin Galactic on Tuesday reported a first-quarter net loss of $60 million but touted millions of dollars in potential future revenue as more people have put down deposits for the chance to reserve a ticket once the commercial space venture resumes sales. | true | General News, Earnings, New Mexico, Virus Outbreak, Science | Company officials outlined earnings for the quarter during a webcast that came just days after Virgin Galactic celebrated the first glide flight of its spaceship over its new home at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. The company is in the midst of final testing but has yet to offer a date for the start of comme... |
10669 | New pill prevents strokes with less bleeding risk for atrial fib patients | The story did a good job providing information about the study, the potential for benefit and the possible side effects associated with this medication. Good comparison with coumadin, the effective, though challenging, medication used to treat atrial fib. It also mentioned the newly FDA approved medication Pradaxa for ... | true | Stroke,USA Today | The story mentioned that the price of rivaroxaban would likely be significantly greater than coumadin. But it could have been more specific, noting, at least, what Canadians pay for it already. There coumadin is about 50 cents a day and rivaroxaban is about $9 a day. It wouldn’t have taken long to do that extra researc... |
9281 | Theranostic drug personalizes prostate cancer imaging and therapy: Combined PET imaging and radionuclide therapy offers new hope for advanced prostate cancer | This news release reports on a paper presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging on a radionuclide drug that could be used both for imaging and therapy in advanced prostate cancer. The drug works by targeting cells that produce a protein called prostate-specific membran... | false | PSA,radionuclides,Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging | Nothing at all is said about the cost of this treatment either for imaging or treatment. Granted, the drug is in the very early stages of development, but that didn’t stop the release from claiming that the approach “personalizes cancer imaging and therapy,” “offers new hope for advanced prostate cancer,” and may have ... |
26453 | “Go look at other countries that went through exactly this, started to reopen, and then they saw the infection rate go back up again.” | Some countries in Asia that at one time appeared to have had the spread of Covid-19 under control have seen an uptick in cases after a relaxing of social distancing measures or an influx of travelers from elsewhere. In some places, authorities have had to reimpose social distancing measures to contain a second wave of ... | true | New York, Coronavirus, Andrew Cuomo, | "During a recent press briefing regarding Covid-19 in New York state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the economy must be reopened and that people need to get back to work. But, he said the rate of infection is currently being kept down because people are staying in their homes. ""And if you start acting differently, you will s... |
11982 | And over the last six years, Chicago’s economy has grown faster than the economies of New York City, Washington, D.C., or the national average. | Bristol-Myers Squibb Co said on Wednesday a late-stage trial testing a combination of its cancer drugs missed a main goal of preventing skin cancer from recurring in a certain group of patients, sending its shares down nearly 1%. | false | City Budget, Economy, Jobs, Illinois, Rahm Emanuel, | The company said the trial will continue unchanged as per the recommendation of a data monitoring committee. The trial was testing Bristol-Myers’ drugs Opdivo and Yervoy, against Opdivo alone, in patients with advanced melanoma. The combination failed to show a statistically significant benefit in patients whose tumors... |
11549 | Scientists reprogram adult cells’ function | The lack of context in medical reporting is a key failing in many reports and this story is no exception. A great deal of research is underway in diabetes and other chronic diseases. By not placing the story in context, the uninitiated reader is left with an incorrect assumption that the approach is unique and perhaps ... | false | There was no cost estimate because there has not actually been a treatment developed yet that makes use of the approach described in the research. Framing this approach as one that could someday cure not only diabetes, but also heart disease, stroke, and ‘many other ailments’ is troubling. This extrapolation to disease... | |
10274 | Anthracycline drugs may increase heart disease risk in breast cancer survivors | "This is a solid report on a controversy over potential risks of heart failure associated with a class of commonly used breast cancer chemotherapy drugs called anthracyclines. The reporter draws on a variety of sources and provides differing perspectives about risks and benefits. However, the story is really about new ... | true | "The article does not report how much the drugs costs, but the price is not necessary or useful in this story. The issues with both treatment and side effects are literally life and death. The relative cost of the drugs is not an issue. While the report states that the controversy is triggered by new research suggestin... | |
16064 | "Exposure to the electromagnetic fields from power lines ""has been associated with childhood leukemia and other diseases." | India’s government has no plan to roll back a ban on electronic cigarettes, an official told Reuters on Saturday, as protests against the move by vapers in six cities drew scant support. | false | Rhode Island, Energy, Infrastructure, Public Health, Public Safety, Patrick Lynch, | India banned the sale and import of e-cigarettes this month, warning of an “epidemic” of vaping among young people. The action has affected users nationwide and the plans of international companies including Juul Labs Inc and Philip Morris International, as well as triggering court challenges by local firms. Protesters... |
8278 | Florence Nightingale show presents nursing pioneer who told us to wash hands. | Victorian Britain took Florence Nightingale into its heart as the “Lady with the Lamp” who tended wounded soldiers, but a new exhibition shows her as a tough pioneer whose principles on hygiene underpin nursing today as the world battles coronavirus. | true | Health News | The show at the Florence Nightingale Museum within London’s St Thomas’ Hospital marks the bicentenary of Nightingale’s birth into a wealthy family, and tells the story of how she fought her family’s opposition and social constraints to become the world’s most famous nurse. “Florence Nightingale’s legacy is really, real... |
2438 | U.S. Nobel laureates worry about future of basic science. | The kind of basic science that helped Randy Schekman win the coveted Nobel medicine prize might never have been funded if he had applied today. | true | Health News | Schekman, along with two other U.S.-based winners of the 2013 medicine prize, Thomas Suedhof and James Rothman, slammed recent spending cuts at the National Institutes of Health, the biggest funder of scientific research in the world. The budget curbs were undermining the chances of breakthroughs and the next generatio... |
28190 | A muscular breed of “super cattle” is genetically engineered to provide as much meat as possible. | "What's true: Muscular ""super cattle"" have been produced through genetic mutation and decades of selective breeding. What's false: Muscular ""super cattle"" are not technically the result of ""genetic engineering"" (i.e., the process of manually adding new DNA to an organism’s genome)." | true | Uncategorized, genetic engineering, genetic modification, selective breeding | Photographs and videos like this one, showing shockingly muscled cows ambling in a field, has been used for years to demonstrate either the powers of selective engineering or the pitfalls of genetic modification, depending on whom you ask: The bovines featured in this video are real, and they belong to a breed of catt... |
10494 | Macular degeneration fought with new drug | The story describes one woman’s experience with a research study testing a new drug for a form of age-related macular degeneration. However, there is virtually no information about the new drug, including what class of drug, what type of study or studies have been conducted (the strength of the evidence), what the bene... | false | The story does not mention costs of treatment (either the new drug or the existing laser treatment). Lucentis is the same as Avastin, which is used to treat end stage colon cancer. The story provides no quantification of benefits whatsoever. The story doesn’t mention any harms of treatment. Importantly, this medication... | |
11133 | The Pain May Be Real, but the Scan Is Deceiving | "We live in a society that is enamored by technology. That love affair has led us to view technology as always good and beneficial. It may help explain why the patient in this story was so focused on the need to have her MRI. The reality is that the technology is amazing, but that doesn’t automatically translate into a... | true | "The story adequately describes what insurers pay for the scans. The story does not say how many meniscal tears were found on MRI in the current study. The story could have also said that there have been no randomized trials of MRIs for knee pain that quantify the benefits and harms of such a management strategy. The s... | |
8695 | Hong Kong to evacuate stranded residents from China's Hubei. | Hong Kong has arranged four charter flights to bring back 533 of its residents from the Chinese province of Hubei, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, about a month after countries around the world began evacuating their citizens. | true | Health News | Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the flights would return on Wednesday and Thursday and those coming back would be quarantined for 14 days upon arrival. Various countries including the United States, France, Germany and South Korea began evacuating hundreds of their citizens in late January or early February. ... |
27761 | "Donald Trump mentioned ""seven eleven"" rather than ""nine eleven"" when referring to the September 11 terrorist attacks." | “Well, I think after you’ve done several events over a short time period people misspeak all the time. Slip of the tongue.” | true | Politics, 7/11, 9/11, donald trump | On 18 April 2016, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Buffalo, New York, and during his speech, Trump puzzled listeners by seemingly referring to the terrorist attacks against the U.S. that occurred on 11 September 2001 as “7/11” instead of “9/11”: Donald Trump, who has made his ... |
2598 | Space shuttle Endeavour rolls into new L.A. home at museum. | The retired space shuttle Endeavour rolled into its retirement home at a museum early on Sunday, in the conclusion of a slow-motion parade through the narrow streets of Los Angeles. | true | Science News | Endeavour arrived at about 10:45 a.m. at Exposition Park, the site of the California Science Center where the shuttle will go on permanent display on October 30 inside a pavilion “I’m so glad to be living to see this,” said Los Angeles native Shirley Green, 78, who was on hand, wearing an American flag scarf, to watch... |
36285 | Fishing nets make up half the plastic in the ocean. | Is the Straw Ban Misguided Because Half the Ocean’s Plastic Is From Fishing? | mixture | Fact Checks, Viral Content | In July 2019 a Facebook user shared the following comic about plastic nets and ocean pollution:In four panels depicting a person with a plastic straw and a seal trapped in a plastic net, it read:Person: I NEED TO SAVE THE OCEAN FROM ALL THE PLASTIC!Seal: YES, THE NETS!Person: THIS STRAW IS SO EVIL!Seal: NO, THE NETS!FI... |
10142 | No Cure For Morning Sickness Just Yet | We wish more stories focused their coverage on the lack of good evidence supporting commonly used medical treatments, as this NPR story about remedies for morning sickness did. We also appreciate this story’s decision to cover a Cochrane Library systematic review–among the most authoritative evaluations of medical evid... | true | "There wasn’t any discussion of costs of these treatments. The point of the story was tell readers that these treatments couldn’t be recommended on the basis of medical evidence. Even in an overview of available treatments, some cost information is important for readers, especially given the fact that regular acupunctu... | |
5077 | Committees propose school safety focus with $10M fund. | County officials in Colorado heard proposals from two committees tasked with planning how to use $10 million for school safety. | true | Health, School safety, Mental health, Colorado | The Denver Post reported Tuesday that the Douglas County committees for physical security and mental health are recommending more than a dozen ideas for standardizing safety plans and better supporting students dealing with mental illness. The committees say the county could fund programs on social-emotional learning, ... |
23944 | The fact that Rick Scott is running for governor as a 'reformer' would be funny if it wasn't so outrageous. This is a man who barely escaped imprisonment. | Rick Scott, former health care CEO, barely escaped prison, GOP opponent claims | false | Candidate Biography, Health Care, Florida, Bill McCollum, | "After virtually ignoring millionaire Rick Scott and his unconventional campaign for governor, Attorney General Bill McCollum launched a full attack on May 18, 2010, criticizing Scott for his role as a former CEO of a national hospital chain that bilked state and federal health care programs.Scott, 57, has been running... |
227 | In drought-hit Delhi, the haves get limitless water, the poor fight for every drop. | In this teeming capital city of more than 20 million people, a worsening drought is amplifying the vast inequality between India’s rich and poor. | true | Environment | The politicians, civil servants and corporate lobbyists who live in substantial houses and apartments in central Delhi pay very little to get limitless supplies of piped water – whether for their bathrooms, kitchens or to wash the car, dog, or spray a manicured lawn. They can do all that for as little as $10-$15 a mont... |
34308 | Bones found on the remote Pacific Island of Nikumaroro belong to famed aviator Amelia Earhart. | Therefore, we rank the claim as unproven. We don’t expect that to change any time soon, either. | unproven | History, amelia earhart, archeology, bones | In the early morning hours of 2 July 1937, Amelia Earhart departed from Papua New Guinea’s Lae Airfield on a course for a tiny mound in the Pacific Ocean named Howland Island. Waiting for them in deeper waters nearby was a United States Coast Guard Cutter named the Itasca, which was there to provide navigational suppor... |
3832 | Impeachment dominates, but much other work awaits Congress. | Impeachment may have leapfrogged to the top of the national agenda, but members of Congress still have their day jobs as legislators, and they’re returning to Washington this coming week with mixed hopes of success. | true | Global trade, AP Top News, General News, Politics, Impeachments, Business, Prescription drugs, Nancy Pelosi, Trump impeachment inquiry, Trade agreements, Donald Trump | It’s a volatile, difficult-to-predict time in Washington as lawmakers end a two-week break. The notion that President Donald Trump could do much significant dealmaking with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, his impeachment antagonist, could be fanciful, given Trump’s impulsiveness and demands for border wall money. An import... |
11481 | Brain’s Electrical Activity May Help Spot Infants at High Risk for Autism | This story, though, did a particularly poor job in large part because it allowed the lead author of the study to promote the idea that this might lead to a scan to be used on all children. The story did this despite the fact that it did very little to evaluate the quality of the evidence behind the study, presented no ... | false | Autism,HealthDay | By saying that EEGs are “relatively inexpensive, painless and safe” the story skirts the entire issue of screening costs both at the individual level and at the population level. Even basic genetic screenings for couples considering having children are not covered by many insurance plans unless the couple is in a very ... |
34135 | Health officials warned that a new STD superbug could be deadlier than AIDS. | "What's true: Health officials are working on ways to treat antibiotic-resistant strains of gonorrhea. What's false: The claim that there is an ""STD Superbug"" that is deadlier than AIDS can be traced back to a single quote from a 2013 article and has proved to be a bit of an overstatement." | mixture | Medical | In November 2019, the website MyColumbusPower published an article claiming that a “new STD superbug” had the capacity to kill people within days and that health officials were worried that the incoming epidemic would be worse than AIDS: STD Superbug May Be Deadlier Than AIDS; Kills Within Days There is a new STD super... |
34159 | "Fart rape"" is an authentic feminist concept earnestly promoted by certain activists at a 2013 conference in Toronto, Canada." | Taking all these facts into account, it is clear that “fart rape” is not an authentic feminist principle, presented or promoted by Ingle, Guthrie, or other feminist activists during an event at the University of Toronto in 2013. Rather, a website with a demonstrable anti-feminist agenda invented the concept and falsely... | false | Junk News | In November 2019, we received multiple inquiries from readers about the concept of “fart rape,” which is widely purported to be an authentic feminist principle. The concept, such as it is, has existed since 2013, and it’s not clear what prompted the wave of inquiries in late 2019 about the authenticity of several memes... |
34377 | In 2012, Usher paid $1.1 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman claiming he had knowingly infected her with herpes. | What's undetermined: Almost everything — but in particular, whether Usher has ever been sued by women claiming he knowingly infected them with herpes. | unproven | Entertainment, Entertainment, radar online, sex scandal | On 19 July 2017, entertainment and gossip web site Radar Online reported that musician and singer Usher had paid $1.1 million to a woman who had sued him, accusing him of knowingly infecting her with herpes: An exclusive RadarOnline.com probe has blown the lid off the explosive revelation that a high-profile A-lister ... |
18206 | "Jason Conger Says ""the mandate is 71 times that a child’s body will be injected with a disease"" for immunizations." | Are Oregon children subjected to 71 immunization shots, each? | false | Oregon, Children, Public Health, Jason Conger, | "The Oregon Legislature just made it harder for parents to exempt children from vaccinations required for school. This does not sit well with people -- including some lawmakers -- who say parents know best when or if their children should receive shots to protect them from whooping cough and measles. Rep. Jason Conger,... |
8989 | BCG vaccine leads to long-term blood sugar improvement in type 1 diabetes patients | This release summarizes a phase I clinical trial that looks at the effect of bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine on hemoglobin levels (HbA1c) in 52 adults with type I diabetes and 230 people who received no treatment but contributed blood samples. HbA1c is a measure of average blood sugar levels over the preceding t... | mixture | bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine,Massachusetts General Hospital,Type 1 diabetes treatment | The cost of the bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine is not mentioned. Although the wholesale price is usually less than $1 US dollar, the cost in the United States usually runs between $100 to $200. The news release mentions only relative, not absolute numbers when describing the results in just 52 type 1 patients: ... |
8548 | Caffeinated conservation: Colombian farmers switch coca for coffee to protect wildlife. | In a clearing around his modest smallholding, farmer Arcadio Barajas stands before a sea of coffee plants, cloaked in the shadow cast by a wall of verdant forest that covers the San Lucas mountains of northern Colombia. | true | Environment | The San Lucas range is one of the most unexplored places in this South American nation, which is the world’s second most biodiverse country after neighboring Brazil. From its towering Andean peaks to its tropical islands and dense Amazon rainforest, Colombia is home to over 50,000 recorded species of animals and plants... |
37756 | "Ghislaine Maxwell looked similar to Madeleine McCann's ""female abductor." | A viral Facebook post compares a sketch of “Madeleine McCann’s female abductor” with Epstein’s alleged co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, but the claim lacks a significant amount of context. The sketch in question was indeed associated with the McCann abduction, but depicts a woman sought for questioning after a potenti... | mixture | Disinformation, Fact Checks | On July 3 2020, just after British socialite Ghislane Maxwell was arrested, the Facebook page “NightMerica Podcast” shared the following post, comparing her photograph with a purported sketch of “Madeleine McCann’s female abductor”:On the left of the image was a sketch of a woman with a dark, short haircut. On the righ... |
29478 | The FDA said Frosted Flakes are healthier than avocados. | "What's true: Food and Drug Administration guidelines could be construed to suggest that sugary cereals are ""healthier"" than avocados, almonds, or salmon. What's false: The FDA never specifically compared avocados to Frosted Flakes or recommended one over the other." | false | Food, avocados, FDA, food warnings | On 9 August 2016, the web site True Activist published an article suggesting that the influence of “Big Food” led the Food and Drug Administration to categorize Frosted Flakes over avocados as a “healthy” food: According To The FDA, Frosted Flakes Are “Healthier” Than Avocados The Food and Drug Administration is an org... |
38177 | U.S. Virgin Islands Governor Kenneth E. Mapp signed an order allowing the National Guard to seize weapons and ammo from citizens as Hurricane Irma bore down on the island in early September 2017. | U.S. Virgin Islands Governor Signs Order to Seize Guns Ahead of Hurricane Irma | true | Hurricanes, Natural Disasters | The governor of the U.S. Virgin Island signed an order allowing the National Guard to seize guns, ammo and explosive if needed in Hurricane Irma disaster recovery efforts — but the governor later said the emergency order had been misconstrued and he simply meant to authorize the National Guard to “procure” weapons and ... |
28492 | We fact-check a series of claims about the damage caused by Colorado's legalization of recreational cannabis. | Interestingly, the rate of teen usage has gone down in Colorado since 2012-2013, when recreational use was legalized in the state. Then,11.16 percent of 12-17 year-olds said they had tried marijuana that month, and 18.76 percent that year. | mixture | Medical, cannabis, colorado, marijuana | When Colorado voters passed Amendment 64 on Election Day 2012, the state joined Washington in becoming one of the first in the country to legalize the personal, recreational use of cannabis. Since then, observers and activists on every side of the wider drug-legalization debate have closely monitored the effects and co... |
33482 | A recent study disproved a link between sun exposure and skin cancer. | Some dubious websites published misleading summaries of a single study's findings. | false | Medical, Medical Myths | In May 2014 the popular press reported on an article that had recently been published in the Journal of Internal Medicine entitled “Avoidance of sun exposure is a risk factor for all-cause mortality.” The common reporting on that article generally mentioned that a study conducted by Swedish researchers had found that ... |
9245 | Even partial steroid treatment can benefit extremely preterm infants, NIH study suggests | This news release by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) covers research findings on antenatal steroid (ANS) treatment in pregnant women expecting preterm delivery, as published in JAMA Pediatrics. Although women likely to deliver before 34 weeks are routinely given steroid treatment to reduce the chance of complic... | mixture | antenatal steroid treatment,NIH,preterm infants | The two antenatal steroids (ANS) used in this study included betamethasone and dexamethasone, but their costs were never mentioned. A complete course of ANS was defined as 2 intramuscular doses of betamethasone administered 24 hours apart or 4 doses of dexamethasone administered 12 hours apart. According to drugs.com, ... |
5547 | Dutch Supreme Court asked to clarify euthanasia case. | Prosecutors have asked the Netherlands’ Supreme Court to clarify legal matters in a landmark euthanasia case, saying Thursday they want to lay down unambiguous jurisprudence for the future. | true | Netherlands, Supreme courts, International News, General News, Legislation, Health, The Hague, Courts, Euthanasia, Dementia, Europe | The Public Prosecution Service said by instituting “cassation in the interest of the law” proceedings they aim to clarify how doctors deal with euthanasia on “incapacitated patients” without subjecting a doctor acquitted at a trial to a new legal battle. Prosecutors said in a statement they want “legal certainty to be ... |
1423 | British nurse who recovered from Ebola back in hospital. | A Scottish nurse, who recovered from Ebola but then suffered life-threatening complications from the virus persisting in her brain, has been admitted to hospital for a third time, officials said on Tuesday. | true | Health News | Pauline Cafferkey contracted Ebola in December 2014 when she was working in a treatment facility in Sierra Leone at the height of an epidemic of the disease which swept through three countries in West Africa. Cafferkey was being transferred on Tuesday from the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow to the Royal... |
18883 | In 2010, 2,694 young people were killed by gunfire. 1,773 were victims of homicide; 67 were elementary school-age children. | College presidents weigh in on gun deaths of young people | true | Georgia, Children, Guns, College presidents, | "Five days after shootings in Newtown, Conn., left 28 people dead -- including 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary -- leaders at two of Georgia’s higher education institutions weighed in on the gun safety debate. Leaders of Oglethorpe University and Agnes Scott College -- both are in DeKalb County -- released an open... |
9776 | A blood test for pancreatic cancer may re-stack the odds in patients' favor | This article describes the discovery of a molecule that points to the presence of glypican-1, a protein that is expressed in pancreatic and breast cancer, and how the protein might serve as a marker for earlier diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. It presents a clear overview of the method researchers used to detect the pro... | mixture | pancreatic cancer | The story doesn’t mention costs of the screening tool, should one be developed. Costs for screening tests vary widely. The description of benefits could have been stronger. The article states that researchers have found a way to identify the presence of a protein that indicates pancreatic cancer “with perfect accuracy ... |
10912 | Surgical probe seeks out where cancer ends and healthy tissue begins | The experimental light probe. Credit University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.This news release describes the results of a small clinical “proof of concept” trial designed to blind-test the reliability and accuracy (i.e. sensitivity and specificity) of a hand-held light-only probe that surgeons might use to accuratel... | true | Breast cancer,Cancer,medical devices,University news release | Although the study was not designed to assess relative costs of gold standard histology and OCT. the release would have helped both the news value of the study and the reader’s understanding of technological innovation if it had included some estimate of costs associated with use of the device. Operating room time is i... |
7240 | Michigan governor signs overhaul to cut high auto premiums. | Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday signed a “historic” overhaul of Michigan’s car insurance system that, beginning in 13 months, will let drivers choose their medical coverage instead of them being required to buy unlimited benefits. | true | Legislature, Auto insurance, Health, General News, Gretchen Whitmer, Detroit, Bills, Michigan | Her signature, delivered at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference, capped an intense three-week period in which the Republican-led Legislature proposed bills, the Democratic governor threatened a veto and a compromise was reached. Starting in July 2020, motorists will be able to pick among levels of... |
35052 | The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the United States and South Korea on the same day. | While the Trump administration did take action to combat the spread of COVID-19 shortly after the first patient was diagnosed in the U.S., the country did not, as South Korea did, immediately ramp up diagnostic testing. According to Reuters, South Korea conducted nearly 300,000 tests within two months of diagnosing the... | true | Medical | In March 2020, as the daily rate of new cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease was increasing in the United States and decreasing in South Korea, a message started to circulate on social media claiming that these two countries had seen their first confirmed cases of infection by the novel coronavirus on the same day... |
6529 | New treatment gives hope to children with resistant leukemia. | As a doctor injected cloudy fluid into Makena Eighmy’s intravenous line, it looked like the 13-year-old animal lover from near Watertown was getting a standard procedure for her cancer. | true | Madison, Wisconsin, Cancer, Health, Gene therapy, Leukemia, Watertown, Animals, Chemotherapy, United States | But the infusion this month at UW Health’s American Family Children’s Hospital was far from routine. It was a $475,000 treatment, the first gene therapy approved in the United States, a “living drug” made by shipping Makena’s T cells to a lab in New Jersey. There, the immune cells were genetically modified to better re... |
15887 | 200,000 students attempt suicide every year on college campuses. | "Sanfilippo said ""200,000 students attempt suicide every year on college campuses."" That statistic is extrapolated from the American College Health Association’s most recent annual survey, which found that 1.2 percent of college and university students had attempted suicide within the past year. There are approximate... | mixture | Education, Health Care, Public Health, Florida, Guns, Marjorie Sanfilippo, | "A shooting incident at Florida State University late last year has re-opened a debate in the Florida Legislature about whether to allow guns on college campuses. Gunman Myron May, a former FSU student, wounded two students and a library employee before he was killed by police on Nov. 20, 2014. According to the Nationa... |
37934 | "A controversy over Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's WAP sidesteps the fact that classical composer Mozart penned a song called ""Lick My Ass." | Amidst controversy over Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” (or “wet ass pussy”), a viral tweet asserted Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart “wrote a song” for which the title translated to “Lick My Ass.” Although Mozart’s papers and unpublished works are believed to have been sanitized in the immediate aftermath of his death ... | true | Fact Checks, Viral Content | "In August 2020 a Facebook screenshot of a tweet contrasted a moral panic over Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” with a claim that classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote a song called “Lick My Ass”:A screenshot showed the following tweet:people are clutching their pearls over WAP like Mozart didn't writ... |
25868 | Michael Schraa Says wearing masks has been “proven ineffective.” | A growing body of evidence shows that wearing a mask, even a cloth mask, can reduce transmission of COVID-19 Schraa shared links to unreputable sources that found masks ineffective, while leading medical journals, federal and world health officials, research universities and President Donald Trump have said masks do... | false | Public Health, Wisconsin, Coronavirus, Michael Schraa, | "As coronavirus cases climb in Wisconsin, more and more face mask policies have been put into effect. Some apply to specific settings, such as stores or government-owned buildings, others more universally, such as in Dane County and the cities of Milwaukee and Green Bay. Indeed, on July 30, 2020, Gov. Tony Evers issued... |
24586 | "Pregnant women trying to buy health insurance on their own are barred from maternity coverage because they have a ""pre-existing condition." | AMA president says pregnant women are barred from buying individual health policies | true | National, Health Care, J. James Rohack, | "You've probably heard of ""pre-existing conditions,"" which provide an escape clause for health insurance companies. If you have a pre-existing condition, an insurance company typically won't pay for treatment. J. James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association, cited them when he was asked during an appea... |
4968 | Big study casts doubt on need for many heart procedures. | People with severe but stable heart disease from clogged arteries may have less chest pain if they get a procedure to improve blood flow rather than just giving medicines a chance to help, but it won’t cut their risk of having a heart attack or dying over the following few years, a big federally funded study found. | true | Heart disease, AP Top News, Health, General News, Philadelphia, Heart attack, U.S. News | The results challenge medical dogma and call into question some of the most common practices in heart care. They are the strongest evidence yet that tens of thousands of costly stent procedures and bypass operations each year are unnecessary or premature for people with stable disease. That’s a different situation than... |
9136 | Prebiotics reduce body fat in overweight children | This news release from the American Gastroenterological Association describes results of a clinical trial in 42 children with overweight or obesity and claims that a prebiotic powder that alters gut microbes can reduce body fat. It inappropriately claims that weight changes seen after four months will continue on the s... | false | American Gastroenterological Association,childhood obesity,prebiotics | The release notes only that prebiotic supplements are “inexpensive.” A search of Amazon reveals a number of products with the same ingredients, in a wide range of costs. To show a benefit, the release should have provided actual weight gain in each group, not the annual projected weight gain based on a 16-week study. A... |
35327 | "On May 4, 2020, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she wants the federal government's next economic relief bill during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic to establish ""guaranteed minimum incomes"" for ""illegal aliens." | "What's true: In spring 2020, Pelosi said she wanted federal leaders to consider ""guaranteed incomes"" to help Americans survive the COVID-19 economic crisis. One of the references was during a call with journalists to discuss ways for the federal government to boost aid for foreign-born people without Social Security... | false | Politics, COVID-19 | On May 4, 2020 — as federal leaders debated how to respond to an unprecedented interruption to the U.S. economy due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic — a conservative provocateur tweeted that U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she wanted the country’s next economic relief package to establish “guaranteed minimum i... |
41007 | Cleveland Clinic developed a Covid-19 test that gives results in hours, not days. | This is incorrect. The clinic announced that it is able to speed up Covid-19 testing after developing the ability to test on-site, but it had not developed a new test. | true | online | Doctors in India have been successful in treating coronavirus with a combination of drugs (Lopinavir, Retonovir, Oseltamivir along with Chlorphenamine) and are going to suggest the same medicine globally. India’s ministry of health has advised that the anti-HIV drugs, Lopinavir and Retonovir, are used in some groups of... |
7140 | Testing wearable sensors as ‘check engine’ light for health. | A next step for smart watches and fitness trackers? Wearable gadgets gave a Stanford University professor an early warning that he was getting sick before he ever felt any symptoms of Lyme disease. | true | Technology, Health, AP Top News, Science, Stanford University | Geneticist Michael Snyder never had Lyme’s characteristic bulls-eye rash. But a smart watch and other sensors charted changes in Snyder’s heart rate and oxygen levels during a family vacation. Eventually a fever struck that led to his diagnosis. Say “wearables,” and step-counting fitness trackers spring to mind. It’s n... |
2760 | FDA proposes rule to prevent food contamination during transport. | Food transportation companies will be required to adhere to certain sanitation standards to prevent food from becoming contaminated during transit under a new rule proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. | true | Health News | The rule would require shippers and carriers to properly refrigerate food, clean vehicles between loads and protect food during transportation. The rule is the seventh and final plank of the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, a sweeping initiative designed to reduce food-borne illnesses by giving the FDA greater power... |
11452 | Cognitive behavior therapy can help overcome fear of the dentist | The release focuses on a paper published in the British Dental Journal that evaluated the effect of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) on patients with dental phobia or related fears concerning dentistry. The release reports that CBT allowed many patients with dental phobia to receive dental care without relying on s... | mixture | Academic medical center news release,mental health | The release does not address cost at all. This is not entirely surprising, since the study was done in the United Kingdom, which has a universal health care system. However, the journal article on which the release is based does address cost, at least in terms of the cost to the health care system itself. The article s... |
25726 | “The fact is that in terms of the risk to schoolkids, this is lower risk than seasonal influenza.” | COVID-related rates of hospitalization and death for children are lower than those of seasonal influenza. The risk of complications for healthy children is also higher for flu than for COVID-19, but infants and children with underlying medical conditions are at increased risk for both flu and COVID-19. Though the numbe... | true | Florida, Health Check, Coronavirus, Ron DeSantis, | "Even as his state is a hotbed for COVID-19, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been pushing schools to reopen so parents have the choice of sending children back to the classroom or keeping them home to learn virtually. The Republican governor has said children without any underlying health conditions would benefit from in... |
4420 | Utah biologists work to save boreal toads from extinction. | Biologists in Utah are working to save native boreal toads from extinction in the face of the destruction of its habitat by humans and competition from invasive species like bullfrogs. | true | Frogs, Utah, Amphibians, Environment, Science, Invasive species, Ogden | Boreal toads are tough to track. They blend in well with their environment, they’re mostly active at night and they’re not vocal. The only sound they make is a little squeak males use to keep other males away, the Standard-Examiner reports (http://bit.ly/2w9ECNj ). That makes it hard for biologists to pin down how many... |
26715 | Blogger Says Nancy Pelosi delayed coronavirus funding so “Dems could campaign on it.” | President Donald Trump signed an $8.3 billion emergency spending bill to address the coronavirus on March 6. The bill was held up as both Republicans and Democrats negotiated over controlling the cost of vaccines and treatments. There is no evidence House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delayed the bill solely to run political ad... | false | Congress, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Bloggers, | "On March 6, 2020, President Donald Trump signed an $8.3 billion spending package to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus. The package sailed through the House and Senate with bipartisan support, but not without some partisan sniping. Some stories — like this one — are going around claiming Democratic House Speak... |
28980 | Fisherman on Réunion Island employ live dogs as bait for shark-fishing. | Are fisherman on Réunion Island employing live dogs as bait for shark-fishing? | mixture | Critter Country, Crusader Habit, dogs, sharks | Examples: [Hepburn, 2005] Stray dogs are being skewered on hooks and dragged behind boats as live shark bait. The cruel practice takes place on French-controlled Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, where Prince William spent two holidays. A six-month-old labrador pup was recently found ALIVE with a huge double hook thr... |
4606 | Health paradox: New US diabetes cases fall as obesity rises. | The number of new diabetes cases among U.S. adults keeps falling, even as obesity rates climb, and health officials aren’t sure why. | true | AP Top News, Health, North America, Obesity, U.S. News, Diabetes | New federal data released Tuesday found the number of new diabetes diagnoses fell to about 1.3 million in 2017, down from 1.7 million in 2009. Earlier research had spotted a decline, and the new report shows it’s been going on for close to a decade. But health officials are not celebrating. “The bottom line is we don’t... |
7081 | Brazilian scientists ID common mosquito as a Zika source. | Brazilian researchers said Thursday that they have found that another species of mosquito is able to transmit the Zika virus to humans. | true | Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Health, Latin America, Zika virus, Science, Recife | Fiocruz institute said that additional studies will be needed to determine what role the widespread Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito has played in the Zika epidemic. The research was done at Recife, a city in the Zika epicenter of northeastern Brazil where the Culex is 20 times more common than the Aedes aegypti mosquit... |
2736 | New China bird flu a reminder of mutant virus risk. | The death of a woman in China from a strain of bird flu previously unknown in humans is a reminder of the ever-present potential pandemic threat from mutating animal viruses, scientists said on Wednesday. | true | Health News | The new strain, called H10N8, has so far infected only two people - a fatal case in a 73-year-old and another in a woman who is critically ill in hospital. But the fact it has jumped from birds to humans is an important warning, they said. “We should always be worried when viruses cross the species barrier from birds o... |
31517 | A stuntman was killed during the filming of the chariot race scene in the 1959 version of 'Ben-Hur' and that his death was left in the final cut. | Rumor holds that a stuntman was killed during the filming of the chariot race scene in the 1959 version of 'Ben-Hur,' and that his death was left in the movie's final cut. | false | Entertainment, ben-hur, Films, Movies | It is frequently claimed that a stuntman was killed during the filming of the chariot scene in the 1959 epic Ben-Hur (from MGM, directed by William Wyler). Versions of the rumor include Wyler’s leaving the fatal accident in the final cut (against the wishes of the stuntman’s widow), yet no published discussions of the... |
22445 | Carol Alvarado Says women who need a sonogram in the eighth to 10th week of pregnancy have to get a transvaginal sonogram. | State Rep. Carol Alvarado says women who are eight to 10 weeks pregnant and need a sonogram require a transvaginal one | true | Abortion, Health Care, Women, Texas, Carol Alvarado, | "In a Texas House debate March 2, Democratic state Rep. Carol Alvarado of Houston pressed the author of a proposal requiring women seeking an abortion to get a sonogram on whether he was aware that a sonogram is intrusive early in a woman’s pregnancy. ""There are two different kinds of sonograms,"" she said. ""The abdo... |
10757 | Study finds steroids don’t prevent asthma | This article reported on the results of two recent studies that found that inhaled corticosteroid treatment of infants or pre-school aged children did not have any affect on future asthma severity. It did a good job of informing readers of this observation and was careful to include mention of drug company funding of t... | mixture | Although both drugs mentioned in this article are currently available as prescription medications, the article did not include estimates for their cost. This article did a good job of pointing out that treatment of either pre-school aged children or one-month old infants with symptoms of asthma did not result in any be... | |
31129 | The FBI has warned all Americans to be cautious of produce at grocery stores that might have been sprayed with poison. | What's true: In May 2016, the FBI investigated reports of a man who had possibly contaminated food in a Michigan market. What's false: The FBI has did not issue a general warning to Americans about possibly poisoned produce in grocery stores. | false | Food, fbi, Food Contamination, food warnings | On 18 July 2016 the web site Q Political published an article whose alarming headline (“FBI Issues Horrifying Warning to Frequent Grocery Shoppers”) and opening paragraphs suggested that federal investigators had issued a general warning to Americans about the United States’ food supply: The FBI issued a horrifying war... |
8026 | 'Just one case': fears coronavirus may spread like wildfire in world's refugee camps. | In the world’s largest refugee settlement in Bangladesh, filmmaker Mohammed Arafat has been making public safety videos to warn about the dangers of coronavirus. | true | Health News | The 25-year-old is worried that the disease will devastate the vast, crowded camps that house more than one million Rohingya, members of a mostly Muslim minority who fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar. “We are living in tiny, crowded shelters, we are sharing toilets,” he told Reuters. “It is very difficult to ... |
26015 | Nurses submitting coronavirus tests say they all are coming back positive. | We could find no evidence that labs are deliberately manipulating COVID-19 test results to create false-positives. Similarly unproven claims have been circulating for weeks and echo months-old conspiracy theories. Jeffrey Sebelia, the source of the Facebook post, said it was a “word-of-mouth story” from his mom. He had... | false | Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts, | "What do Elon Musk and the winner of ""Project Runway"" Season 3 have in common? They’ve both shared unproven claims about -positive coronavirus test results. Since states started reopening in May, COVID-19 cases have increased in the United States. A June 27 post claims that’s because the labs that process coronavirus... |
25936 | Opening the schools “is a local determination, but it’s not a state determination.” | Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency in March, and subsequently closed schools by executive order. During a state of emergency, the state holds power over local entities, such as school districts. | false | Education, New York, Coronavirus, Tom Reed, | "Rep. Tom Reed weighed into the debate over how to begin the new school year amid the Covid-19 pandemic. It should be up to local authorities - not the state - to establish their re-opening plans, Reed said. ""I caught the governor’s comment yesterday that ‘opening the schools is not the president’s choice,’"" Reed sai... |
41824 | The races in Florida for Senate and governor were “won” on election night by the Republicans. | With votes continuing to be counted in very close elections in Florida, Georgia and Arizona, President Donald Trump and some other Republicans have been crying foul, making false and misleading claims of supposed election fraud perpetrated by Democrats in an attempt to “steal” the elections. | false | absentee ballots, provisional ballots, voter fraud, voting, | With votes continuing to be counted in very close elections in Florida, Georgia and Arizona, President Donald Trump and some other Republicans have been crying foul, making false and misleading claims of supposed election fraud perpetrated by Democrats in an attempt to “steal” the elections.There is no evidence of an o... |
33809 | A government memo regulating the sale of cabbages ran close to 27,000 words. | Sightings: A version of the legend came up during an episode of television’s West Wing (“100,000 Airplanes,” original air date 16 January 2002). | false | Legal Affairs, Documentary Evidence | The legend of the wordy government memo regulating the sale of cabbage is often held up as a telling illustration of needless verbosity and a prime example of the sort of pointless government spending everyone is in favor of seeing cut from the bone: Pythagorean theorem: 24 words The Lord’s Prayer: 66 words Archimedes... |
22240 | Hackers broke into Virginia's prescription-drug database (and) ... obtained more than 8.2 million patient records and a total of nearly 36 million prescriptions. | Rick Scott cites Virginia drug database failure in congressional testimony | true | Drugs, Florida, Rick Scott, | "Florida Gov. Rick Scott appeared before Congress on April 14, 2011, to testify about the state's problem fighting prescription drug abuse and the proliferation of so-called ""pill mills."" One way Florida is hoping to combat the over-prescribing of pain medications like oxycodone, Scott said, is by implementing a stat... |
29995 | Kelly Clarkson was fired from 'The Voice' in December 2018. | You can read more about these celebrity endorsement scams here. | false | Fraud & Scams | On 20 December 2018, a counterfeit website posing as that of US Weekly published an article reporting that singer Kelly Clarkson had been fired from the television show The Voice. This website (gainestylist.com) used the same color scheme as US Weekly and put the celebrity magazine’s logo in their header in order to de... |
8792 | Vytorin not linked to cancer in other trials: doctor. | The Vytorin cholesterol fighter sold by Merck & Co and Schering-Plough has not been linked to cancer or cancer deaths in two large ongoing studies of the medicine, an epidemiologist said on Monday during a medical meeting in London. | true | Health News | “There is no overall credible evidence of an increase in cancer” from the two big studies, Sir Richard Peto, professor of medical statistics and epidemiology at the University of Oxford, said at a meeting where results of an unrelated smaller Vytorin trial suggested a possible cancer risk with Vytorin. Peto said the tw... |
9642 | Eat This Carb and You Won’t Gain Weight | The story describes a single small study of 70 women followed for three hours after a meal containing “resistant starch” and whey protein. We aren’t given any numbers, but the story says that women who received resistant starches and whey protein burned more calories than women fed pancakes without that combination, po... | mixture | diet studies,nutrition,resistant starches,weight loss | The story is dealing with low-cost, widely available foods, so we’ll rate this N/A. The story does not use quantified benefits. One opportunity where that could have been added is in this section: “Arciero and his team monitored the women after each meal for three hours and used a device to see how many calories they b... |
7569 | Virgin Galactic completes first glide flight in New Mexico. | Virgin Galactic’s spaceship VSS Unity landed in the New Mexico desert on Friday, marking its first glide flight from Spaceport America as the company moves toward commercial operations. | true | Virus Outbreak, Technology, General News, Science, Travel, New Mexico, U.S. News | The company announced the flight on social media and shared photos of the craft on the runway and members of the crew stationed far apart around the special carrier plane that ferries the smaller spaceship to high altitude. After years of development and testing at Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, California, Virgin ... |
2586 | One in three open to traveling for medical treatment, poll finds. | Looking for an affordable face lift without breaking the bank? Want to combine a tummy tuck with two weeks in the sun? You’re not alone. | true | Health News | Nearly a third of people surveyed around the world say they are open to the idea of medical tourism - traveling abroad to enjoy cheaper medical or dental treatment, according to a new Ipsos poll of 18,731 adults in 24 countries. Indeed, 18 percent said they would definitely consider it. “The concept of medical tourism ... |
26348 | “So 2 doctors from Bakersfield discover that coronavirus mortality rate is 0.03%. 13x less deadly than what was previously thought! Their analysis has since been banned from YouTube.” | Two doctors from Bakersfield, California, called for an end to statewide shutdowns and said testing data showed the infection fatality rate in California to be 0.03%. Experts said their calculations were faulty because the data they used to extrapolate to the entire state was “not representative of the state of Califor... | false | Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, California, Coronavirus, Facebook posts, | "A call from two California doctors to end statewide shutdowns gained national attention in April, and the eye-popping claims they made about COVID-19’s death rate — while widely disputed by public health experts — are still spreading on Facebook. ""So 2 doctors from Bakersfield discover that coronavirus mortality rate... |
9597 | Treating PTSD With Virtual Reality Therapy: A Way to Heal Trauma | This story from ABC News looks at the use of virtual reality (VR) technologies to help treat patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Unfortunately the information is relayed in a cursory and anecdotal way: The story includes the viewpoint of only one patient and the patient’s psychologist. The st... | false | ptsd | The story does not address cost. This is particularly problematic, given that cost is a particularly timely issue for the field of virtual reality treatment of PTSD. A Tech Insider story published earlier this year paid particular attention to the recent rise of virtual reality (VR) technology, and the corresponding de... |
41643 | CCGs increased their spending on mental health by 6.3% last year while their overall funding increased by 3.7%. | This is the increase in spending by CCGs on mental health compared to their overall core services budget allocation. The figures don’t account for inflation. Factoring that in, mental health spending went up by 3.9% over that time and overall CCG budgets went up by 1.5%. | unproven | health | Spending on mental health went up by £575 million last year. This refers to the increase in spending by Clinical Commissioning Groups, but doesn’t account for inflation. Factoring that in the increase was around £368 million. It’s not a complete picture of mental health spending because other money is spent by the NHS ... |
11200 | Fighting Prostate Cancer: Experimental Drug Helps Shrink Prostate Tumors | "This is a case study in how news is not made, and then is suddenly made. Earlier this month at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, Mayo Clinic researchers presented a paper on an experimental drug therapy with an immunotherapeutic agent called MDX-010 or ipilimumab used in combination with standardized... | mixture | "Costs weren’t described but we can understand why with such an early stage of research. This is where it gets tricky. The abstract of this work presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting earlier this month described 85 men in the trial – of whom 5 showed ""robust treatment response"" of whom 2 show... |
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