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Pension funds and insurers pledge climate action at U.N. summit.
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Insurers and pension funds managing $2.3 trillion pledged on Monday to shift their portfolios away from carbon-heavy industries in the hope of triggering snowballing climate commitments from other big investors.
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true
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Environment
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German insurer Allianz, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), and Swedish pension fund Alecta were among the founders of the new “Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance” launched at a United Nations climate summit. “Mitigating climate change is the challenge of our lifetime. Politics, business and societies across the globe need to act as one to rapidly reduce climate emissions,” Oliver Baete, chief executive of Allianz, said in a statement. As accelerating climate impacts become increasingly apparent via heatwaves, wildfires and receding coastlines, the financial sector is under growing pressure from activists, shareholders and regulators to respond. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who organized Monday’s summit to try to boost stalling international efforts to control emissions, sees insurers and pensions funds as a crucial lever to transition the global economy off fossil fuels. These types of companies — called “asset owners” because they are the principal holders of retirement savings, or are investing customers’ insurance premiums — represent some of the world’s largest pools of capital. Members of the new grouping pledged to align their portfolios with a goal enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat global warming to limit the increase in average temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The importance of this target was underscored late last year when a report by the U.N.-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change spelled out the catastrophic consequences for people and nature if the world is allowed to get much hotter. Under current emissions pledges by governments, the Earth is on track for well over 3 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century — an outcome that scientists say could put the survival of modern industrial societies at risk. “CalPERS recognizes that climate change poses urgent and systemic risk given our responsibility to protect our members’ financial assets and provide the long-term returns that can pay pensions for this and coming generations,” said Marcie Frost, chief executive of CalPERS. The pension funds and insurers said they would rebalance their portfolios to ensure their investments were carbon neutral by 2050, with intermediate targets set for 2025, 2030 and 2040. They also pledged to make regular public progress reports. The nucleus of founding members hope they will influence an ever-growing proportion of the world’s other big pension funds and insurers to push high-carbon companies towards more sustainable economic activities. But members of the new grouping said they might also have to divest from heavily-polluting industries as a last resort if they proved unwilling to change their business models so they no longer pose a danger to the stability of the climate. Michael Sabia, the chief executive of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), one of Canada’s biggest pension funds, said there could be huge opportunities for investors willing to finance a fast transition to clean energy. “There’s a lot of people who don’t get it, but I do think it’s moving – the issue is whether it’s moving fast enough,” Sabia told Reuters. “It’s speed that matters here.” The new coalition was organized by groups including the Geneva-based United Nations Environment Finance Initiative and Mission2020, a network to spur faster climate action led by Christiana Figueres, a former U.N. climate chief. Among the other founding members are PensionDanmark, Swedish pension manager AMF, Nordea Life & Pension, Norwegian insurer Storebrand (STB.OL), and Swiss RE (SRENH.S).
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8336
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Amazon testing disinfectant fog at New York warehouse after coronavirus protests.
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Amazon.com Inc is testing the use of disinfectant fog at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York starting on Tuesday, the company told Reuters, following worker protests over the risk of coronavirus infection at the site.
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true
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Health News
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The measure shows how the world’s largest online retailer is aiming to increase safety cleaning without closing facilities essential to its operation, as some workers and elected officials have demanded. Amazon said it is trying out disinfectant fog as used by airlines and hospitals to further sanitize its facilities. The pilot program follows an announcement last week that the company would check workers’ temperature and make masks available at all U.S. and European sites in its operations network. “We continue to explore even more preventative measures to support the health and safety of employees, who are providing a critical service in our communities,” Amazon said in a statement. The New York warehouse, known internally as JFK8, is one of several locations where small groups of Amazon employees have walked out to highlight the risks they face from working where colleagues have become infected with the virus, which causes the sometimes deadly COVID-19 respiratory illness. The virus has led to at least 80,000 deaths globally and infected more than 1.4 million people - including workers at more than 50 Amazon facilities, according to a New York Times report. New York is currently the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak with by far the most confirmed COVID-19 cases and related deaths. The company has said it is requiring staff to keep safe distances from each other. The Staten Island warehouse drew particular attention after Amazon fired an employee on paid quarantine for participating in a protest last week that he helped organize. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union called on company executives to resign after an internal document leaked, in which Amazon’s general counsel described that employee as “not smart, or articulate.” The general counsel then issued a statement saying frustration over the health risks created by the employee had clouded his judgment.
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9013
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New class of drugs could help tackle treatment-resistant cancers
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This news release touts a “new class of drug” that is being tested to treat cancers that are resistant to other therapies. The news release says the initial research was funded by the charity Cancer Research UK and the drug was licensed to Irish biotechnology firm Carrick Therapeutics, which is has begun conducting a safety study. Laudably, the headline and the body of the news release caution that this isn’t a proven treatment. But there’s far more hype here than substance. The news release lauds researchers for quick action and offers a quote about how “exciting” it is that academia and industry “are bringing urgently needed new tests and treatments to patients.” But there’s no mention that Imperial College London has a patent on this drug. There’s also no discussion of how many patients might benefit from this, or acknowledgement of the extremely high prices for new cancer drugs. The high cost of new cancer drugs, some of which offer only marginal benefits, is strangling healthcare budgets around the world even though initial research is often funded by government agencies and charities. New releases and news stories should not only describe clinical benefits, but also explore the financial deals under which these drugs are developed, and tell the public which companies, institutions, and clinicians stand to profit from them.
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false
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Imperial College London,treatment-resistant cancers
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There’s no discussion of costs here, either of initial research funded by the charity Cancer Research UK or of the potential cost to patients and payers if this drug ever goes on the market. While an exact price isn’t something we’d expect, the news release could have described the financial arrangement under which Carrick obtained the license to this therapy and mentioned the high costs that new cancer drugs typically command. We like the cautious language in this quote: Professor Charles Coombes, from the Department of Surgery & Cancer, said: “Treatment-resistant tumours represent a significant threat for patients, as once a cancer stops responding to treatments there is increasingly little clinicians can do. “Drugs such as these could help to shift the balance back in favour of the patients, potentially providing a new option to patients for who existing treatments no longer work.” However, there’s no data yet on how much this drug could help patients. The tantalizing story of one patient getting the drug but there being no results of their therapy at this time is a bit too speculative. There’s no mention of potential harms that might preclude this treatment from coming to market. From other examples of cancer drugs, it is most likely that there would be some undesirable effects and the release could have at least acknowledged that harms are unknown. The news release is upfront about the early nature of this research: The first patient was given the drug in November 2017 as part of Carrick’s a Phase I clinical trial to assess its safety and how well it can be tolerated. The trial is still ongoing, so results are not available yet. The news release offers this quote: Professor Charles Coombes, from the Department of Surgery & Cancer, said: “Treatment-resistant tumours represent a significant threat for patients, as once a cancer stops responding to treatments there is increasingly little clinicians can do. But there’s no data on how frequent treatment-resistant cancers occur. The news release states: Early funding for the study came from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and a major contribution of whole-project funding was from Cancer Research UK. Licensing of the technology to Carrick Therapeutics was led by Cancer Research UK’s Commercial Partnerships Team and Imperial Innovations, the Technology Transfer Office of Imperial, with support from Emory University. However, the news release doesn’t offer specifics on these financial relationships. A look at the manuscript describing this molecule shows the authors are inventors on a patent owned by Imperial College London and that one researcher acted as a consultant for Carrick. Do Imperial College London and Emory University stand to profit from this drug? There’s no mention of competing projects to develop better therapies for hard-to-treat cancers. We applaud the news release for stating in the second paragraph that the “drug may not become available to patients for a number of years yet.” Of course, the “yet” is optimistic; it remains to be seen whether this will ever become available. The news release states that researchers “have discovered a new class of drug that has the potential to help cancer patients who no longer respond to existing therapies.” We could not find evidence other research into this particular molecule. Overall, the language is restrained, although one quote applauds researchers for bringing “a new treatment from discovery to clinical testing in record time.” It remains to be seen whether this is an effective treatment.
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12000
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A California health care CEO is promising to reduce our prescription drug costs.
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"An ad against Ohio’s Issue 2 ballot initiative said, ""A California health care CEO is promising to reduce our prescription drug costs."" Weinstein is the president and co-founder of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a nonprofit funding Issue 2, but the articles cited by the campaign referred to Weinstein as a CEO either in jest or in a photo caption. His organization deals with health care and he is indeed its top executive, but the ad makes it seem as though he represents the drug industry, which is actually true of the ad makers. It’s the national association for pharmaceutical companies that opposes the ballot measure."
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false
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Ohio, Drugs, Health Care, Ohioans Against Deceptive Rx Ballot Issue,
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"A TV advertisement opposing Ohio’s Issue 2 ballot initiative to lower drug costs portrayed the initiative as a ploy by the health care industry to hike up costs. ""Over the next few months, you’re going to hear a lot about the November ballot issue on prescription drugs,"" the May 23, 2017, video says. ""A California health care CEO is promising to reduce our prescription drug costs. It sounds too good to be true, because it is."" They went on to list a number of associations opposing the ballot initiative because they ""believe it could increase drug costs for millions of Ohioans."" If approved on Nov. 7, Issue 2 would require all drugs bought by the state -- whether for Medicaid or other state programs -- to match Veterans Affairs prices, which receive a 24 percent discount off market price in addition to sometimes undisclosed rebates. The idea is that it would lower the state’s health care costs. Whether or not the ballot initiative can achieve its goal -- or the opposite -- is contested, as we wrote about in another fact-check. For this check, we wanted to know if the person behind the initiative was indeed a health care CEO. His title is complicated, but the ad’s message is misleading. Notably, the video failed to mention that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade association representing drugmakers, was behind the opposition campaign. The ad attacks Michael Weinstein, the president and co-founder of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the biggest AIDS-fighting organization in the world. And he’s behind both this ballot initiative and a similar one in California. ""Both the New York Times and the LA Times have referred to Mr. Weinstein as the CEO of his organization — AHF — which is clearly a health care organization,"" Dale Butland, a spokesman for the opposition campaign, told us. ""Indeed, the New York Times Magazine profile of Mr. Weinstein was titled 'The CEO of HIV.' "" Christopher Glazek, the author of the New York Times Magazine story, said the title of the piece was intended as ""arch."" ""It's a nonprofit, and his official title isn't CEO,"" Glazek said. The organization derives its revenues from a network of pharmacies and clinics that provide care to mostly government-insured patients. The excess income goes to provide free care to more than 773,000 H.I.V. patients worldwide. Weinstein’s annual report showed a salary of $400,000, which Glazek characterized as ""low for directors of similarly sized nonprofits."" Christine Mai-Duc, who co-wrote the Los Angeles Times article, said, ""He is referred to as the ‘chief executive’ in a photo caption in our story, not in the story itself."" However, she noted that a follow-up story referred to him as the foundation’s ""top executive."" The group that favors the initiative said the description of Glazek is just wrong, and it’s politically motivated. ""I think calling him a health care CEO would be disingenuous if it were banal, but considering they are in the process of character assassination, then it is wrong that drug company CEOs are spending money from excessive profits to try to label him as one of them,"" said Dennis Willard, a spokesman for Ohio Taxpayers for Lower Drug Prices. The drug lobby PhRMA has so far outspent the AIDS Foundation roughly 5 to 1, according to the Columbus Dispatch. An ad against Ohio’s Issue 2 ballot initiative said, ""A California health care CEO is promising to reduce our prescription drug costs."" Weinstein is the president and co-founder of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a nonprofit funding Issue 2, but the articles cited by the campaign referred to Weinstein as a CEO either in jest or in a photo caption. His organization deals with health care and he is indeed its top executive, but the ad makes it seem as though he represents the drug industry, which is actually true of the ad makers. It’s the national association for pharmaceutical companies that opposes the ballot measure."
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11017
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New prenatal tests provide clearer answers sooner
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This story discusses first trimester screening for prenatal chromosomal abnormalities, namely Down syndrome. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) looked at sequential screening of women 10-13 weeks into their pregnancy, instead of the typical 16 week screening. Combining blood tests and ultrasound screening succeeded in finding 87% of Down fetuses (though a positive test is still only a prediction of increased risk that a baby will be born with Down syndrome). The journalist did not mention the false positive rate of the 1st trimester vs. 2nd trimester screenings in the NEJM study, nor the study design. However, a discussion of what constitutes a “positive” result of screening was a plus for this story. The story also was balanced in presenting the risks of screening and the risk of miscarriage due to subsequent diagnostic tests, such as chorionic villus sampling or CVS (sampling cells via a thin tube or needle inserted into the placenta) and amniocentesis. There was no discussion of the cost of these tests earlier in the
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true
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No information about the cost of the screening or diagnostic tests, either alone or in combination. No information if both forms of testing in first trimester are covered by insurance. Not much quantitative data presented. Mentions harms of miscarriage with the CVS testing and amniocentesis. Briefly mentions psychological harm of screening if you do not want to go through with more risky diagnostic tests–more anxiety during the pregnancy if you have a positive Down result in screening. No mention of study design, although discussion of design in this case (sequential treatment for all participants vs. randomization to control and treatment groups) was not crucial to interpreting results of the study. No mention of false positive rate. (About 5% with first trimester combined screening.) Frames risk factors of more invasive diagnostic tests and the risk of screening (in terms of anxiety if you choose not to have the further tests). Potential conflict of interest is not discussed, but there are a number of local experts in ob/gyn quoted, however no patients. Nobody cited affiliated with the New England Journal of Medicine study, upon which the story is based. Mentions alternatives of second trimester testing or no screening at all, but seems to promote the screening. Gives estimate of miscarriage with diagnostic tests. Story address the greater demand for 1st trimester testing, but does not address availability in smaller hospitals, nor is there a discussion that there is specialized training and a certification process for nunchal translucency (the ultrasound test) for both sonographers and physicians. Mentions that combination of screening methods provide greater accuracy sooner in pregnancy. Neither is a “new’ test, however.
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2479
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Plane crashes offer hospitals marketing opportunities, pitfalls.
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For Bay Area hospitals, responding to the crash landing of Asiana Flight 214 could have a legacy that lasts well beyond the days they treated victims: raising their profile in the community, perhaps leading to more people thinking of their hospital when they need care.
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true
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Health News
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Bay Area hospitals took in more than 180 injured passengers after the plane came in too low to the airport on July 6, hitting a sea wall and losing its tail and landing gear as it skidded down the runway. The bulk of patients went to San Francisco General Hospital and Stanford Hospital & Clinics. Hospitals say, however, they will stop short of using the flight as a fundraising opportunity, as cash-grabbing pitches tied directly to the crash might offend potential donors. “We do not, would not, haven’t changed our fundraising approach or strategy as a result of the plane crash or any other event like that,” says Kevin Causey, president of the foundation tied to St. Francis Hospital, which treated seven crash victims. “I’m reminded of how in poor taste that would be.” Still, he says, the hospital might benefit anyway. “If somebody’s watching the news and sees a steady stream of ambulances going to their neighborhood hospital, they might be inspired to donate,” he says. Hospitals often gain from high-visibility disaster, says Gerard Anderson, director at the Center for Hospital Finance and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “It demonstrates that they have capacity to handle disasters,” he says. That capacity is highly valued by the community but is costly to maintain. However, little data exists that ties donations directly to disaster response. “It’s not the right judgment to say, ‘This happened, and there was an increase in donations,’” says Kathy Zichy, a vice president of public health at New York University’s development office. During the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, she worked in corporate development for Downtown Hospital, the closest to the site of the attacks. While the hospital saw an uptick in donations afterwards, there is no way to know how much was tied directly to the tragedy, she says. In the case of the Asiana plane, Bay Area hospital staffers have plenty of out-of-the ordinary stories to tell. At St. Francis, which took in five patients on the day of the crash, director of emergency nursing Theresa Edison cut through a clogged freeway from her home near the airport to the hospital in downtown San Francisco by driving directly behind a sirens-blaring ambulance that was ferrying a crash victim. Dr. Victor Prieto, an orthopedic surgeon at St. Francis, treated one passenger who needed surgery to repair her femur, broken into five pieces. After the procedure, he recalls, as nurses rolled her off the operating table, he noticed small pieces of wood and debris from the crash site still clinging to her back. Some of the hospitals had to set up clearing areas where federal officials could work. SF General, for example, turned a room off the cafeteria over to federal officials who processed entry to the U.S. for passengers as the hospital discharged them, said John Brown, an attending physician in the emergency room. Many had lost their passports and identification. Crash patients discharged at Stanford Medical received an offer of vouchers for taxi fare to their next destination, said Brandon Bond, director of the office of emergency management at the hospital. Every child admitted due to the crash got his or her own iPad for the duration of their stay, to help them “reconnect,” he added. The hospital treated 55 crash victims. Ruben Vallero, 69, who had been returning from a holiday in the Philippines on the Asiana plane, says he was impressed with the care he and his wife got at Stanford, where they were treated for injuries to their ribs and necks. He was there for two days; his wife, for four. When he left, he says, staff gave him a souvenir: his own Stanford Medical tote bag.
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8561
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Australia promises aid to coronavirus-alert Pacific as cyclone tears through.
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Australia said on Thursday it stood ready to help nearby Pacific Island nations in the aftermath of a powerful cyclone that has cut a path through a region already under restricted movement to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
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true
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Environment
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Cyclone Harold, a category 5 storm packing winds in excess of 251 km/h, hit Tonga early on Thursday, cutting power and destroying popular holiday resorts. Tonga Police posted images of flattened beachfront resort buildings on its official Twitter page. The storm has already passed through Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands, flattening homes, cutting communication lines and bringing high seas. Dozens of people were killed when they were swept off a ferry off the Solomon Islands. Although the Pacific has relatively few cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, and no reported deaths, much of the region has restricted personal movement to slow any spread. “We are acutely conscious that this comes on top of the impact and difficulties created by COVID-19 for those countries and so our support is all the more important,” said Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne in a televised news conference. Australia has already started helping with the cleanup in Solomon Islands, promised relief supplies like tents and water containers to Vanuatu and would also offer support in Fiji, Payne added. “We stand ready to provide what further help we can to our Pacific family in whatever ways we can,” she said. Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said Harold had left “a path of destruction in its wake”. “This storm must not compromise our #coronavirus containment, lest we risk damage far more painful than any cyclone,” Bainimarama’s posted on his official Twitter account. “It’s vital every Fijian follows all of our public health directives.”
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41811
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A lot of the wall is built. It’s been very effective. ... El Paso, illegal traffic dropped 72 percent, then ultimately 95 percent, once the wall was up.
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In a contentious Oval Office meeting, President Donald Trump and the Democratic congressional leaders — Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer — disagreed over funding for a border wall, mangling some facts in the process.
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mixture
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border wall, government shutdown, jobs,
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In a contentious Oval Office meeting, President Donald Trump and the Democratic congressional leaders — Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer — disagreed over funding for a border wall, mangling some facts in the process.The on-camera Dec. 11 meeting was held 10 days before a deadline for Congress to pass, and the president to sign, spending legislation to avoid a government shutdown. Trump said near the end of the meeting: “Yes, if we don’t get what we want, one way or the other — whether it’s through you, through a military, through anything you want to call — I will shut down the government.” Trump said statistics show “illegal traffic” was reduced in various sectors along the Southwest border as a result of the construction of border “wall.” But the gains he cited were the result of a myriad of border security strategies over two decades that included enhanced technology and an increase in border agents. In some areas, those strategies included fencing, but in most of the areas Trump cited, no barriers were added that would stop anyone crossing by foot.Trump, Dec. 11: A lot of the wall is built. It’s been very effective. I asked for a couple of notes on that. If you look at San Diego, illegal traffic dropped 92 percent once the wall was up. El Paso, illegal traffic dropped 72 percent, then ultimately 95 percent, once the wall was up. In Tucson, Arizona, illegal traffic dropped 92 percent. Yuma, it dropped – illegal traffic – 95 to 96 percent. When I say dropped, the only reason we even have any percentage where people got through is because they walk and go around areas that aren’t built. It dropped virtually 100 percent in the areas where the wall is. So, I mean it’s very effective.The White House did not respond to our inquiry seeking backup for these statistics.The president’s comments suggest he was talking about the effectiveness of a border wall constructed since he took office, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Indeed, very little new fencing has been built under Trump.Although Congress last year approved $1.6 billion to replace existing barriers and add some fencing in new areas, the new barriers are not concrete and are not like any of Trump’s wall prototypes.According to Customs and Border Protection, the fiscal year 2017 border security program included:That is almost all replacement of existing fencing, and as we said, none of it is the type of solid wall Trump talked about during the campaign. For more on this, see our story “Has the Border Wall Begun?“It appears the president was speaking about the effectiveness of fencing constructed along the border over the past 20-plus years.Officials at Customs and Border Protection pointed us to a video it published in February 2017 showing a shift in border strategy — and its effect on apprehensions — between 1992 and 2016. Many of the apprehension figures cited in the video correspond with the president’s.In fiscal year 1992, CBP states in the video, border patrol arrested more than 560,000 immigrants attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally in the 60-mile San Diego sector. Due to various border control strategies employed in that sector, CBP notes, apprehensions fell nearly 90 percent to 68,000 in 2010, and down to 26,290 by fiscal 2015. (Trump said “illegal traffic dropped 92 percent once the wall was up” in the San Diego sector. )But CBP does not attribute the entirety of that improvement to fencing, though it lists fencing as a factor. CBP says it employed a strategy that included “[i]ncreased manpower, utilized intelligence, focused prosecutions, technology was advanced and tactical infrastructure was improved by adding fencing, all-weather roads and stadium lighting.”In El Paso, apprehensions in 1993 were 285,000. As a result of Operation Hold the Line — which included “forward deployment of agents and technology to high traffic areas, focusing on prevention through deterrence” — apprehensions decreased more than 70 percent to 79,000 in one year between 1993 and 1994, and they dropped to 14,495 by 2015. There is no mention of additional fencing in the CBP video. (Trump said apprehensions dropped in El Paso by 72 percent, then “ultimately 95 percent, once the wall was up.”)A few years later, CBP said, “traffic shifted” to the Tucson sector in Arizona. That sector led the number of apprehensions in fiscal 2000 with 616,000. “With an increase in manpower, improvements in technology and intelligence,” as well as “fencing and vehicle barriers,” apprehensions in the Tucson sector dropped from 616,000 in 2000 to 63,400 in 2015, CBP states. (Trump said apprehensions dropped 92 percent in Tucson. )Illegal border crossing then shifted to the neighboring Yuma sector in 2005, CBP said. To address the surge, CBP said, the sector “tripled manpower, deployed mobile surveillance systems, increased prosecutions, collaborated with state and local partners, including the government of Mexico, and added fencing, all-weather roads and vehicle barriers.” By 2009, CBP states, apprehensions in Yuma dropped nearly 95 percent from 138,000 in 2005 to 6,900 in 2009. (Trump said “illegal traffic” dropped “95 to 96 percent” in Yuma. )So while additional fencing was one of the strategies employed by CBP to decrease illegal border crossings, other methods, such as improved technology and increased manpower, were also credited by CBP.Trump said his point was: “Where you have walls … it’s effective. Where you don’t have walls, it is not effective.”But that’s not accurate if by “walls” he means barriers that are designed to stop pedestrians.As USA Today documented in its in-depth report on the border, “About 650 miles of the 2,000 mile border are fenced, leaving 1,350 miles open. Of that 650 miles, about half is designed to stop vehicles, not people. The 300-plus miles of vehicle barriers, X-shaped crossbars or short steel posts, block cars. These fences often sit in harsh deserts that make crossing deadly on its own. But anybody on foot can cross over, under or through. This means only about 350 miles of the 2,000-mile border currently has fencing meant to stop people.”Indeed, the USA Today map of fencing types along the Southwest border shows there is very little fencing designed to stop pedestrians in the El Paso, Tucson and Yuma sectors touted by Trump for stopping “illegal traffic … once the wall was up.”Both Pelosi and Schumer said they support enhanced border security. But, Schumer said, “experts say you can do border security without a wall, which is wasteful and doesn’t solve the problem.” And Pelosi called for “an evidence-based conversation about what does work, what money has been spent, and how effective it is.”Trump cited the threat of migrant disease to promote the building of his border wall.“People with tremendous medical difficulty and medical problems are pouring in, and in many — in many cases, it’s contagious,” Trump said. “They’re pouring into our country. We have to have border security. We have to have a wall as part of border security.”Prior to the meeting, Trump also tweeted some of his reasoning for a border wall, claiming that Democrats “want Open Borders for anyone to come in. This brings large scale crime and disease.”The scientific evidence, however, does not support the idea that migrants are a substantial public health risk.A report published last week in the journal The Lancet directly addressed the subject, and concluded that “the risk of transmission from migrating populations to host populations is generally low.” And when there are legitimate concerns, such as for tuberculosis, the report notes that studies show while there may be an increased risk for transmission within migrant communities, that isn’t the case for host populations. A 2007 study in Norway that analyzed tuberculosis, or TB, cases over 12 years found that each year on average, 13 immigrants and two nonimmigrants developed the disease as a result of imported TB. The researchers concluded that immigration “did not appear to influence the TB situation among the existing residents of the country.”The more recent report in The Lancet, which was written by two dozen experts on the UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health, cautions that it doesn’t have good data on undocumented migrants, and acknowledges that migrant populations “might come” from countries with higher disease rates. But outbreak risk is low if the destination country has strong surveillance and public health services. “These services are also crucial to prevent pandemics,” the report said, “whether associated with population movement or not.”For some communicable diseases, such as measles, some migrants come from countries that have higher vaccination rates than the United States. According to the World Bank, 92 percent of U.S. children age 1 to 2 received the measles vaccine in 2017, compared with 96 percent in Mexico, 97 percent in Honduras and 99 percent in Nicaragua.The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has said Mexican cartels “transport the bulk of their drugs over the Southwest Border through ports of entry (POEs) using passenger vehicles or tractor trailers,” an assessment with which John Kelly, when he was secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, agreed. But Trump suggested that a wall along the border would stop drugs from “pouring into our country.” “Look, we have to have the wall,” Trump said. “This isn’t a question; this is a national emergency. Drugs are pouring into our country.”At an April 2017 congressional hearing, Kelly, then the DHS secretary, said that illegal drugs from Mexico “mostly come through the ports of entry.” He talked about the need to improve density meters that can “look” into vehicles for signs of drugs. “Technology that looks into trucks, tractor-trailers is pretty good but I know there’s better stuff out there and we’ll just — we’ll just get after it,” Kelly said. “But mostly the drugs come in, we believe, we know comes in, in relatively small amounts, 10, 15 kilos at a time in — in automobiles and those kind of conveyances.”Kelly’s remarks echo the 2015 DEA report, which said: “The drugs are typically secreted in hidden compartments when transported in passenger vehicles or comingled with legitimate goods when transported in tractor trailers.”Experts we contacted when we wrote about this claim in 2017 agreed. Stephen D. Morris, a Middle Tennessee State University political science professor whose research has largely focused on Mexico, told us that “the wall will not do very much to stop drugs.”At one point in the free-wheeling discussion with the president, Pelosi attempted to steer the conversation to other issues — specifically the economy. But, in doing so, she made a misleading claim about lost jobs.Pelosi: Unfortunately, this [meeting] has spiraled downward from — we came at a place to say, “How do we meet the needs of American people who have needs?” The economy has — people are losing their jobs. The market is in a mood. Our members are already (inaudible).Trump: Well, we have the lowest unemployment that we’ve had in 50 years.Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s spokesman, told us the Democratic leader was referring “to layoffs, such as GM’s layoffs.” General Motors announced last month that it would be closing seven plants and reducing its North American workforce by 14,000 people.Of course, layoffs happen even in the best of economies. But the fact is that the U.S. economy has added jobs for a record 98 months, beginning in October 2010. During that time, the U.S. has added 19.5 million jobs — including nearly 4.2 million since Trump took office in January 2017.Trump is also right about the current unemployment rate, which is 3.7 percent. That’s the lowest rate since December 1969, when it was 3.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.The president and Schumer seemed to disagree over who caused the last government shutdown.Schumer: The one thing I think we can agree on is we shouldn’t shut down the government over a dispute. And you want to shut it down. You keep talking about it.Trump: I — no, no, no, no, no. The last time, Chuck, you shut it down —Schumer: No, no, no.Trump: — and then you opened it up very quickly.Trump is right.The federal government partially shut down in January 2018 for three days, in large part due to Democratic efforts to protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients from deportation.“Senate Democrats shut down the government in hopes of striking a deal to shield 700,000 young immigrants from deportation,” as Politico wrote at the time.The New York Times similarly wrote that the shutdown occurred “after Senate Democrats, showing remarkable solidarity in the face of a clear political danger, blocked consideration of a stopgap spending measure to keep the government operating.”Republicans and the Trump White House called it the “Schumer Shutdown,” because of the Senate Democrats’ demands. Schumer called it a “Trump Shutdown,” because the Republicans controlled Congress and the White House. Shutdowns occur when there is an impasse between both sides, but most neutral observers saw the shutdown then as the result of the Democratic efforts, as Trump said.Trump also argued that a border wall was necessary to keep terrorists out of the country.“People are pouring into our country, including terrorists,” Trump said. “We caught 10 terrorists over the last very short period of time. Ten.”The White House did not provide us with any support for his statement.When we asked DHS about the president’s claim, we were told in an email: “On average last year, DHS prevented 10 individuals tied to terror — known or suspect terrorists — each day from traveling or attempting to travel to the United States.” That includes “individuals attempting to travel to the United States by air, sea, or land,” who “hit against U.S. terror watchlists,” DHS explained.That’s what Vice President Mike Pence meant to say in October instead of this: “In the last fiscal year, we apprehended more than 10 terrorists or suspected terrorists per day at our southern border from countries that are referred to in the lexicon as other than Mexico.” A Pence spokeswoman later said he misspoke when he said the Southern border.A July 2017 State Department report said there was “no credible information that any member of a terrorist group has traveled through Mexico to gain access to the United States.”In October, we also had asked DHS about another statistic cited by DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. She said on “Fox News Sunday” on Oct. 28 that “we stopped 3,000 people a year who have traveled — of a pattern similar to terrorists from attempting to come in the Southwest border.”A DHS official told us the figure includes people apprehended on the Southwest border who engaged in “suspicious travel from countries with elevated levels of risk due to terrorism activity.” DHS didn’t provide any further information, citing law enforcement sensitivity.
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38860
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Forwarded emails have cited a letter from a Special Olympics athlete named John Franklin Stephens to Ann Coulter after she used the “R” word on Twitter.
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John Franklin Stephens’ Letter to Ann Coulter-Authorship Confirmed!
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true
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Miscellaneous
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This one is true. John Franklin Stephens wrote an open letter to Anne Coulter after she called President Obama a “retard” on Twitter during the 2012 presidential election. The controversy started when Ann Coulter tweeted, “I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard,” during the presidential election. Ann Coulter later refused to apologize for her use of the word “retard.” In an appearance on CNN, Coulter said that she wasn’t referring to someone with Down syndrome when she used the word, and that she had nothing to apologize about: “I was not referring to someone with Down syndrome. I was referring to the president of the United States. I didn’t call the president a Down syndrome child. I used the word retard the way some people use idiot, cretin, moron and the rest of them, which were all once technical terms, and I had it with the language police.” Ann Coulter’s non-apology didn’t sit well with John Franklin Stephens, a 30-year-old Special Olympics athlete with Down syndrome. In an open letter to Coulter that appeared on a Special Olympics WordPress blog, Franklin Stephens wrote: Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren’t dumb and you aren’t shallow. So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult? I’m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public’s perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow. I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you. In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night. I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have. Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he says, as everyone else races from one snarkey sound bite to the next. Finally, I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift. Because, Ms. Coulter, that is who we are – and much, much more. After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me. You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV. I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash. Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honor. No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much. Come join us someday at Special Olympics. See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged. A friend you haven’t made yet, John Franklin Stephens Global Messenger Special Olympics Virginia John Franklin Stephens also appeared on CNN to talk about Coulter’s use of the word retard. He said, “The word retard is offensive. It should not be as a symbol for someone who is dumb and shallow. I want to use (it) as a symbol for someone who fights adversity”: Comments
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9001
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For women with history of pregnancy loss, walking may aid chance of becoming pregnant
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This release summarizes a study that examined the impact of physical activity on a very narrow subgroup of women: those who have had 1-2 miscarriages and hope to become pregnant. The findings suggest that vigorous activity in these women — and walking over 10 minutes at a time in those who were overweight — increases the chances for getting pregnant. The news release clearly lays out most of the limitations of the study, the big one being its reliance on secondary analysis. While the release could have put more emphasis on the weaknesses of such evidence, we do note that the news release made it clear that the findings from this very small subgroup may not apply to all women hoping to conceive, and that more research is needed to explain why certain activities (but not all) improve the odds for conception. Many women who are trying to have children have been unable to do so in the past, some because of miscarriages. Any intervention which enhances the chances of conceiving — especially one that is easily accessible, and likely more healthy than harmful — would be welcome news. If research suggests such an intervention exists, but there are significant limitations to consider (as with this study), then being clear about those limitations, and using cautious language (as this news release does) is preferable. For reasons listed below it’s highly unlikely that the study referenced here will provide most women trying to get pregnant with much new or actionable information. From a very practical perspective, most physicians recommend their patients maintain a healthy weight and exercise regime, whether they are trying to get pregnant or not.
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mixture
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pregnancy,University of Massachusetts at Amherst,walking
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The news release states: Walking has great potential as a lifestyle change because of its low cost and availability Fair enough. The news release mentions two benefits of physical activity with regards to “fecundability” (the ability to become pregnant): So the study put into context the amount of physical activity associated with an increase in fertility rates but it didn’t tell us how much more likely vigorous walkers were to conceive compared to those who didn’t walk, or those who walked only a little. Harms from walking are likely not significant enough to warrant mention here. Here’s a minor point: since vigorous activity is noted as beneficial to conception, this might warrant mention as something that a woman with other health concerns might consider consulting her doctor about. Otherwise, the issue of harms seems negligible enough to consider this N/A. It’s important to realize that the benefits mentioned in this study were found by way of a “secondary analysis” of data from a much larger, multi-center trial in which the primary research question had to do with aspirin use and pregnancy. A secondary analysis is simply using existing data to retrospectively explore an alternate question that’s distinct from the original research. The news release does allude to this being a secondary analysis but doesn’t explain that such analyses usually lack the statistical power of findings related to the primary research question. Importantly, the 1,214 study subjects had a history of 1-2 miscarriages, and the release does well in mentioning that findings from this unique sub-group may not generalize to all women trying to conceive. Another limitation is also included: That physical activity is related to other behaviors and lifestyle factors, and women who are more physically active may be different from women who are less active in many ways. Although the research attempted to adjust for these differences (called “confounding variables”) they could not do so completely. This was noted in the study and could have been pointed out in the release as an important limitation. (For more information on why reporting on variables is important see our post and video on a diet soda study that had some of the same issues.) Another limitation that was not mentioned in the release is how physical activity — which is a key measurement in this study — was measured. It relied upon activity questionnaires completed by the women. These are not always reliable and can limit the significance of the findings. No disease mongering. The study funders are listed on a sidebar on the EurekAlert! site, where the release is hosted. We encourage news releases to include funders and any conflicts of interest in the body of the release so that the information is carried over by news organizations or blogs running the release verbatim. The published paper lists no conflicts of interest among the authors. What other types of physical activity were measured? Many women might be left wondering if other forms of exercise are just as good as walking. It might have helped to clarify this (and if the study did not address this, then make that clear to readers). It would also help readers to note what the “dose” of exercise was that was associated with a positive effect on fertility. There is a statement included from the lead author that could confuse people: One of our main findings is that there was no overall relationship between most types of physical activity and the likelihood of becoming pregnant for women who had already had one or two pregnancy losses [except for walking, which was associated with higher likelihood of becoming pregnant among women who were overweight and obese. That’s a lot of caveats! And many women — overweight or not, with previous miscarriages or not — might be left wondering if their form of exercise helps or hinders their chances at conception. As noted above, the release mentions walking as both easily accessible and a potentially modifiable factor for those trying to get pregnant. Although the study authors provides a nice summary of other research in which the results do and do not agree with their study, this is not included in the news release and would have been a helpful addition. In general, this news release does a very good job of using cautious language. However, it should have avoided the cause-and-effect language implied by the use of the words “may aid” in the headline, particularly since this was a secondary analysis of earlier research into side effects of aspirin use during pregnancy, not a randomized controlled trial of walking during pregnancy. The latter type of study might have warranted the more causal language. We did appreciate the inclusion of the final sentence: Further study is necessary to clarify possible mechanisms through which walking and vigorous activity might affect time-to-pregnancy.
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7214
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Eyes on Russia probe leaves Washington’s to-do list undone.
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You’ve probably heard all about what’s happening in Washington. This is a story about what isn’t.
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true
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AP Top News, Monica Lewinsky, Rich Galen, Health care reform, Politics, North America, Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, Russia
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The rapid-fire revelations about the Trump campaign and its Russia connections that are heating up this city are having a chilling effect in plenty of other ways. There are bills that have been pushed to the back burner. Diplomatic initiatives that aren’t fully initiating. Interest groups that can’t stir up much interest. Appointees that haven’t been appointed. “It reminds me very much of the Monica Lewinsky days, when things just slowed to a crawl,” says Rich Galen, a Republican strategist who worked for then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich when President Bill Clinton was under investigation for his affair with an intern in the late 1990s. “Both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are consumed by it and there seems to be little appetite for getting into the nitty gritty of other things.” Public relations executive Jamie Horwitz, who leads the team that schedules National Press Club events, emails that “nothing, NOTHING of any importance” is happening at the press club this week. By contrast, the organization’s schedule for June 2016, when reporters were out covering campaigns and President Barack Obama was almost out the door, still featured plenty of press conferences, breakfasts, luncheons and newsmaker events. Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, would like to see the nation more focused on voter suppression laws she says are being adopted around the country, but “attention spans for these critical issues are short” with so much interest focused on the Russia matter. “It does feel like the Comey controversy is sucking up a lot of the air,” Clarke said, referring to James Comey, the fired FBI chief. Even Marc Short, President Donald Trump’s legislative affairs director, this week acknowledged that all of the focus on the Russia investigations “detracts from our legislative agenda. It detracts from what we’re trying to deliver.” To be sure, the city has not ground to a halt. Trump himself made a point of agreeing to address religious conservatives at the same time that Comey will be testifying before Congress on Thursday. And the White House is gamely attempting to keep the focus this week on proposed infrastructure improvements. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Wednesday that Trump was “not letting the distractions get in the way” of his focus on infrastructure and other items on his agenda, even as Washington’s focus shifted to Comey’s release of written testimony a day in advance of his appearance in the Capitol. On Capitol Hill, senators are writing their version of legislation to replace the Obama administration’s health-care law, which stalled out once before. And the full Senate and House are scheduled to be tackling Iran sanctions and financial regulations when Comey is testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee. But the mushrooming Russia investigation throws a long shadow. Former Oklahoma congressman Mickey Edwards said the drumbeat of revelations about the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia makes even Republican legislators less likely to deliver full-throated support to Trump initiatives such as health care. “Everybody’s going to be a little skittish about casting votes to support a Trump agenda when you don’t know what’s the next shoe that’s going to drop,” says Edwards, who spent 16 years in the House from 1977 to 1992 and served in the GOP leadership. And with Trump running far behind on making appointments, Edwards adds, the Russia investigations put even more pressure on the “small group of people” who are running his administration. “It’s like a little family gathering trying to run a country,” he says. “They don’t have the capacity even without the Russia investigation. And with Russia, they’re totally diverted.” On Capitol Hill, a handful of congressional committees are directly involved in the Russia question. And beyond that, “everybody’s interested in it from a gossip standpoint,” says Galen. With the Senate and House intelligence committees at the center of the Trump-Russia vortex, legislation to renew and revise a key section of the foreign intelligence surveillance law that allows the U.S. to collect certain communications on the internet has been forced to compete for attention with the Russia matters. At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Wednesday on the surveillance law, questions to the nation’s intelligence chiefs repeatedly pivoted instead toward the Russia investigation. As for action on health care, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said that after the House passed its version of health legislation, he returned to Washington the following Monday psyched for the Senate to tackle the issue. “And then Tuesday, Comey got fired,” Kaine said. “And since then, aside from Republicans working behind closed doors to find health care solutions without Democratic participation, we haven’t had hearings on health care. We haven’t had witnesses. ... It does divert attention.” At the State Department, the constant questions about potential collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia have added another layer of difficulty to the administration’s efforts to improve relations with the former Cold War foe. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking during a visit to New Zealand, said Tuesday that Trump wants him to keep what’s happening “in the political realm” from impeding efforts to rebuild U.S. relations with Russia. But he acknowledged that “our relationships with Russia are at a very low point and they’ve been deteriorating.” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., recently lamented that the Russia probe is “a challenge to Washington, D.C., the way we do business, a challenge to bipartisanship and a challenge to the effectiveness of this newly elected president.” And Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., warned that all the leaks related to Russia were making it hard for people within the executive branch to trust one another “when you are in a room and you don’t know where these notes or where these comments are going to wind up in the newspaper in 48 hours.” William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who worked in the Clinton administration, cautions against blaming all of Trump’s problems on the Russia probes when there is plenty of “independent dysfunction in the White House.” “It wasn’t going to be so easy to get any of this done even without the distraction of the Russia investigation,” he says. “I don’t think he’s been in a commanding position from Day One,” Galston adds. “He’s taken a bad hand and played it very badly into an even worse hand.” ___ Associated Press writers Josh Lederman, Jill Colvin and Deb Riechmann contributed to this report. ___ Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nbenac ___ This story has been corrected to reflect that the first name for president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, is Kristen, rather than Elizabeth, Clarke.
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10390
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An NBC Reporter Investigates His Own Cancer
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This was a story about NBC reporter George Lewis’ diagnosis and treatment for prostate cancer. First we want to extend our best wishes to Mr. Lewis for successful treatment and for good health. But the principles of sound journalism are not suspended just because a reporter is reporting on his own illness. This story violated almost all of those principles. The story did not: discuss the costs of the proton beam therapy which the reporter chose to pursue. The costs are a major issue – $50,000 or more per patient. discuss questions about the evidence of benefit from proton beam therapy. include any interviews with cancer experts. The most serious flaw, though, was that the reporter abandoned journalism ethics and advocated prostate cancer screening. He said: “Every guy over 50, doctors say sometimes every guy over 45, should get tested annually for prostate cancer. There’s a simple blood test called a PSA and a digital rectal exam where the doctor feels for lumps in the prostate. Early detection is the key.” That is not an evidence-based recommendation. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force states: The USPSTF concludes that the evidence is insufficient to recommend for or against routine screening for prostate cancer using prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing or digital rectal examination (DRE). Although the Task Force found evidence that screening can find prostate cancer early and that some cancers benefit from treatment, the Task Force is uncertain whether the potential benefits of prostate cancer screening justify the potential harms. The potential harms of prostate cancer screening include fairly frequent false-positive results from PSA screening, which may lead to unnecessary anxiety and biopsies. In addition, early detection and treatment may result in complications from treating some cancers that may never have affected a patient’s health. NBC Nightly News has done something similar to this before – when reporter Mike Taibbi advocated lung cancer screening after he was scanned in a story. We have commented on such news stories in the past. They violate the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics which states that journalists should “distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.”
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false
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The story included no mention of the cost of proton therapy – which is an important issue. A single patient’s treatment may be more than $50,000. There was no attempt to quantify the benefits of proton beam therapy. No harms were discussed for either the proton beam therapy or for the broad PSA testing recommendation that the reporter made. The reporter simply said “protons can be focused right on the tumor with few side effects.” That is insufficient detail. What are they? How often do they occur? As explained in the “disease-mongering” criterion, the reporter did not discuss the evidence about PSA screening. Nor did he discuss any evidence about proton beam therapy. How could a journalist handle this issue? The New York Times included this quote in its recent story: “There are no solid clinical data that protons are better,” said Dr. Theodore S. Lawrence, the chairman of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan. “If you are going to spend a lot more money, you want to make sure the patient can detect an improvement, not just a theoretical improvement.” The reporter, reporting on himself, commits disease mongering when he advises viewers: “Every guy over 50, doctors say sometimes every guy over 45, should get tested annually for prostate cancer. There’s a simple blood test called a PSA and a digital rectal exam where the doctor feels for lumps in the prostate. Early detection is the key.” That is not an evidence-based recommendation. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force states: The USPSTF concludes that the evidence is insufficient to recommend for or against routine screening for prostate cancer using prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing or digital rectal examination (DRE). Although the Task Force found evidence that screening can find prostate cancer early and that some cancers benefit from treatment, the Task Force is uncertain whether the potential benefits of prostate cancer screening justify the potential harms. The potential harms of prostate cancer screening include fairly frequent false-positive results from PSA screening, which may lead to unnecessary anxiety and biopsies. In addition, early detection and treatment may result in complications from treating some cancers that may never have affected a patient’s health. Claims were made about proton beam therapy, and advice was given about PSA testing, without any expert source being interviewed. The story focused on the reporter’s own proton beam therapy. The reporter said, “I was confused by all the treatment options: surgery, radiation, various other therapies.” This story didn’t clear up any confusion that viewers might have. The story also included the reporter’s own recommendation that men should be screened annually for prostate cancer. The option of not being screened was never mentioned. The reporter discussed his own treatment choice of proton therapy. But he never mentioned how difficult it is to find such devices. The New York Times recently reported that there were only five such devices in the U.S., with about a dozen more planned. The reporter never said anything about the novelty of proton beam therapy, questions about evidence and cost, and about its limited availability. The story was about the reporter’s own treatment – so it’s clear it didn’t rely on a news release.
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9906
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Group recommends Down syndrome testing
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"The story notes new screening guidelines and methods of detecting Down syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities earlier in pregnancy. The story explains why pregnant women of any age may wish to be screened. The story does not provide enough information on the downside or risks of these earlier methods of screening, and genetic counseling, including counseling about the risks of screening, is not mentioned. The story does not mention the cost of the early screening or multiple screenings, or if these are covered by health insurance. The story engages in test mongering. Testing for Down's syndrome may now be recommended for all pregnant women, regardless of age, but it does not always provide ""peace of mind"", as a positive result may mean a decision for more invasive testing and/or the decision to terminate a pregnancy. Sources cited in the story may be [or are likely] biased towards screening [all/most] pregnant women for Down's syndrome and other chromosomal defects. The story quotes ACOG committee members (ACOG established the new guidelines) and a physician affiliated with the March of Dimes. Not screening for chromosomal abnormalities during pregnancy is still an option for women, so a physician or patient could be cited to explain the rationale for this decision, providing some balance to the story. The story does provide the rationale for the change in screening guidelines, that is, why age 35 is no longer a benchmark for determining who should receive screening for Down syndrome, but there is no quantitative evidence for the recommendations for earlier and wider screening. In the context of the ""testing is good"" flavor, there needs to be some better sense of ability to find the target condition as well as risk of mis-labeling a normal pregnancy. If screening is available, sonographer/physician skill and training have a large effect on reliability. This point is not addressed in the story. The story does not mention the rate of false negatives or false positives of newer methods of screening. The story also does not mention how many women have an amniocentesis after a positive result with the earlier screening. The story notes that a woman with a positive Down’s result who chooses not to terminate her pregnancy may need to plan for specialized care at birth based on further ultrasound evaluation of anatomy. Finally, the story does not mention that children and adults with Down's syndrome can lead full lives, despite having health and learning problems."
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false
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"The story does not mention the cost of the early screening or multiple screenings. The story also does not mention if health insurance covers the cost of the newer methods of screening for Down syndrome. The story only mentions that women will know earlier if her fetus shows signs of Down syndrome. The story does not provide good data on the specificity of the earlier screening tests or how many women choose to end their pregnancies if they are given a positive result. The story does not provide enough information about benefits of screening, which need to be available to weigh in the context of cost, accuracy, and potential harms. The story minimizes the harms of testing. The story does list the risk of miscarriage with amniocentisis, but does not mention the risks with newer tests. The story does not provide much detail on the specificity of the newer tests, but says they are ""80 percent accurate"". We are not told how this compares to older methods of screening. The story also does not mention the rate of false negatives or false positives of newer methods of screening, such as nuchal translucency. The story says that earlier screening would provide women with ""peace of mind"", which may not be true in the case of a positive test. The decision to terminate a pregnancy–one option with a positive result–may be difficult for many women. This is not mentioned in the story. The story only notes that women with a positive Down's screening will need to plan for specialized care at delivery. Specialized pediatric care and other support services may be needed long after delivery and the post-partum period. The story should be given credit for providing the rationale for the change in screening guidelines, that is, why age 35 is not longer a benchmark for determining who is screened for chromosomal abnormalities in pregnancy. However, the story does not provide any quantitative evidence for the change in recommended earlier screening. In the context of the ""testing is good"" flavor, there needs to be some better sense of ability to find the target condition as well as risk of mis-labeling a normal pregnancy. The story does not mention the rate of false positives or false negatives with the newer, first-trimester screenings. The story also does not mention how many women have an amniocentesis after a positive result. The story engages in test mongering. Testing for Down's syndrome may now be recommended for all pregnant women, regardless of age, but it does not always provide ""peace of mind"" and a woman should know that a positive result would mean a decision for more invasive testing and possibly the decision to terminate a pregnancy. The article caught the cultural current that dictates that all biomedical information is good and of course everyone will want testing. It over-amplified the significance of the results. Additionally, detection of Down syndrome does not mean a woman must terminate her pregnancy. The story does not mention that children and adults with Down's syndrome can lead full lives, despite having health and learning problems. Sources cited in the story may be [or are likely] biased towards screening [all/most] pregnanct women for Down's syndrome and other chromosomal defects. The story quotes ACOG committee members (ACOG established the new guidelines) and a physician affiliated with the March of Dimes. Not screening for Down's during pregnancy is still an option for women, so a physician or patient could be cited to explain the rationale for this decision, providing some balance to the story. The story mentions earlier methods of screening, as well as amniocentesis for detecting Down's syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities in pregnancy. However, the piece only partially fulfllls the criteria by listing or alluding to these tests, but does not attempt to provide any sense of direct comparison among options. The story notes that not all of the newer methods of early screening, such as nuchal translucency, are available in all hospitals, as they require specialized training. If screening is available, sonographer/physician skill and training have a large effect on reliability. This point is not addressed in the story. The story notes that screening guidelines for women younger than age 35 have changed. The story also covers changes in recommendations as new, while pointing out that in some locations nuchal translucency has been in use for more than a decade. The story conducts independent reporting and does not rely solely on a press release for information."
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9456
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FDA OKs continuous blood sugar monitor without finger pricks
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This Associated Press story describes a newly FDA-approved device — a continuous glucose monitor that does not require any blood testing. The story does a great job describing the convenience and the potential for better blood sugar monitoring, and therefore, better regulation of insulin levels in people with diabetes. However, the story doesn’t evaluate the evidence for these claims. How well does the device work in real patients compared to existing systems? It’s a pretty key question that goes unanswered. More than 29 million Americans have diabetes, according the CDC. The disease requires that patients check their glucose levels throughout the day and self-administer insulin to keep those levels within a normal range. Improvements in medical technology over the past few decades have meant blood sugar monitoring and insulin delivery that is both more accurate and more convenient, helping people with diabetes maintain steadier glucose levels and have fewer crisis events. Eliminating the need for finger pricks to test one’s blood has the potential to optimize this process even more.
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mixture
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diabetes
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The story does not put a number to the cost of the two-part device, saying the device-maker is not yet disclosing that info. The benefits of the new continuous blood sugar monitor are not quantified in any way. At the very least, we’d like to know how accurate the sensor is compared to the current method of blood testing. The story does not consider any potential harms of the system. Is there a failure risk (which might mean patients have to go back to finger pricks to do blood testing). And, since we don’t how good the accuracy is (see benefits), is there a risk that errant blood sugar readings might lead to improper insulin dosing, and the risks that lie therein? We would also need to know under what conditions the device may not function properly. For example, if the person is sweating profusely, or very chilled, etc. The consequences of poor accuracy under suboptimal conditions are not explored. The story provides no evidence for benefits or harms, so there’s no qualitative assessment. A discussion of what evidence the FDA used to base their decision upon would be very useful, since medical devices often receive lower scrutiny from the FDA. The story does not engage in disease-mongering. Diabetes is common and problematic. Notably, however, most people with Type 2 diabetes who are not on insulin do not need to monitor their blood glucose. The one quoted source in the story is a paid consultant for a number of diabetes device companies. We think an outside perspective, a diabetes doctor or research who does not stand to profit from blood sugar monitoring device sales, is crucial here. The story describes well the current methods that people with diabetes use to monitor their blood sugar: Standard glucose meters and continuous glucose monitoring devices, both which require two or more finger pricks each day. The story also mentions another product, from a different device maker and new this year, that directly links to a personal insulin pump. The story tells us that “should be available in pharmacies within months.” The story makes clear what is new and different about this device — it does not require daily finger pricks to calibrate the readings. However, it is clear there is a competing product, which begs the question: Why is this so interesting if something similar is already out? That should have been explored more. The story does not appear to rely on new release from either the device maker Abbott or the FDA.
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26352
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Media outlets reported that the same boy died 3 times from the coronavirus, in 3 countries.
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The photo in the post is of Vitor Rafael Bastos Godinho, a 14-year-old Portuguese boy who died after testing positive for the novel coronavirus. He is correctly identified in all the stories that use the image.
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false
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Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
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"Amid a pandemic that is believed to affect elderly people most severely, the deaths of several young people from COVID-19 around the world have drawn special attention — and generated misinformation. A post on Facebook falsely claims that different media outlets misused a boy’s image to report that he died from the coronavirus three times in three different countries. The post shares a collage of screenshots of various news reports that appear to include the same image. The text above reads: ""Child dies in 3 countries of corona virus."" The photo depicts Vitor Rafael Bastos Godinho, a 14-year-old Portuguese boy who died at the end of March after testing positive for the novel coronavirus. The Portuguese newspaper Record wrote about his death. Other news outlets also reported on Godinho’s death and correctly identified him, including the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail, whose article appears in the center of the collage. The Daily Express, another U.K. outlet in the collage, wrote about a 12-year-old girl who died from COVID-19 in Belgium. That story includes Godinho’s photo, but not in connection with the girl. It includes his photo in a reference to another young person who died from the virus and correctly identifies him in the caption. Lastly, an article by the U.K.’s Daily Record that appears in the Facebook post didn’t use Godinho’s photo at all. That March 31 story covered the death of a 13-year-old boy, Ismail Mohaemd Abdulwahab, from the U.K. There is no photo of any child in the article. It’s unclear where the screenshot combining Godinho’s photo and Abdulwahab’s name originated. We couldn’t find its source. Godinho’s photo does turn up in image searches on the Abdulwahab story headline, but they link to accurate reports about Godinho’s death. All the articles referenced in the post correctly identify the boy in the photo and did not misuse his image."
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39172
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Wheat is toxic because farmers routinely apply Roundup to crops days before harvest to dry down or kill the plants.
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The Real Reason Wheat is Toxic
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unproven
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Food / Drink
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The theory that Roundup makes wheat toxic is yet another unproven attempt to explain why more and more people are suffering from wheat intolerance. The eRumor first appeared in a blog published by the Healthy Home Economist in November 2014. The post claims that farmers who treat crops with Roundup days before harvest are to blame for wheat intolerance, which is also referred to as celiac disease or a gluten allergy. The post, which was quickly shared more than 560,000 times on Facebook, states: “Wheat harvest protocol in the United States is to drench the wheat fields with Roundup several days before the combine harvesters work through the fields as withered, dead wheat plants are less taxing on the farm equipment and allows for an earlier, easier and bigger harvest.” It’s true that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, can be applied to wheat before harvest in a process known as “desiccation.” However, it’s not clear how often desiccation is used. According to the University of Minnesota Extension: “Research has shown that glyphosate applied with or without ammonium sulfate may hasten dry down of the wheat crop if conditions for dry down are adverse. With a pre-harvest interval of seven days, a couple of days at the most, may be gained.” The use of desiccation “has increased steadily,” but there’s still not enough experimental data to determine desiccation’s impact on wheat and seed quality, the Journal of Seed Science reports. Those claims often cite USDA statistics that report 98 percent of spring wheat, 99 percent of durum wheat and 61 percent of winter wheat was treated with glyphosate in 2012. However, those statistics don’t tell us how often wheat was treated days before harvest — only what percentage was treated at some point in the crop’s lifecycle. TruthorFiction.com reached out to the National Association of Wheat Growers for comment on the prevalence of desiccation. Future updates will be posted here. It is true, however, that glyphosate has become the most widely used herbicide on food crops. Anywhere from 13 to 20 million acres of crops are treated with 18.7 million gallons of it each year, the EPA says. The eRumor’s claim that glyphosate causes wheat intolerance is also proven. A 2009 study on glyphosate’s impact on freshwater fish is regularly cited when health claims are made about glyphosate. The study found that glyphosate created “severe pathological lesions” and “microridges” in the digestive tracts of fish. That rendered them unable to “lubricate ingested food” or to “withstand trauma resulting from ingested material.” A scientific paper published in 2013 called for additional research to determine whether or not glyphosate has the same impact on human digestive systems because its effects would be similar to celiac disease. The researchers concluded: “The monitoring of glyphosate levels in food and in human urine and blood has been inadequate. The common practice of desiccation and/or ripening with glyhposate right before the harvest ensures that glyphosate residues are present in our food supply … We urge governments globally to reexamine their policy towards glyphosate and to introduce new legislation that would restrict its usage.” There’s no doubt that wheat intolerance is on the rise. The Mayo Clinic estimates that four times more people are affected by it today than in the 1950s. The only question is why it has been on the rise, and researchers don’t have a definitive answer. Dr. Chella David, a geneticist and immunologist at Mayo, says it could be caused by immune systems turning on themselves because our environments are so sterile that they have nothing else to attack. He says differences in the ways wheat is processed and eaten could be a factor as well. “Many of the processed foods we eat were not in existence 50 years ago,” David says. A number of theories exist to explain why more and more people can’t eat gluten, and the only clear answer is that more research is needed to find the true cause. Posted 11/14/14 Comments
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9513
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How Your Morning Coffee Might Slow Down Aging
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The story focuses on a recent journal article in Nature Medicine, which identified specific genes and gene modules (or groups of genes) associated with inflammation in older adults. The story notes that inflammation is associated with a number of health problems. However, the story focuses on an aspect of the research which is not given much attention in the actual journal article. Namely, the journal article notes that researchers identified caffeine as having an inhibitory effect on one of the genes associated with inflammation. But the news story translates this as meaning that drinking coffee can slow down aging. That’s a stretch. The story also uses vague — and potentially overstated — language to infer that inflammation is the causal factor for a host of diseases. While many chronic diseases are associated with inflammation, there’s little conclusive evidence that lowering inflammation levels — or drinking coffee for that matter — will prevent these diseases. People love finding out that there is something simple they can do to make themselves healthier. Even better, people love hearing that something they already do is actually beneficial to their health. So it’s easy to see why a reporter would be tempted to report this study as finding that drinking coffee can help ward off a variety of diseases. However, the story overreaches here, in a number of ways. The sample size involved in the caffeine-related part of the study was small, which the story doesn’t address; the role of caffeine was only addressed in regard to one of the relevant genes, which the story doesn’t address; and the story appears to overstate the role of inflammation in causing some diseases. Stories need to treat study findings — and their limitations — responsibly, in order to avoid the hype associated with back-and-forth reporting about what is and is not good for you.
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false
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coffee,inflammation
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The story doesn’t address cost. However, the story focuses almost exclusively on coffee consumption — and most readers can be assumed to be familiar with the cost of coffee. We’ll rate this as not applicable. The story provides no numbers that would help readers grasp the size of the benefit offered by coffee. Instead, the story uses sweeping language that offers readers little real insight. For example: “older people with low levels of inflammation — which drives many, if not most, major diseases — had something surprising in common: they were all caffeine drinkers.” Or: “People who drank more than five cups of coffee a day showed extremely low levels of activity in the inflammatory gene pathway.” That second line is particularly unusual, since it’s not clear where it came from — the journal article doesn’t mention how many cups of coffee study participants drank per day. In fact, the closest the journal article comes is to note that “moderate coffee consumption may suppress systemic inflammation that is caused by inflammasome activation, which may account for its correlation with decreased mortality.” Harms aren’t addressed at all — and there are potential harms associated with drinking, as the story says, “more than five cups of coffee a day.” As the Mayo Clinic notes: “Even among adults, heavy caffeine use [more than around four cups of coffee per day] can cause unpleasant side effects [including fast heartbeat and muscle tremors]….Some people are more sensitive to caffeine than are others. If you’re susceptible to the effects of caffeine, just small amounts — even one cup of coffee or tea — may prompt unwanted effects, such as restlessness and sleep problems.” The story does not clearly describe the study for readers. It does not establish that the study was observational in nature, showing associations only, and therefore not capable of proving a cause and effect relationship between coffee consumption and inflammation. Perhaps more importantly, the study doesn’t make clear that it is difficult or impossible to draw conclusions that would apply to the general public from a study of only 114 individuals. The story says that inflammation “drives many, if not most, major diseases.” Further, the story states that “diabetes, hypertension, heart problems, cancer, joint disorders and Alzheimer’s, are all believed to have inflammation in common.” There is some truth here. As a 2014 paper in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery notes, “The role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes and associated complications is now well established.” Similarly, inflammation is associated with some cancers. However, sweeping statements should be supported by solid evidence — and this one stretches the point. For example, the American Heart Association notes that “Although it is not proven that inflammation causes cardiovascular disease, inflammation is common for heart disease and stroke patients and is thought to be a sign or [sic] atherogenic response.” (Note: atherogenic describes something that tends to promote fatty plaque in the arteries.) So, is inflammation a risk factor for heart disease? Many doctors believe so. Does it “drive” heart disease? That depends on what “drive” means — inflammation hasn’t been shown to cause heart disease in itself. Lowering inflammation hasn’t been proven to prevent it. And that’s why vague language is so problematic when writing about health-related research. This is, in part, why the “disease mongering” category exists — to ensure that vague writing (not only blatantly incorrect writing) doesn’t lead to increased fears among readers who don’t fully understand the state of the research. The story quotes only researchers associated with the study and does not tell readers who funded the work. In this case, all of the funding appears to come from well-regarded research institutions, such as NIH and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Input from third-party experts may have helped better place the findings in context. There are a wide variety of drugs available to treat various forms of inflammation, none of which are addressed. In the context of treating inflammation to ward off disease, some drugs are particularly worth mentioning. For example, the National Cancer Institute notes that “Many studies have investigated whether anti-inflammatory medications, such as aspirin or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, reduce the risk of cancer. However, a clear answer is not yet available.” By the same token, given the story’s focus on coffee consumption, it might have been worth exploring other vehicles for caffeine consumption, such as tea or soda — particularly given that different caffeinated foods and beverages can include widely varying amounts of sodium, sugars or fats that can impact how “healthy” they are. As with cost, it can be assumed that most readers are familiar with how to make or purchase coffee. We’ll rate this not applicable. There is a significant body of work related to caffeine and various types of inflammation and inflammatory response. The story does not address that body of work at all. However, we do give the story credit for linking to a previous story that offered an overview of research on coffee consumption and health. However, that previous story was not focused on links between caffeine and inflammation. The story does not appear to be based on a news release.
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6150
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Grant will help promote health benefits of maple syrup.
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Everyone knows that maple syrup is delicious, but not everyone knows it has potential health benefits too.
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true
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Rhode Island, Science, University of Rhode Island
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A team of University of Rhode Island scientists is hoping to change that with a nearly $500,000 federal grant they’ll use to promote the maple industry, stressing the sustainability and market value of the crop and its potential health benefits. The initiative, called the Collaborative to Communicate Maple Benefits, will target New England, New York and New Jersey. Navindra Seeram, professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences at URI, says maple food products have a unique compositional chemistry containing minerals, vitamins, amino acids and more than 67 bioactive natural plant compounds with potential health benefits. His findings have shown that maple compounds may help stabilize blood glucose levels, fight inflammation and help fight wrinkles.
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10864
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Scientists use synthetic corneas to restore vision
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"Unlike the other two stories, this one takes too long to tell readers just how small the study really was. It does not bring in any outside experts to help put the research into context. Nor does it establish the novelty of the treatment, discuss the availability or even mention the potential costs. Because of this missing information, the story actually presents a more enthusiastic view of the research than the press release. Up high in the story, one of the researchers is quoted saying, ""this approach could help restore sight to millions of people who are waiting for a donated human cornea for transplantation,"" and the rest of the story makes no effort to explain how much more research would need to be done nor how significant the barriers would be in most of the world in terms of medical staffing, surgical equipment and training for this type of procedure. There’s a reason that human corneal transplants don’t reach everyone in the world who is blind, and it’s not just a shortage of corneas. This story, and most of the coverage of this study, presents this study as a breakthrough with huge public health implications globally. If this reporter or the others had called an organization such as Unite for Sight or the Lions Club International, they would have been able to provide readers with the appropriate notes of caution to temper some of the hype."
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false
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"There is no discussion of costs. Again, charitiable organizations who work in this area could have provided some ballpark figures for human corneal transplants. The researchers claim in another story that this option would be cheaper. At a minimum, a dollar figure would have been good context. Like the other two stories reviewed, this reporter made the smart choice of avoiding the use of percentages in explaining the benefits. It would have been easy to say that 60% of the patients had improved vision, which sounds more impressive than six of the 10. More numbers and more context would have been ideal, but, given the size of the study, the amount of explanation of the potential benefits is adequate. The last sentence of the story says, ""Fagerholm said the patients in this trial had no problems with rejection and did not need long-term immune suppression drugs to help their bodies accept the corneas."" This is about as much space as any of the stories devoted to the harms. It would have been nice to see a little more detail here, but, if after two years there were not any side effects, this is a satisfactory quantification. This story does a better job than the other two stories of explaining the science behind cornea transplants. But, the story focuses too much on the ""gee whiz"" of the study’s findings and too little on the study’s limitations. Again, the press release presented more caveats than this story does. Because of the tone of the story and the focus on the ""millions"" who might be saved from blindness and not on the limitations of the study, this story veers into disease mongering. It says, ""Loss of vision due to corneal disease or trauma affects over 10 million people a year, but lack of access to donor tissue limits the number of transplants, particularly in poorer countries. In the United States, an estimated 42,000 corneal grafts a year are performed using tissue from posthumous donors, but there are sometimes problems with rejection and experts say failure rates are significant."" Both of these statistics needed attribution, especially given that there are conflicting statistics in other coverage of the same study. The statistics do not come from the press release. There are no independent sources. The story does make the effort of explaining that a biotech company provided the substance used to create the corneas, giving readers a hint that this could be primarily a commercial enterprise. The story does compare the treatment to human tissue transplants. It could have pointed out that the study was not designed as a direct comparison with people who received a human cornea transplant. There is no discussion of the availability. Unlike the WebMD story, this story did not make it clear how preliminary this research is. Instead, it used phrases such as, ""their findings offered hope for the millions of people who go blind each year because of a worldwide shortage of corneas for donation"" and ""this approach could help restore sight to millions of people who are waiting for donated human corneas for transplantation."" The WebMD story makes it clear at the top how unique this procedure is. This story does not make it clear at all. The first quote appears to come straight out of the press release, with some words cut out. Here’s the quote from the release. ""This study is important because it is the first to show that an artificially fabricated cornea can integrate with the human eye and stimulate regeneration,"" said senior author Dr. May Griffith of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, the University of Ottawa and Linköping University. ""With further research, this approach could help restore sight to millions of people who are waiting for a donated human cornea for transplantation."" And here’s the one from the story. ""This study … is the first to show that an artificially fabricated cornea can integrate with the human eye and stimulate regeneration,"" said May Griffith of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, who led the study. There are few facts in the story that are not in the release. So, while we can’t say the story relied solely on a news release, there’s some suspicion that it relied too much on it – and yet, in the end, felt more enthusiastic than the news release."
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16310
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"Under my platform, ""I will make no changes to the current (Medicare) system for current retirees and anyone approaching retirement."
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"Cotton said that under his platform, he ""will make no changes to the current (Medicare) system for current retirees and anyone approaching retirement."" Cotton has consistently supported repeal of Obamacare, and while he has sometimes noted that something needs to be enacted to ""replace"" the law, we couldn’t find any examples in which he specifically pledged to protect the Medicare policies that would be eliminated if the law was repealed, such as the closing of the doughnut hole and free preventive health-care services."
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false
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National, Health Care, Medicare, Retirement, Tom Cotton,
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"During a debate in the hotly contested Arkansas Senate race, Republican Tom Cotton and Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor squared off over the question of Medicare and how it would be affected by the Affordable Care Act, the health care law sometimes called Obamacare. A moderator kicked off the exchange by noting that TV ads in the race had made several claims about possible changes to Medicare and where the candidates stood on those changes. Pryor was asked, ""What specifically would you change about the current system, if anything?"" Pryor answered by parrying a charge that he had voted to cut $700 billion from Medicare by voting for Obamacare. (We have rated Cotton’s earlier claim that Pryor ""cut Medicare to pay for Obamacare"" by $700 billion Half True.) In fact, Pryor said that Cotton ""has voted for that very same $700 billion (cut) he loves to criticize me for."" (We rated a close variation of that claim True.) When given an opportunity to respond, Cotton took the questioner’s claim head-on. Cotton said, ""The answer to your question is: I will make no changes to the current (Medicare) system for current retirees and anyone approaching retirement."" We wondered if that was what his platform really shows. The answer hinges on two separate questions. First, Does Cotton support repeal of Obamacare? And second, if Obamacare is repealed, would that prompt changes to Medicare either for current retirees or people approaching retirement? The short answers are yes and yes. Here are the more detailed explanations. Does Cotton support the repeal of Obamacare? Cotton’s staff didn’t return an inquiry from PolitiFact, but we found lots of examples of Cotton arguing that Obamacare should be repealed. • ""I will fight to repeal and replace Obamacare with free-market reforms that empower patients and doctors to make health-care decisions. … Obamacare must be repealed entirely."" -- Cotton’s House of Representatives office website, accessed Oct. 15, 2014. • I ""will fight to repeal Obamacare."" -- Cotton’s Facebook page, accessed Oct. 15, 2014. • ""What we have to do is repeal Obamacare, start over, and get it right."" -- Cotton at a press conference with former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, Aug 21, 2014. • ""We would repeal Obamacare and replace it entirely with many reforms for our health care program."" -- Cotton at a press conference, April 13, 2014 • And most clearly, a pledge Cotton signed that says, ""I pledge to vote for all bills which seek to REPEAL the health care bill, HR 3590, signed into law on March 23, 2010. To that end, I do now and will in the next Congress endorse and vote for all measures, including discharge petitions, leading to its defunding, deauthorization, and repeal. I shall do so whether those measures are taken for the whole of the bill or those component parts that impose mandates, restrict patient and doctor choice and access, violate individual freedom and privacy, reduce healthy competition, increase costs, or raise taxes."" It’s worth noting that, at times, Cotton has expressed a desire to ""replace"" the newly repealed law with something else. However, we’ve failed to uncover an instance in which Cotton provided a detailed description of the Medicare policies that would be reinstated after a repeal. Cotton has also expressed an openness to more limited efforts, such as defunding the law, if a repeal can’t be achieved. Still, it’s clear from these comments that repeal is his first choice. Bottom line: Yes, Cotton has said consistently that he wants to repeal the law. If Obamacare is repealed, would that prompt changes to Medicare for current beneficiaries? It would. The highest-profile element of the law that would disappear in the event of a full repeal is the closing of the ""doughnut hole."" The law made strides to ease the previous, longstanding gap in coverage for beneficiaries in which they weren’t able to get government subsidies for prescription drug purchases under Medicare Part D. However, this isn’t the only example of a benefit included in the Affordable Care Act that would disappear for those currently on Medicare if the law is repealed and replacement provisions aren’t specifically enacted. Here are others, gleaned from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s summary of the health care law: • Elimination of cost-sharing for Medicare-covered preventive services. • Authorization of Medicare coverage of ""personalized prevention plan services,"" including an annual, comprehensive health-risk assessment. • Incentives to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries to complete behavior-modification programs, such as smoking cessation. • Reduction in the out-of-pocket amount that qualifies an enrollee for catastrophic coverage for prescriptions. • Expansion of Medicare coverage to individuals who have been exposed to environmental health hazards from living in an area subject to an emergency declaration made as of June 17, 2009, and have developed certain health conditions as a result. • Prohibition of Medicare Advantage plans from imposing higher cost-sharing requirements for some Medicare-covered benefits than is required under the traditional fee-for-service program. In other words, current Medicare beneficiaries would feel a significant impact if a replacement law is not forthcoming after a repeal. We see no evidence that Cotton has pledged to protect any of these specific provisions in the wake of a repeal. Our ruling Cotton said that under his platform, he ""will make no changes to the current (Medicare) system for current retirees and anyone approaching retirement."" Cotton has consistently supported repeal of Obamacare, and while he has sometimes noted that something needs to be enacted to ""replace"" the law, we couldn’t find any examples in which he specifically pledged to protect the Medicare policies that would be eliminated if the law was repealed, such as the closing of the doughnut hole and free preventive health-care services."
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6716
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Predators’ Watson: Alcohol issues led to his arrest.
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Nashville Predators forward Austin Watson says the arrest last year that led to his 18-game suspension came when he started drinking again after 23 months of sobriety.
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true
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Health, NHL, Nashville, Alcoholism, Nashville Predators, Arrests, Sports, Hockey, Austin Watson
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Watson, who turns 27 on Sunday, said Friday in an Instagram post that he’s been dealing with anxiety, depression and alcoholism since the age of 18. Watson said he voluntarily entered the NHL’s substance abuse program after his June 16 arrest. “I am currently sober and committed to living a healthy lifestyle so that I can be the father, partner, teammate and person I want to be,” Watson said. Watson pleaded no contest July 24 to domestic assault and agreed to a judicial diversion program that enabled the misdemeanor charge to be dismissed if he served three months of probation and completed an in-patient treatment program and a batterer’s intervention program. He initially received a 27-game suspension from the NHL, but an arbitrator reduced it to 18 games. He was reinstated in mid-November and has six goals and two assists in 28 games this season. Watson was arrested in connection with a June 16 incident after a witness flagged down a police officer to a gas station in Franklin Tennessee. According to the incident report, Watson told police he and his girlfriend were arguing and that he pushed her. Officers said they found red marks on her chest, and she said Watson caused them. Watson’s girlfriend, Jenn Guardino, issued a statement in October taking blame for the incident and saying Watson would never hit or abuse her. In her statement, Guardino said she had “struggled with alcoholism for many years.” In his Instagram post, Watson said that he and his girlfriend were “engaged in a heated, nonphysical argument” that day. Watson said that both he and his girlfriend had relapsed in their battles with alcoholism during the month leading up to the incident. “I did not cause marks on her chest or blood on her leg,” Watson said. “I did handle matters that day poorly and did not uphold the standards of an employee of the Nashville Predators or National Hockey League. “I take full responsibility for my involvement in the argument and have learned from the situation and taken the necessary steps to ensure that nothing of this nature happens again.” Watson added that he and his girlfriend are “healthy, happy and committed to our own individual sobriety as well as continuing to strengthen our relationship.” “We have learned from our mistakes and are excited to move forward in our relationship,” Watson said. “We wish only to raise our daughter Olivia in the most healthy and loving atmosphere we can provide.” ___ More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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8763
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Clones' offspring may be in food supply: FDA.
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Food and milk from the offspring of cloned animals may have entered the U.S. food supply, the U.S. government said on Tuesday, but it would be impossible to know because there is no difference between cloned and conventional products.
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true
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Science News
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Gloria, the first calf born to a cloned cow, Vitoria (L), is seen on a government farm outside Brasilia in this October 4, 2004 file photo. REUTERS/Jamil Bittar/Files The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in January meat and milk from cloned cattle, swine and goats and their offspring were as safe as products from traditional animals. Before then, farmers and ranchers had followed a voluntary moratorium on the sale of clones and their offspring. While the FDA evaluated the safety of food from clones and their offspring, the U.S. Agriculture Department was in charge of managing the transition of these animals into the food supply. “It is theoretically possible” offspring from clones are in the food supply, said Siobhan DeLancey, an FDA spokeswoman. Cloning animals involves taking the nuclei of cells from adults and fusing them into egg cells that are implanted into a surrogate mother. There are an estimated 600 cloned animals in the United States. Proponents, including the Biotechnology Industry Organization, say cloning is a way to create more disease-resistant animals that produce more milk and better meat. The cloning industry and the FDA say cloned animals and their offspring are as safe as their traditional counterparts. Critics contend not enough is known about the technology to ensure it is safe, and they also say the FDA needs to address concerns over animal cruelty and ethical issues. “It worries me that this technology is out of control in so many ways,” said Charles Margulis, a spokesman with the Center for Environmental Health. The possibility of offspring being in the food supply “is just another element of that,” he said. FDA and USDA have said it is impossible to differentiate between cloned animals, their offspring and conventionally bred animals, making it difficult to know if offspring are in the food supply. “But they would be a very limited number because of the very few number of clones that are out there and relatively few of those clones are at an age where they would be parenting,” said Bruce Knight, USDA’s undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs. As the FDA unveiled its final rule, USDA in January asked producers to prolong the ban on selling products from cloned animals. That ban did not extend to meat and milk from the clone’s offspring. Major food companies including Tyson Foods Inc, the largest U.S. meat company, and Smithfield Foods Inc have said they would avoid using cloned animals because of safety concerns. The list grew on Tuesday after the Center for Food Safety and Friends of the Earth said 20 food producers and retailers vowed not to use ingredients from cloned animals. The list, provided by the two groups, included Kraft Foods Inc, General Mills Inc, Campbell Soup Co, Nestle SA, California Pizza Kitchen Inc and Supervalu Inc. In a letter to the Center for Food Safety, Susan Davison, director of corporate affairs with Kraft, said product safety was “not the only factor” the company considers. “We must also carefully consider additional factors such as consumer benefits and acceptance ... and research in the U.S. indicates that consumers are currently not receptive to ingredients from cloned animals,” she said.
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26460
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NC liquor stores were deemed essential “because we have a lot of people who are chemically dependent on alcohol and if we suddenly cut off their access they would go into withdrawal and flood the emergency rooms.”
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"Liquor stores in North Carolina, known as ABC stores, are considered essential businesses during the coronavirus lockdown. A Democratic state Senator said the stores are essential because some people are dependant on alcohol and, if they don't get it, they'll go into withdrawal and ""flood"" emergency rooms. Neither Gov. Roy Cooper, nor his Executive Order or administration, ever specifically mentioned a concern for hospitals as a reason liquor stores are allowed to remain open."
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false
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Alcohol, North Carolina, Coronavirus, Jeff Jackson,
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"To limit the spread of coronavirus, authorities are asking some businesses to close and allowing some to stay open. That’s the case in North Carolina, where Gov. Roy Cooper has issued a stay-at-home order and deemed some businesses ""essential."" Gas stations, grocery stores and home supply stores like Home Depot are among the businesses considered essential and allowed to stay open. North Carolina’s state-run liquor stores are also considered essential. Why? NC state Sen. Jeff Jackson, a Democrat from Mecklenburg County, recently addressed that question on Twitter. ""Why are liquor stores still open?"" Jackson asked rhetorically in an April 6 tweet. ""It’s because we have a lot of people who are chemically dependent on alcohol and if we suddenly cut off their access they would go into withdrawal and flood the emergency rooms, which we can’t have right now,"" he said. Is that true? The governor’s office is in charge of designating which businesses are ""essential"" and allowed to stay open. But Cooper’s executive order didn’t offer a reason why liquor stores or any other businesses are considered essential. Kelly Haight Connor, spokeswoman for North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services, told PolitiFact in an email that the reasoning was simple. ""People need to stay home as much as possible. And while restaurants, bars and other areas of communal gathering must be closed, people should be able to buy items used in their day to day lives,"" she said. PolitiFact could find no proof that Cooper’s decision to designate liquor stores as essential businesses was made to accommodate people who might be dependent on alcohol. Further, if liquor stores were hypothetically asked to close, North Carolinians could still access alcohol in the form of wine and beer at grocery stores. When we reached out to Jackson about this claim, his office noted that individual ABC boards across the state have the flexibility to decide whether or not they want to remain open. Jeff Strickland, a spokesman for the ABC Commission, confirmed each of the state’s 170 boards does, indeed, have that freedom. ""If a board wants to close down, they have that authority,"" Strickland said. The commission doesn’t have an official stance on why its stores should or shouldn’t remain open, he added. To that end, Jackson’s office pointed out that some ABC store operators have cited alcohol dependency as a reason for staying open. Jackson’s office emailed us an article by WLOS in Asheville, where local ABC manager Jason Thacker told WLOS that he’s heard concerns about overwhelming hospitals. ""Studies show that abruptly limiting access to alcohol could lead to an increase in withdrawal for people with severe alcohol use disorder and add to the burden of the health care system, which is the last thing that needs to happen right now,"" Thacker told WLOS. Jackson’s office also provided links to stories about why liquor stores are being kept open in other states such as Connecticut, New Jersey and Texas. In Connecticut, for example, Gov. Ned Lamont said there’s a medical reason behind the exemption for liquor stores. ""I think the thought process by the (Connecticut) governor is that if we do close the liquor stores this could create an unnecessary problem and really cut off a needed resource,"" Dr. Andrew Lim, the medical director of Bristol Hospital’s Emergency Department, told NBC News in Connecticut. However, addiction specialists aren’t unified in their belief that liquor store access will prevent emergency room admissions. John Watkins, who owns Johnston Counseling Services, told WRAL that people who are physically dependent on alcohol could suffer withdrawal symptoms in less than a day if they can’t access it. But Ward Blanchard, president of The Blanchard Institute addiction recovery center in Charlotte, told Spectrum News that leaving ABC stores open could also lead to ER admissions. He said some who are dependent on alcohol could, if left alone with high volumes of it, go overboard. ""When you are in a situation where people are isolated and there is already stress and anxiety, and then you throw liquor on top of that, I think that would overthrow a healthcare system more so than closing it would,"" Blanchard said. Jackson said liquor stores are still open because ""we have a lot of people who are chemically dependent on alcohol and if we suddenly cut off their access they would go into withdrawal and flood the emergency rooms, which we can’t have right now."" Gov. Cooper is responsible for determining which businesses are considered essential, and his administration hasn’t mentioned alcohol dependency as a reason for the designation. The only evidence Jackson cited was an ABC operations manager in Asheville who said some store owners are concerned about closures potentially affecting the hospital system. But it’s not clear that that concern is shared among all 170 ABC store owners. Jackson’s statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression about North Carolina’s Executive Order."
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24718
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"In the 1970s, ""the swine flu broke out . . . under another Democrat, President Jimmy Carter."
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Michele Bachmann wrong that swine flu broke out under Carter
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false
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National, Health Care, Michele Bachmann,
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"Michele Bachmann, a Republican member of Congress from Minnesota, is known for her controversial remarks. During the fall of 2008, she nearly lost her re-election campaign because she said Barack Obama ""may have anti-American views."" In a 2009 radio interview, she said incorrectly that six Muslim clerics who were removed from a US Airways flight in 2006 were attending a ""victory celebration"" for Keith Ellison, a Muslim who was elected to Congress. So we weren't exactly surprised when we heard her suggest a link between Democratic presidents and the swine flu. Here's her comment, from an interview with Pajamas Media: ""I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence."" Well, at least she's right about the decade. Yes, the last big swine flu scare occurred in the 1970s. But other than that, her statement is utterly false. The scare began in February 1976 when recruits at Fort Dix, N.J., came down with flu symptoms, and one died. This led to fears of a pandemic. The president in 1976 was Gerald Ford — a Republican. Ford, following the advice of public health officials, called for a nationwide vaccination program. In just 10 days, 40 million Americans were vaccinated. But three senior citizens died shortly after receiving their swine flu shots. A public outcry blamed the deaths on the immunizations even though there was no evidence. As a recent article in Salon notes, ""The government had long feared mass panic about swine flu — now they feared mass panic about the swine flu vaccinations."" Political analyst Craig Crawford wrote this week that ""Gerald Ford's decision to inoculate every person in the country (including himself) resulted in a political debacle that contributed to a reputation for incompetence that scuttled his 1976 election bid."" Swine flu also surfaced briefly in 1988, killing a woman in Wisconsin who had visited a swine exhibit at a county fair. The president at the time was Ronald Reagan — a Republican. So Bachmann is wrong about a Democrat being in charge during the 1976 outbreak and she fails to note the swine flu death in 1988. Hmmm. Two swine flu incidents during Republican administrations. By Bachmann's logic, we should find that ""interesting."" But we don't. It's ridiculous for her to suggest a partisan link with a deadly disease. That's not just a mistake, that's absurdly false. So we'll get out the lighter (after we wash our hands!) and set the Truth-O-Meter ablaze. This one's a ."
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34711
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It takes a greater number of facial muscles to frown than it does to smile.
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Smiling makes us feel happier. It is not a cure-all for every situation (that is, don’t look to it to remedy overwhelming grief), but in terms of getting us past a small dose of the blues, it can help to lift the sense of sadness being experienced.
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unproven
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Uncategorized, frown, muscles, smile
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Some sayings have been with us so long that their origins are now wholly forgotten. This popular aphorism about a greater number of facial muscles being needed to produce a frown than are required to generate a smile is one such snippet of homespun wisdom; it has been a part of our cultural landscape for so long that no one now knows where it began: Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1994] It takes 37 muscles to frown. And 22 muscles to smile. So Smile. It conserves energy ) :) :) Yet, as widespread as this saying is, the figures touted therein about the number of muscles required to form both expressions change from telling to telling, seemingly at will. Everyone has heard it a different way, and everyone passes along the version they’ve heard as rock-solid certainty, presenting same as an indisputable fact of science. Here is a quick sampling of some of ways this saying has been framed, as gleaned from a variety of news articles on any number of topics, including sports, music, and health: One deep-fried-Zen adage advises: “It takes 13 muscles to smile and 33 to frown. Why overwork?” (The Washington Post, 5 December 1982) “You know the old adage that it only takes 10 muscles to smile but it takes 100 to frown,” she said. (The New York Times, 19 April 1987) According to doctors we use only four muscles to smile, but when we frown we use 64 muscles — 16 times more. (The Hindu, 11 March 2000) It takes four muscles to smile, 20 to frown and roughly 317 to appear amused when a Celine Dion imitator, who happens to be a man, sings a song about, er, flatulence. (The Denver Post, 29 September 1998) It’s easier to smile than to frown. A smile uses 17 muscles, a frown, 43. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 24 February 1997) Right there, you commit to selling to all employees — at cost, not a nickel of markup — company T-shirts that say, “It only takes one muscle to smile and 37 muscles to frown.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 24 April 1995) Don’t they know it is said you use 35 muscles to frown and four to smile? Why tire yourself? ([Queensland] Sunday Mail, 18 August 1991) Sonny Smith, Auburn’s basketball coach, on his dour counterpart at the University of Alabama: ”It takes 15 muscles to smile and 65 muscles to frown. This leads me to believe Wimp Sanderson is suffering from muscle fatigue.” (The New York Times, 16 December 1986) It takes 72 muscles to frown — only 14 to smile!” (Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations., 1979) Indeed, the saying is so well-known that it has become subject to parody, as this sardonic version (gleaned from a 1995 Internet post) attests: Scientists have told us that it takes 41 muscles to frown and 17 to smile this leads to two conclusions:A) Scientists have WAY too much free time on their hands! B) Frowning uses more muscles, and therefore burns more calories. Though the supposed numbers of muscles required to produce both expressions changes with each telling, the saying’s basic premise — that frowning is ever so much more taxing than smiling — remains intact from generation to generation. As to how long this assertion has been around, we found the following in a 1931 book: It takes 50 muscles to make a frown — but only 13 to produce a smile. The saying’s age is not its only mystery; there’s no real agreement as to how many muscles have to be worked in the face to produce a smile or a frown. And, given that even what constitutes a smile is up for grabs (some avow the muscles around the eyes get involved; others discount that and look only to those necessary to lift the corners of the mouth), it’s possible this is one of those questions for which there will never be a definitive answer. Yet whatever medical science ultimately decides about how many angels are dancing on the head of this particular pin, we would say the resultant numbers would be immaterial because it’s the homily’s underlying message that matters, not the raw facts of it. The maxim has been handed from generation to generation because of its enduring value as implied advice rather than its being an authoritative tally of a parts list. More simply, the lore lives because of what it says about people, not their anatomy, so to get lost in the bean-counting aspect of it would be at the expense of losing sight of its far more important component. Besides, accurately inventorying the muscles involved wouldn’t necessarily be the right way to go about determining if it’s “easier” to smile than it is to frown, because it could well require greater exertion to flex one large muscle than to stress an array of smaller ones, in the same way that it is more physically taxing to move one stalled car than it is to displace five tricycles. Without a way to measure the actual effort made by each muscle in carrying out the tasks of smiling and frowning, there is no way of judging whether knowing how many muscles actually move tells us anything. “It takes [large number] muscles to frown but only [much smaller number] to smile” has been a cherished aphorism for as long as it has thanks to its unvoiced assessment that it’s far easier for us to be cheerful than to be dour, and its tacit advice that our efforts would be better expended upon making ourselves pleasant company for others to be around rather than continuing to go through life as thunderclouds. The looming specter of incontrovertible science is invoked by the homily-spouter; this maxim is presented as an authoritative statement of provable fact that could hardly be argued with by those being remonstrated for their poor attitudes. (One can almost see the white-coated scientists standing behind it, silently adding their unspoken chidings to those of the finger-wagger.) Whether it is physically less exhausting to smile than to glower, it is certainly beneficial, and thus there is something to this ancient exhortation to put aside negative emotions long enough to turn a frown upside down. In a 2002 study performed in Sweden, researchers confirmed what our grandmothers already knew: that people respond in kind to the facial expressions they encounter. Test subjects were shown photos of faces — some smiling and some frowning — and required to respond with their own smiles, frowns, and non-expressions as directed by those conducting the experiment. Researchers noted that while folks had an easy time frowning at what appeared to be frowning at them and smiling in reply to the photographed smiles, those being tested encountered difficulties when prompted to respond in an opposite manner to the expressions displayed in the images — they instinctively wanted to reflect what they’d been exposed to, answering smile for smile and frown for frown, and could not easily overcome this urge even when they were quite consciously trying to. Because we humans are wired to instinctively respond like for like, facial expressions are contagious. When taken, the homily’s implied advice to put on a happy face does work to benefit society in that smiling people cause those around them to smile. Yet smiling is not just good for the community in which the sad sack or grouch lives; it is also beneficial to the person doing the grinning. Facial expressions do not merely signal what one feels but actually contribute to that feeling. If we smile even when we don’t feel like it, our mood will elevate despite ourselves. Likewise, faking a frown brings on a sense of not much liking the world that day. Indeed, this cart-before-the-horse effect has been studied and measured by numerous researchers. It has been demonstrated that subjects who produced facial expressions of fear, anger, sadness, or disgust manifested the same bodily reactions that experiencing bouts of the actual emotions would have provoked (e.g., increased heart rate, elevated skin temperature, and sweating). Likewise, in studies of test subjects who were required to smile compared to those who weren’t, those instructed to force smiles onto their faces reported feeling happier than their non-grinning counterparts did. In both cases although test subjects knew they were acting, their bodies didn’t, and so their bodies responded accordingly. At least in this chapter of the saga of the mind against the body, the body won.
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28862
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"The man leading opposition to a controversial ""bathroom bill"" in North Carolina is a registered sex offender."
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"What's true: Charlotte businessman Chad Sevearance was convicted of sexual contact with minors in 1998 and supported Charlotte's anti-discrimination ordinance. What's false: Sevearance was not the ""leader"" of efforts in Charlotte or North Carolina regarding bathroom-related ordinances."
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mixture
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Politics, bathroom bill, bathroom controversies, breitbart
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In late February 2016, social media users began sharing links and memes affirming that the leader of opposition to a North Carolina bathroom ordinance was a registered sex offender: Sex offender pushes Trans bathroom ordinance that has now passed in Charlotte, NC https://t.co/AT6nvKNHJ1 @BadhbhCatha @Stella_Morabito — DC_McAllister (@McAllisterDen) February 23, 2016 On 7 March 2016, the web site Breitbart published an article (titled “Convicted Sex Offender Leads Transgender Rights Effort in North Carolina”) which held that the “leader of efforts” to “allow men to use women’s bathrooms” was a convicted, registered sex offender. The article reported that an individual named Chad Sevearance had spearheaded opposition to an ambiguously referenced ordinance involving transgender people and bathrooms: The homosexual leader of efforts in North Carolina to allow men to use women’s bathrooms is a convicted and registered sex offender, according to documents made available to Breitbart News. Chad Sevearance is president of the Charlotte Business Guild … [he] and his group have taken a lead role in seeking the right to allow males to use the restrooms and showers of females, including those of little girls, which is described by advocates as nothing more than nondiscrimination measures. Sevearance was quoted in the Charlotte Observer saying that because a recent bathroom “nondiscrimination ordinance” bill did not pass, “someone can ask me to leave a restaurant because I’m presumed to be gay or transgender.” That article went on to explain that Sevearance was arrested in 1998 at the age of 20 for engaging in sexual acts with teenaged boys: In 1998, Sevearance worked as a youth minister and in that capacity allegedly lured younger men to his apartment to spend the night where Severance showed them pornography and tried to talk them into sex. One boy testified that he woke up to find Severance “fondling him.” Severance was convicted on one charge of sexual molestation of a minor. As a result of his 2000 conviction, Sevearance must register with the police on a regular basis for a minimum of ten years. His most recent mug shot and registration took place at the end of last year. The details of that piece of information is verifiable: Sevearance’s sex offender registry page is accessible here, and details of the ensuing court case were published in a July 2000 article. However, the Breitbart piece offered little context regarding the effort Sevearance purportedly headed and whether he was truly the primary opponent of the (unreferenced) legislation in question. The online rumor involving Sevearance mentioned a “boys-in-girls-bathrooms” bill while simultaneously describing homosexual acts between teenaged male minors and a 20-year-old man. At the time of the rumor’s circulation, a cluster of controversies were occurring in North Carolina over gender, sexual orientation, and bathrooms (leading to confusion among viewers who spotted related memes on Facebook). The most nationally prominent of the controversies was one surrounding a law known as HB2 (or the “Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act”), which the Charlotte Observer described as a “sweeping law that reverses a Charlotte ordinance that had extended some rights to people who are gay or transgender”: The state has long had laws regulating workplace discrimination, use of public accommodations, minimum wage standards and other business issues. The new law — known as HB2, the Charlotte bathroom bill or, more officially, as the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act — makes it illegal for cities to expand upon those state laws, as more than a dozen cities had done including Charlotte, Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham. North Carolina’s new law sets a statewide definition of classes of people who are protected against discrimination: race, religion, color, national origin, age, handicap or biological sex as designated on a person’s birth certificate. Sexual orientation – people who are gay – was never explicitly protected under state law and is not now, despite recent court decisions that legalized same-sex marriage. Transgender people who have not taken surgical and legal steps to change the gender noted on their birth certificates have no legal right under state law to use public restrooms of the gender with which they identify. Cities and counties no longer can establish a different standard. Critics of the Charlotte ordinance cite privacy concerns and say it was “social engineering” to allow people born as biological males to enter women’s restrooms … The law limits how people pursue claims of discrimination because of race, religion, color, national origin, biological sex or handicap in state courts. Sevearance was not mentioned or referenced in that newspaper article, which described opposition to HB2 as broad: Advocacy groups, including the ACLU and Equality North Carolina, say they will soon take legal action. State ACLU legal director Chris Brook said Friday that a federal lawsuit by his group and others will be filed within days, not weeks. How quickly those expected lawsuits will be resolved is not yet known. Challenges to Amendment 1, the state’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, were filed shortly after it was passed in 2012, and were resolved in 2014. A lawsuit by a group of Charlotte lawyers is pending against North Carolina’s law passed in 2015 that allows magistrates and register of deeds employees to decline to handle same-sex marriages based on conflict with their spiritual beliefs. On 24 March 2016, The Atlantic explained that HB2 was drafted in reaction to a local Charlotte ordinance that had failed to pass in 2015, but was approved in 2016: [L]egislators returned to the state house to overrule a local ordinance in Charlotte banning discrimination against LGBT people. A bill written for that purpose passed and was signed by Governor Pat McCrory, a Republican. In the House, every Republican and 11 Democrats backed the bill. In the Senate, Democrats walked out when a vote was called, resulting in a 32-0 passage by Republicans. The law not only overturns Charlotte’s ban: It also prevents any local governments from passing their own non-discrimination ordinances, mandates that students in the state’s schools use bathrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate, and prevents cities from enacting minimum wages higher than the state’s. Although the push to preempt city laws failed as the clock ran out, Charlotte’s new ordinance created a new impetus. McCrory, a former mayor of Charlotte, opposed the law but declined to call a special session, so on Monday lawmakers did so themselves. On Wednesday, members who could make it in time traipsed back to Raleigh to overturn the Charlotte rule. (Some missed the session, saying they did not have time to travel.) What exactly would be in the bill remained a mystery almost up to the moment the session gaveled in—the text was made public just minutes ahead of time. Once released, it was clear that the legislative language was more sweeping than expected. Not only does it prevent local governments from writing ordinances that allow people to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender with with they identify, it also preempts cities from passing their own nondiscrimination standards, saying the state’s rules—which are more conservative—supersede localities. Local school district would be barred from allowing transgender students to use bathrooms or locker rooms that don’t correspond to the gender listed on their birth certificate. We contacted a reporter credited for that comprehensive article, who had never spoken to Sevearance about HB2. We asked whether Sevearance was a key opponent of HB2, and the reporter said opposition was led by groups such Equality NC (but didn’t mention the Charlotte Business Guild). However, Chad Sevearance was one of several individuals quoted in a Charlotte Observer article about the defeat of Charlotte’s proposed non-discrimination ordinance, but that article was published in 2015, not 2016: In the emotionally charged debate, business concerns took a backseat to bitter disputes about whether transgender people should be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice. But business issues wove through the debate as well. On the other hand, supporters of the ordinance said that by rejecting the measure, Charlotte would be sending a bad message to potential employees and businesses considering relocating to the city. They pointed out that many Fortune 500 companies have had nondiscrimination policies in place for years. “As upper management in a Charlotte-based company, I will simply second the opinion … that (the proposed ordinance) is good for business in Charlotte,” Peter Barr, general counsel for Charlotte-based Rack Room Shoes, told City Council. He said he is the father of a transgender son, and that he was speaking as a private citizen and father, not representing his employer. On 12 April 2016, the Washington Post reported that North Carolina governor Pat McCrory had signed an executive order walking back portions of HB2, but McCrory cited Charlotte’s ordinance as “overreach” and left the bathroom provision of HB2 intact: North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) responded to a backlash against the state’s new law banning anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender people by signing an executive order aimed at calming the firestorm, even as he left the most controversial provisions intact. McCrory said he was expanding protections for state employees, which would prevent these workers from being fired for being gay or transgender. He also said he would seek legislation restoring the right to sue for discrimination. In his order, McCrory stopped short of altering the bill’s most high-profile provision mandating that transgender people use bathrooms that correspond only with the gender on their birth certificate. McCrory defended the state law as being needed to respond to what he called the “government overreach” of a Charlotte city ordinance that expanded civil rights protections for people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In a videotaped message announcing the order, he said the issue had sparked what he called “selective outrage and hypocrisy.” Chad Sevearance and the controversy surrounding him were not major threads in the ongoing story of HB2. Bruce Springsteen made national news by cancelling a show in protest of the bill, a sign spotted in a Georgia Kroger went viral in its wake, and inaccurate rumors about mixed-gender restrooms at a Pilot Travel Center in the state blanketed social media during the controversy. In response to our inquiry, Equality NC‘s Director of Operations, Shawn Long, clarified who was primarily responsible for leading the efforts against HB2 —namely multiple large in- and out-of-state groups: North Carolina’s discriminatory HB2 is being challenged in federal court by Equality NC, Lambda Legal, the ACLU, and the ACLU of North Carolina on the grounds that (i) it is directed with animus specifically towards the LGBT community, treating them as second-class citizens, (ii) it is unconstitutional because it violates equal protection and due process by discriminating on the basis of sex and sexual orientation and is an invasion of privacy for trans individuals, and (iii) the law violates federal Title IX requirements by discriminating against students on the basis of sex. In addition to the advocacy groups involved in the lawsuit, a broad coalition of groups is opposing HB2 within the state, including statewide groups like Equality NC, the ACLU of NC, and the NAACP of NC, as well as national groups like HRC. Hundreds of major CEOs and corporations, as well as hundreds of local businesses are also opposing this law since it encourages anti-LGBT discrimination, as are cities and municipalities whose autonomy has been removed by the law. Among these cities opposing HB2 is Charlotte, who adopted the initial nondiscrimination policy that the statewide government (over)reacted to, a policy already adopted by hundreds of cities across the country and 19 states and the District of Columbia, all without any documented safety issue. It is true Chad Sevearance was charged with and convicted of sexual contact with teenaged boys when he was 20, and he was quoted as opposing HB2 (because “someone can ask me to leave a restaurant because I’m presumed to be gay or transgender”) on 3 March 2015, but to term him the “leader” of opposition to HB2, or even a major player in the Charlotte ordinance that inspired it, is an exaggeration. In March 2016, following heavy criticism from conservative groups, Sevearance stepped down from his position as president of Charlotte’s LGBT Chamber of Commerce, rendering the claims about his role in the opposition to HB2 even less accurate.
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10809
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Cancer drug may elude many women who need it
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"This is a story about two presentations at the The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting about evidence questioning the accuracy of tumor testing to determine which women qualify for treatment with trastuzumab (trade name Herceptin). Tumor profiling has been hailed as a new era in individualized cancer treatment, but reports from ASCO demonstrate the imperfect nature of the current science, either in the ability to consistently provide accurate results, or in the validity of the assumptions made in the tightness of the linkage between diagnostics, drugs and effectiveness tests. The story lists some of the problems of inconsistent cutoff values for testing, but only provides limited quantitative evidence. The story mentions trastuzumab as a promising drug in the arsenal of breast cancer treatments; however, the story does not mention that trastuzumab is given along with chemotherapy. We are also not told that women take trastuzumab by infusion (IV) for up to a year. This may be play into the cost/benefit decision making process of whether to retest formerly Her2/neu negative women, or whether it makes sense for them to now take the drug, regardless of their status. The story only says that Herceptin is ""expensive"" but it doesn’t give cost estimates for the drug (about $20,000 per year) nor for the HER2 receptor testing."
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mixture
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"The story only says that Herceptin is ""expensive"" but it doesn’t give cost estimates for the drug (about $20,000 per year) nor for the HER2 receptor testing. The story mentions that Herceptin could reduce the risk of recurrence by half. The story does not mention the benefit of re-testing women previously thought to be Her2/neu negative. And if these women are now considered positive, how will they receive Herceptin if they have already had chemotherapy? The story lists some of the problems of inconsistent cutoff values for testing, but only provides limited quantitative evidence. The story mentions the potential harms of treatment (i.e. slight increased risk of heart failure in some women). The story also mentions that even women diagnosed as positive are not guaranteed benefit from the drug. The story mentions the known benefit of Herceptin for women classified as Her2/neu positive–that is a reduced risk of recurrence of about 50%. The story mentions that double the number of women may benefit from Herceptin, but provides no further evidence of long-term benefit or any data comparing Her2/neu negative women with those diagnosed as Her2/neu positive. The story also did not warn readers about reaching conclusions from unpublished data presented at a scientific meeting. See our primer on this topic. No overt disease-mongering, although there are elements of drug-mongering. See ""Benefits"" below. The story is balanced in term of sources cited. The story identifies researchers who conducted reviews, oncologists in practice, the physician who designed guidelines for Her2/neu testing, and a representative from Genentech. Clinicians express frustration and confusion about a lack of standardization for determining who should receive Herceptin and similar treatments. The story mentions Herceptin as a promising drug in the arsenal of breast cancer treatments; however, the story does not mention that Herceptin is given along with chemotherapy. We are also not told that women take Herceptin by infusion (IV), sometimes for up to a year. This may be play into the cost/benefit decision-making process of whether to retest formerly Her2/neu negative women, or whether it makes sense for Her2/neu women to now take the drug. The story correctly points out that Herceptin treatment has been approved and available for about ten years, and discusses testing for the presence of the HER2 receptor. The focus of the story is new (unpublished) data from The American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting suggesting inconsistencies in the determination of Her2/neu status. Tumor profiling has been hailed as a new era in individualized breast cancer treatment, but recent reports from ASCO demonstrate the imperfect nature of the current science, either in the ability to consistently provide accurate results, or in the validity of the assumptions made in the tightness of the linkage between diagnostics, drugs and effectiveness. The story does not appear to rely on a press release as several sources are cited."
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1304
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Prince Harry, Elton John to launch coalition against HIV in men.
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Britain’s Prince Harry and music star Elton John are joining forces to launch a “global coalition” focused on treating HIV infections in men, the singer’s AIDS charity said on Thursday.
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true
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Health News
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The Elton John AIDS Foundation did not go into details about the plan - but said all would be revealed at the 2018 International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam on July 24. The 71-year-old singer and 33-year-old prince are both prominent HIV and AIDS campaigners. John sang at the funeral of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, and attended his wedding to actress Meghan Markle in May. John said he and the prince had taken part in a panel two years ago about HIV and youth - “the only age demographic where HIV infections are rising not falling”. “Since then, my Foundation, along with other partners, have been undertaking participatory, human-centered design research collectively covering six countries,” he added. “A critical finding from this work is the urgent need to rapidly scale up men’s access to and engagement in HIV testing and treatment services.” Around 36.7 million people around the world have HIV, according to 2016 figures cited by the United Nations’ program UNAIDS. A UNAIDS report released last year said less than half of men living with HIV globally were receiving treatment compared with 60 percent of women. Harry has followed in the footsteps of his mother in fighting the stigma around AIDS and is a founding patron of charity Sentebale, which seeks to help children living with HIV in Lesotho and Botswana.
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2795
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Piglet-killing PED virus spreads to second Canada farm.
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The piglet-killing Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) has spread to a second Canadian farm, government officials said on Monday.
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true
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Health News
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A laboratory test confirmed the virus in a barn near Chatham-Kent, Ontario, and another possible case is under investigation in the same area, said Greg Douglas, the Canadian province’s chief veterinary officer. “We still are under the impression that there are strategies to help mitigate, slow the spread of this virus in Ontario,” he said. “However, the confirmed case, the second case, and the third under suspicion, does change the situation, the reality.” The two Chatham-Kent farms involve finishing barns handling older pigs that generally get sick and recover from the virus. Last week, the Ontario government said the virus, which has killed at least 1 million pigs in the United States, was found on a hog farm in southern Ontario’s Middlesex County, marking the first confirmed case of the virus on a Canadian farm. Virtually all of that farm’s several hundred two- to five-day-old piglets have died, Douglas said. Ontario is Canada’s second-biggest hog-producing province, after Quebec. Olymel LP, one of Canada’s biggest pork processors, also detected the virus last week at an unloading dock of its Saint-Esprit slaughter facility northeast of Montreal, Quebec. PEDv - which causes diarrhea, vomiting and severe dehydration in hogs - has turned up in 23 of the 50 states since its discovery in the United States last April. The virus, which is already established in Europe and Asia, poses no threat to humans and is not a food safety risk, according to the Canadian Swine Health Board. The virus can spread through contaminated pig feces on pigs, trucks, boots and clothing, and the industry has increasingly demanded trucks be disinfected before they load pigs. If the virus were to spread across Canada within one year, it would cause an estimated C$45 million ($40.6 million) in damage to the Canadian hog industry, said Amy Cronin, a hog farmer and chairwoman of Ontario Pork. A drop in the Canadian hog supply would pose a major challenge for Olymel and fellow hog processor Maple Leaf Foods Inc, both of which also raise pigs. ($1=$1.108 Canadian)
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7317
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Americans brace for ‘hardest, saddest’ week of their lives.
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Americans braced for what the nation’s top doctor warned Sunday would be “the hardest and saddest week” of their lives while Britain assumed the unwelcome mantle of deadliest coronavirus hotspot in Europe after a record 24-hour jump in deaths that surpassed even hard-hit Italy.
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true
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AP Top News, Religion, Health, Andrew Cuomo, General News, Latin America, Technology, Pandemics, New York, New York City, Asia Pacific, Virus Outbreak, Europe, International News
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“This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment,” U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told “Fox News Sunday.” New York City, the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic, saw a glimmer of hope, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying that daily deaths had dropped slightly, along with intensive care admissions and the number of patients who needed breathing tubes inserted. Still, he warned that it was “too early to tell” the significance of those numbers. Italy and Spain also got some encouraging news. Italy registered its lowest day-to-day increase in deaths in more than two weeks — 525, said Angelo Borrelli, the head of the national Civil Protection agency. The pace of infection also seemed to be slowing. The country recorded 4,316 new cases Sunday. Earlier in the outbreak, daily increases topped 6,000. Even so, Borrelli warned, “This good news shouldn’t make us drop our guard.” Confirmed infections fell in Spain too, and new deaths declined for the third straight day, dropping to 674 — the first time daily deaths have fallen below 800 in the past week. “We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said. The outlook remained bleak in Britain, which recorded 708 new coronavirus deaths Saturday compared with Italy’s 631 deaths. With 600-plus more deaths reported Sunday, Britain has recorded more than 4,900 virus deaths overall among nearly 48,000 cases. Italy still has by far the world’s highest coronavirus death toll at almost 16,000 out of nearly 130,000 confirmed cases. Those coming down with the virus in the U.K. include Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was admitted to a hospital Sunday. Johnson’s office said he was admitted for tests because he still has symptoms 10 days after testing positive. There are wide fears that Johnson’s Conservative government did not take the virus seriously enough at first and that spring weather will tempt Britons and others to break social distancing rules. In a rare televised address to the nation, Queen Elizabeth II appealed to Britons to exercise self-discipline in “an increasingly challenging time.” The 93-year-old monarch said the pandemic had caused enormous disruptions, bringing grief, financial difficulties and daunting challenges to everybody. It was only the fourth time since her reign began in 1953 that she has given such an address. “I hope in the years to come, everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge,” she said. “And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any.” Health Secretary Matt Hancock said sunbathing in public places was not allowed and the U.K. might even ban outdoor exercise if people still ’’flout the rules.″ “The vast majority of people are following the public health advice, which is absolutely critical, and staying at home,” Hancock told Sky TV. “But there are a small minority of people who are still not doing that — it’s quite unbelievable, frankly, to see that.” As the numbers of infections rose, the deputy head of Britain’s National Health Service Providers said the agency needed to focus on quickly increasing ventilator capacity and getting more protective equipment for health care workers. “I think that we are just a week away from the surge of this,” Saffron Cordery told Sky TV. Italians have not been immune to lure of the good weather either. Top Italian officials took to national television after photos were published showing huge crowds out shopping in Naples, Rome, Genoa and even the hard-hit Veneto city of Padua. Lombardy Vice Gov. Fabrizio Sala said cellphone data showed 38% of the region’s people were out and about — the highest figure since March 20. Health Minister Roberto Speranza told RAI state television that all the sacrifices Italians have made since the nationwide lockdown began on March 10 risked being reversed. Restrictions on movement vary from country to country. In Germany and Britain, residents can get out to exercise and walk their dogs, as well as go to the supermarket, the post office and other essential tasks. Yet in Serbia and South Africa, dog walking is not allowed. In France, heat-seeking drones have been whizzing over Fontainebleau forest to identify rule-breakers after the former royal estate in the Paris suburbs was closed to the public. That high-tech measure has been coupled with more traditional police patrols on horseback and roadblocks that turn back the cars of those seeking to escape urban areas. In Sweden, authorities have advised the public to practice social distancing, but schools, bars and restaurants are still open. At the Vatican, Pope Francis celebrated Mass and blessed palms for Palm Sunday in a near-empty St. Peter’s Basilica. Usually tens of thousands of faithful would have crowded the square outside to attend a papal Mass. Holy Thursday and Easter services will be held the same way. In the pope’s native Argentina, the faithful were using plants at home for a “virtual” blessing during a livestream of the Palm Sunday service. Worldwide, more than 1.2 million people have been confirmed infected and more than 65,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are certainly much higher, due to limited testing, different ways nations count the dead and deliberate under-reporting by some governments. The vast majority of infected people recover from the virus, which is spread by microscopic droplets from coughs or sneezes. For most people, the virus causes mild to moderate symptoms such as fever and cough. But for some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause pneumonia and lead to death. The World Health Organization says 95% of the known coronavirus deaths in Europe have been in people over 60. The rapid spread of the virus in the United States has prompted a chaotic scramble for desperately needed medical equipment and protective gear. The result has been intense squabbling between the states and the federal government. An Associated Press review of federal purchasing contracts showed that federal agencies largely waited until mid-March — more than two months after the first warnings of a potential pandemic — to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers. By that time, hospitals in several states were treating thousands of infected patients without adequate equipment and pleading for shipments from the national stockpile. Now that stockpile is nearly drained just as the numbers of patients requiring critical care is surging. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday that he hoped the pace of new infections would plateau soon, but that the virus is unlikely to be completely eradicated this year. That means the U.S. could see the a resurgence during the next flu season, he said. Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Fauci said the prospect of a resurgence is why the U.S. is working so hard to be better prepared, including working to develop a vaccine and conducting clinical trials on therapeutic interventions. ___ D’Emilio reported from Rome. Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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27739
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"A billboard that says ""Make America White Again"" is part of a political campaign."
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The Ballotpedia web site records that Tyler ran for the same office in 2014 and received 5,579 votes, or 0.4% of the total votes cast.
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true
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Fauxtography, make america white again, politics, racism
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On 22 June 2016, a photograph purportedly showing a billboard for a Congressional candidate named Rick Tyler, bearing the slogan “Make America White Again” along with pictures of various white American historical figures and a white family was widely circulated via social media: Although the image was also published by several legitimate news outlets, many viewers remained skeptical that anyone running for Congress would employ a slogan that seemed so blatantly racist. According to Nashville television station WSMV the “Make America White Again” billboard was put on display off of Highway 411 in Polk County, Tennessee, by independent Rick Tyler,& who is running for a congressional seat in Tennessee’s 3rd district that is currently held by Republican Chuck Fleischmann. A (since-deleted) statement posted by Tyler explained the rationale behind the billboard from his point of view and offered a preview of putative future campaign billboards: The “Make America White Again” billboard advertisement will cut to the very core and marrow of what plagues us as a nation. As Anne Coulter so effectively elucidates in her book, Adios America, the overhaul of America’s immigration law in the 1960’s has placed us on an inevitable course of demise and destruction. Yes … the cunning globalist/Marxist social engineers have succeeded in destroying that great bulwark against statist tyranny … the white American super majority. Without its expedited restoration little hope remains for the nation as a whole. The following are examples of other billboard designs we plan to bring forth in the coming months. We ask you to prayerfully consider putting meaningful financial support behind this brazen and determined crusade for truth. The controversial billboard was apparently taken down on 21 June 2016, and Tyler’s campaign web site has also been inaccessible since then (possibly due to an unexpected crush of traffic. Tyler offered a lengthy response to the brouhaha engendered by his campaign billboard in a (since-removed) Facebook post: Let me begin by thanking everyone that has gotten involved in the controversy spawned by the “Make America White Again” billboard on Highway 411 in Polk County. I am persuaded that the overwhelming majority of you are sincere and well intentioned. Obviously, there are the “frothing at the mouth lunatics” who react in a completely irrational, emotional, Pavlovian dog fashion. Fortunately, they are a small percentage of the whole—and even they are passionately sincere albeit ignorant, misguided and lacking in self control. A PREDICTABLE AND DESIRED RESPONSE Be assured, the response that has been engendered by the billboard is precisely what was expected and hoped for. You see… this is not a mere publicity stunt, but rather a calculated maneuver to dispense hardcore truth while simultaneously doing an end run around the iron curtain of censorship. As Orwell stated, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Unfortunately, a globalist cartel has long held power in our nation, and in effect, there has already been a soft revolution wherein lawful constitutional government has been supplanted by a rogue band of oligarchic criminals. Those who seek to set things aright are actually counter-revolutionaries, endeavoring to facilitate the restoration of lawful, constitutional government. Whether you realize it or not, you are all participating in this counter-revolutionary exercise irrespective of where you stand on the matter! Indeed, the brainwashing may well be too far advanced, and there may be no chance of restoration, rejuvenation, and revival in our once great nation. Like the watchman spoken of in Ezekiel 33, some of us must sound the warning of the advancing and ominous peril that is encroaching upon our civilization as a whole. Like Nineveh, there could be great repentance and revival in America. If not, we will succumb to the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. For those who are posturing in a high and mighty stance of ostensible moral superiority, I would caution you against falling into the trap of modernism and the liberal watering down of truth. Your fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers would have been entirely sympathetic and supportive of the preservation of a white super majority in America. They would have been utterly hostile to the concept of the mass nonwhite immigration that has ensued over the past half century. They would have never acquiesced to the schemes of forced racial integration foisted upon the states by a usurpatious federal government. By capitulating on these and other related issues, you are dishonoring your fathers and mothers of old in a flagrant and treacherous violation of the 4th Commandment. In the fulness of time, God will surely hold you accountable for this violation of his sacred law. As Isaiah 5:20 states, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” AM I A RACIST? The charge of “racism” is the most flagrant and abusive canard of our time. Absurdly, those who bandie about the charge never bother to define its meaning. Is a racist one who harbors antipathy toward someone simply based on their ethnicity? If so only a foolish person would fit such a description. If, on the other hand, we are talking about someone who demonstrates greater affinity for his own racial family (your race is the extension of your biological family) then the charge would be truly preposterous. Ethnocentricity is completely healthy and normal and all races, except the white race, are encouraged to engage in and express it. The glaring double standard is all too obvious. ABOUT THE BILLBOARD’S MESSAGE The “Make America White Again” billboard is a takeoff on Donald Trump’s slogan of “Make America Great Again.” In a nutshell, it is stating that the “Leave It to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet, Mayberry” America of old was vastly superior to what we are experiencing today. It was an America where doors were left unlocked, violent crime was a mere fraction of today’s rate of occurrence, there were no car jackings, home invasions, Islamic Mosques or radical Jihadist sleeper cells. Additionally, government was much smaller, responsible, and accountable to the people. Yes, that Norman Rockwell America was immensely preferable to the rapidly deteriorating culture now engulfing us. Only the ignorant and misguided would resist its restoration and resuscitation. As set forth on the Tyler for Congress website, (www.ricktylerforcongress.com) a moratorium on nonwhite immigration and the abolition of policies that subsidize nonwhite birth rates would be two constructive actions toward beginning the long journey back toward sanity and stability in our beleaguered and foundering nation. A WHITE SUPER MAJORITY It is no coincidence that every nation being inundated by the teeming multitudes of the third world is a white nation. It is indisputable that the white race has achieved infinitely more in the way of technology, culture and innovation than the nonwhite civilizations of history. The racial component of this phenomenon is all-important. In a blind, suicidal manner modern man overlooks this profound truth while plunging headlong toward destruction. SOUNDING THE CLARION CALL The Caucasian race has been inordinately blessed and favored by the God of scripture. It was among this people that the new covenant gospel of Jesus Christ took root, blossomed, and flourished. Western Christian civilization evolved in the ensuing centuries leading to the eventual rise of our beloved America of yesteryear. As time progressed however, our nation and people lost their way. America forsook the God of her fathers and turned to the false gods of the heathen world. Now we are a people under divine judgment with a very grim future staring us in the face. The Tyler for Congress candidacy is a last ditch effort to challenge the descendents of America’s founders to “return to the ancient landmarks.” Scattered throughout the land are the proverbial seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal. (I Kings 19:18) The remnant of God may not be large enough to facilitate restoration of that which has been lost… but we will proceed to carry the torch in the hope of miraculous and divine intervention. The incumbent lawyer and representative of the 3rd Congressional District voted for the 1.1 trillion dollar spending bill in December; which among many nefarious expenditures allocated funding for the importation of 100,000 Syrian refugees, a large number of which are straight off of the Jihadist battlefield. A full-blown Muslim invasion is underway while a criminal, runaway federal government gobbles up what remains of liberty at breathtaking speed. CONCLUSION Amazingly, while being oblivious to the aforementioned circumstances plaguing our nation, a substantial number of low information citizens are easily whipped into a frenzy by the mythological enemy of “racism.” Sadly, it never occurs to the reactionary mob that they in fact, are guilty of the grievous sin of rejection of truth. Yet, just as Jesus was able to miraculously give sight to the blind, God is still in the business of peeling the scales off of men’s eyes. Yes, he gives grace to the humble but resisteth the proud. (James 4:6.) Concerning the hostility emanating from various directions I would say the following: We believe in Libertarian principles of free speech and freedom of association. All are free to go where they desire as well as refrain from going where they do not want to be. Of course, these same individuals will continue to patronize all manner of franchises and national chains that truly are the embodiment of corruption and exploitation. Yet another example of hypocrisy and double-standards. Will the Rick Tyler for Congress campaign gain traction and become a force to be reckoned with? Only time will tell. When all is said and done however, the truth will prevail. Of that we can be assured.
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38487
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Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, has debuted a water slide baptismal.
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Many of the people coming to Anna Kukharuk’s private medical clinic don’t have a disease. What plagues them is doubt. But its effects are a health emergency that the doctor and hundreds of others are struggling to remedy.
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false
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Religious
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Deep mistrust of vaccines in Ukraine has allowed measles, a virus which according to United Nations data kills 367 children a day worldwide, to grow into an epidemic infecting more than 58,000 people in the country of 42 million this year alone. That has brought one of the world’s most contagious diseases to Europe - there have been recent outbreaks in Poland, Romania and Germany - and possibly beyond, to Israel and New York. International health officials are investigating whether pilgrims to a rabbi’s grave in the Ukrainian city of Uman may have carried measles, via Israel, to the United States. Pockets of dissenters in many communities have long shunned immunization. In Ukraine, more and more parents are questioning or delaying their children’s shots. Their doubts are rooted in a weak healthcare system, corruption and mistrust of authority. Magnified by rumors on social media, the doubts have transformed the country into a weak spot in efforts to shore up global immunity against infectious diseases, public health specialists say. The World Health Organization (WHO) last year named “vaccine hesitancy” as a top 10 threat to global health. Since 2017, measles has infected 115,000 people in Ukraine and killed 41 - 25 of them children, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Survivors can suffer long-term complications or disabilities such as blindness, deafness or brain damage. Even so, Khukharuk says parents visiting clinics like hers are unsure whether to vaccinate: “Most of them have doubts. They are hesitant, and they can be tilted one way or the other.” It’s a fight on many fronts. Research shows vaccines save lives, but only half of Ukraine’s population believe they work, according to a report published in June by Britain’s Wellcome Trust, based on a survey of attitudes among 140,000 people from 140 countries. Globally, 84% of those surveyed said they believed vaccines are effective, including more than 80% in the United States and the United Kingdom. Kukharuk and other clinicians say even their medical colleagues argue vaccines weaken immunity. There is no evidence for such beliefs; decades of science show the opposite. Online, concerns about poor-quality ingredients and accounts of children being forcibly vaccinated fuel notions that vaccines are a ploy by Big Pharma and governments to make money and control populations. In fact, most vaccines are low-margin products for drug makers. The shunning of vaccination weakens people’s defences against deadlier diseases, such as polio, which causes paralysis and was eradicated in Europe in 2002. Two children in Ukraine were paralyzed by polio in 2015 - Europe’s first outbreak since 2010, according to the WHO. An emergency vaccination campaign contained that flare-up. “It’s not only a concern for the children and the people of Ukraine, it’s actually a global issue,” said Lotta Sylwander, head of UNICEF in Ukraine. “Communication and the way we travel means that this affects people and children worldwide.” Children’s artwork adorns the walls in the large, bright office of Kukharuk’s clinic, and cartoons about vaccination are shown to children in the waiting room. But Kukharuk is mainly focused on their parents. The young doctor is part of a network of unpaid volunteers in a Ukrainian pro-vaccination campaign sponsored by charity Rotary International - many of them women, many also mothers - who put themselves forward to persuade people to get vaccinated. On a sunny Saturday morning in a park in the center of Kiev, another doctor, Alla Pugach, enlisted the help of a team member dressed in a bear costume to educate parents and children about vaccines. The goal, Pugach said, “is to attract as many people as possible to vaccination.” “We call these people ‘change agents’,” said Sergii Zavadskyi, the charity’s head in Ukraine. “We have a network of about 300 of them. They are trying to help parents find the truth.” Rotary International has spent $200,000 in the country over the past four years on public health activities including campaigns about polio immunization. Its PolioPlus program is funded by donations and events organized by members and supporters. Volunteers organize meetings to tell unvaccinated adults, parents, teachers, health workers and others about the risks of infectious diseases. In her clinic, Kukharuk directs visitors to WHO data which says vaccines save up to 3 million lives a year. For its part, the government in Kiev says increasing vaccination coverage is a matter of national security, and it has set up a website to debunk myths about vaccination. It has long required children to produce certificates showing they have had their shots to go to school. Earlier this month, Health Minister Zoryana Skaletska posted a selfie on the ministry’s Facebook page which showed her getting a flu jab. “We remind you, vaccination is the most effective means of prevention,” the post said. It’s a tough sell. In 2016, only half the babies and children in Ukraine who should have been immunized against diseases such as measles, mumps, polio, tetanus and whooping cough had received these routine inoculations, according to Ukraine’s health authorities. Immunization rates need generally be around 95% to achieve the ‘herd immunity’ that can protect whole populations, the WHO says. Measles is more contagious than flu, tuberculosis or Ebola. The virus that causes it lingers in the air and on surfaces for more than an hour after an infected person has moved on; so in an unprotected population, each infected person, on average, would pass it to 12 to 18 others, virologists say. In Ukraine – a state still locked in conflict with pro-Russian separatists after decades of Soviet domination – rumor and mistrust are also highly contagious. Some parents’ worries stem from the health system. Ukraine has no universal healthcare and is perceived to be more corrupt than most of its neighbors, according to Transparency International. Many hospitals have long been poorly equipped with unreliable power, which has at times put vaccine cold-chains at risk and meant some shots may have been unrefrigerated and rendered ineffective, said Ulana Suprun, a Ukrainian-American medical doctor who was acting health minister in Kiev until the government changed in August. In 2008, a 17-year-old boy died shortly after being given a measles-rubella vaccine. The government suspended the immunization program to investigate. It found no link to the boy’s death. But by then, health officials say, the damage to public confidence was done. In the past, vaccine provision was also disrupted by an opaque medicines procurement system which allowed oligarchs to broker backroom deals with little external oversight. Patients who believe they are being fed sub-standard medicines say they often pay to go private, or bribe a doctor to get what they need. The medics themselves can be part of the problem. Parents whose children have not had their shots can, for a small bribe, find a doctor to write them a fake certificate. Websites seen by Reuters offer false documents saying a child has all the school-required immunizations for about $9 to $12 a time. During her three-year tenure as acting health minister, Suprun says, she visited scores of medical schools and universities where students said their professors mistrusted vaccines. On one visit, she recalled a student telling her, “My professor said ... the complications from vaccines are worse than the diseases.” She said one of her staff visited a doctor - she would not name them - who advised against using a certain vaccine, because it was “made from the placentas of Indian women.” Social media fan the flames. As in many countries, sites targeting Ukrainians carry false claims - that vaccines cause autism, for example. These intermingle with more blatant untruths and conspiracy theories. “Unvaccinated children’s immunity is stronger than in your vaccinated ones,” asserted a post on Facebook in September in the name of Svetik Lamakhova in Oleksandriya, central Ukraine, who confirmed to Reuters she had expressed that view. Another Facebook poster, named Elisaveta Shchepova, said that doctors and officials encouraging vaccination in Ukraine “do not need our health – they need our money, grief in family, illness and death.” She did not respond to requests for comment. Online advocates of vaccination are attacked. Olena Kudryashova, a 31-year-old fitness trainer, said she came down with measles when her daughter was just over 1, just as she had decided to go ahead and give her the shots. The baby caught measles too. The mother went on to ensure her baby was immunized, which she posted on Facebook along with pictures of herself and her child. Her post, in December 2018, was shared 14,000 times and prompted more than 4,000 comments, many of them negative. “I seriously think you were bribed,” said one. Another: “We have been vaccinated since the days of the USSR, and even now 95% of our children are vaccinated mercilessly - so why have we got a measles epidemic ??? Maybe because vaccination is a profitable fiction with many unexplored side effects ?? ?” Jan Sciegenny, a spokesman for Facebook, said the company takes misinformation regarding vaccines on its platform very seriously and is working on ways to connect people with authoritative information on both Facebook and Instagram. The risks of leaving children without shots may be higher than previously thought. Two scientific studies published in October found measles actually damages children’s immune systems, by eliminating antibodies they built up to diseases they had before they were infected. That makes vaccination even more important. UNICEF says that on the request of the health ministry, it now procures vaccines for Ukraine’s immunization campaigns against infectious diseases including measles, diphtheria, tetanus and polio. But the doubters have momentum. This year, from March to August, the group “Vaccination. Free choice” held demonstrations to protest the requirement that children be inoculated. Veronica Sidorenko, its head, said she doesn’t trust data cited by the government and UNICEF, and believes a powerful pharmaceutical lobby is behind “mass hysteria” about the current measles outbreak. She said the outbreak of measles itself sparked an “intensified vaccine policy” which included what she described in an email to Reuters as “psychological pressure on parents and manipulation of statistics and information.” The city of Kiev, which has 3 million residents, had just 87 cases of measles in 2017. Between January and June this year, it recorded 5,000.
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10354
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Clip-on device offers protection against mosquitoes that transmit Zika
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This news release from the Entomological Society of America promotes a study published in its journal about a mosquito repellent that comes in the midst of a cacophony of news reports about the Zika virus outbreak. The clip-on device consists of a very small fan that blows “a cloud” of insecticide around the wearer. The study is weak, and that carries over into the even weaker PR release. There are numerous problems with the release, from the lack of data to its over-blowing the results. It’s likely that if a person was wearing the device, it may not function as the device in the study performed. It borders on fabrication to claim, as this release does in the headline, “Clip-on device offers protection against mosquitoes that transmit Zika.” We’re not sure why a professional association of entomologists whose mission is to educate scientists, teachers and the public would promote a product that’s been around since 2009 as if it’s a new device created specifically for combating a new virus threat. Consumer Reports reviewed the device years ago and gave it a thumbs-down for effectiveness and safety. The mosquito-borne Zika virus outbreak in Central and South America has been getting lots of media attention, some of it causing alarm, and that’s only going to grow following the recent announcement that President Barack Obama has requested $1.8 billion in emergency funding to combat the virus through vaccine development, mosquito control and public education. In addition, news media are reporting that there’s a possibility the virus may spread from a woman to her fetus, and that the virus could be transmitted through sexual relations. Without even understanding the nature and possible extent of the risks, companies and organizations may be looking for ways to cash-in on the scare while it’s a hot topic.
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false
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Association/Society news release,Disease mongering,medical devices
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The release doesn’t provide any information about the device’s cost. A quick online search found the OFF! Clip-On starter pack going for $9.49 at Target. After the initial purchase, consumers must continue to buy refills and batteries. The monetary impact is huge if you consider the the volume of potential sales. The news release makes a very modest result sound more beneficial than it might actually be. According to the release, “They found that the OFF! Clip-On caused high mosquito mortality and knockdown rates up to 0.3 meters from the device, enough to protect a single person wearing the device.” What they don’t say is that the devices were suspended from stationary cages and were effective at repelling mosquitoes only within a foot or a foot and half away when the weather was calm. In other words, if you are using the device outside, don’t move. Also, it’s probably best not to count on the device if it’s windy out. As the product website warns, “if you move, allow a few minutes for the unit to rebuild its protection.” In addition, as shared in the study, but not the release, the time to cause high mortality in mosquitos was in the 30 to 60 minute range, implying (or scientifically stating) that a person wearing the device would have to be 0.3 meters from the mosquito for a prolonged period of time without either of them moving. We also aren’t given any quantification — percentage or absolute number — for the claim that the device caused “high mosquito mortality and knockdown.” The release doesn’t give even a brief nod to harms. In addition to questions about the product’s effectiveness, Consumer Reports pointed out that the active ingredient in the device is metofluthrin, a neurotoxin. “The label says, “Avoid breathing vapor,” but it’s hard to imagine how, with the repellent swirling around you,” according to Consumer Reports. This seems to be a critical oversight as the vapors will be inhaled by the people who are supposedly being protected as well as the mosquito. Johnson & Johnson’s product website has a list of warnings buried under the topic, “Precautionary Statements.” “HAZARDS TO HUMANS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS: CAUTION: Harmful if swallowed, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin. Avoid contacting skin, eyes, or clothing with treated refill cloth. Avoid breathing vapor. Wash thoroughly with soap and water after handling and before eating, drinking, chewing gum, or using tobacco. Remove and wash contaminated clothing before reuse. Store away from food, beverages and pet food. Do not use indoors or in enclosed spaces. Do not touch unit with metal instruments or wet hands. Do not allow materials of any kind to cover the unit while it is in use. Replace refill only when unit is off.” The researchers repeated the test three times, which is good. But the testing method hardly seems indicative of real-life situations. This may be a classic example of “in vitro” (test tube) effect that seems really good and that can be expected to fail in the “in vivo” (real life) situation. First, the researchers let the device “run” for an hour to increase its dissemination and effectiveness before taking measurements. They noted as a limitation that “drift” impacts efficacy. Second, the devices were suspended from stationary cages. For people wanting to use the device outdoors it requires a restriction on movement. Because this release was distributed at a time when we’re seeing very dramatic and almost panicked news stories and press releases about the Zika virus it points to a form of disease mongering. The device and study seem to prey on the public fear about any exposure to the A. Egypti mosquito, the carrier of Zika and other viruses. We wish the release was more clear about sponsorship. The release doesn’t explicitly say who funded the study but the implication is that it was sponsored by the Anastasia Mosquito Control District in Florida. An acknowledgement in the study states that readers shouldn’t view the study as a product endorsement. “This is a research report only and mention of specific names of commercial products does not imply endorsement by the Anastasia Mosquito Control District.” In the release a study co-author is quoted scoffing at some of the alternatives, but without providing any comparison data. “Just look at all the bug zappers, repellent bracelets, sonic bug repellents, and other zany creations that wax and wane in popularity,” he said. Earlier reviewers also scoffed at this device. The release should have mentioned somewhere that the alternatives aren’t all “zany.” For example, spray on bug repellent with the chemical DEET is widely recognized as an effective way to prevent mosquito bites. It’s understood that the device is widely available. The release doesn’t explain what’s novel about the study but it does imply novelty by saying it is a new delivery system for the OFF! product. The study itself makes a novelty claim when it states that it’s the first to test metofluthrin and the associated device in well-ventilated outdoor areas. “In this study, the OFF! Clip-on device was tested to determine if it will cause mortality in a well-ventilated area and if these mortality effects could be observed at an increasing range from the source.” The device has been on the market since 2009 and there are competitors, too, so it’s not a novel product. The headline for this release is dangerously misleading: “Clip-on device offers protection against mosquitoes that transmit Zika.” That statement is simply unjustifiable given the study’s lack of real-world significance. The last line in the release also seems particularly unjustifiable: “…it was nice for a change of pace that one of these devices could actually do some good.” We don’t think this study showed very much at all.
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21416
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Michele Bachmann Says the vaccine to prevent HPV can cause mental retardation.
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In several national television appearances, Bachmann said a woman reported her child had experienced mental retardation after receiving an HPV vaccination. We can't judge the specifics of that case -- neither the woman nor the daughter have been identified as far as we could find and skeptics have offered a reward if the victim can be found. But even if Bachmann's portrayal of what happened is accurate, it falls well short of the scientific standard for demonstrating causality between an inoculation and an adverse health event. Ongoing studies of tens of thousands of reported adverse events following tens of millions of inoculations have revealed only a small number of serious ailments, only one of which -- anaphylaxis -- had strong enough evidence to suggest a causal link from the vaccine itself. Since Bachmann made her claim, medical organizations and individual experts have come out strongly against her implication that the HPV vaccine can cause mental retardation.
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false
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National, Health Care, Michele Bachmann,
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"After criticizing Texas Gov. Rick Perry for mandating a vaccine for school girls, Rep. Michele Bachmann added some scary charges: She claimed to have just met a woman whose daughter suffered mental retardation from the vaccine, that it has ""very dangerous consequences"" and that it puts ""little children's lives at risk."" In the CNN/Tea Party Express debate in Tampa on Sept. 12, 2011, Bachmann blasted Perry for mandating a vaccine for school girls to guard against human papilloma virus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer. The vaccine can prevent the virus, but the virus is sexually transmitted, which makes the idea of requiring the inoculation of young girls controversial among some parents. Perry issued an executive order requiring the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to adopt rules mandating all girls entering sixth grade receive a vaccination against HPV. The order included an opt-out, allowing exemptions if parents objected for philosophical or religious reasons. (Read more on the history of the executive order.) Critics raised two major objections to Perry's 2007 order -- that the state should not require vaccinations for sexually transmitted diseases, and that parents should be asked beforehand whether they wanted their children vaccinated. The Legislature overruled Perry's order, and during the presidential campaign, Perry has said he made a mistake by ordering the vaccinations without consent of the Legislature. During the debate, Bachmann suggested that the vaccine maker, Merck & Co., used political influence to get Perry's approval for the vaccine, Gardasil. She also suggested that the vaccine might be harmful to the young girls who received it, saying, ""Little girls who have a negative reaction to this potentially dangerous drug don't get a 'mulligan'"" -- that is, a do-over. Bachmann received applause for her attacks. But in subsequent interviews, Bachmann became more specific that the vaccine harmed children's health. Here's what she said in an interview on Fox News: ""There's a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result of that vaccine. There are very dangerous consequences. It's not good enough to take, quote, 'a mulligan' where you want a do-over, not when you have little children's lives at risk."" And here's what she told NBC's ""Today Show"": ""Well, I will tell you that I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Florida, after the debate,"" Bachmann said. ""She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter. It can have very dangerous side effects. The mother was crying what she came up to me last night. I didn't know who she was before the debate. This is a very real concern and people have to draw their own conclusions."" So while Bachmann hedged somewhat that people can ""draw their own conclusions,"" she still made a very clear suggestion that the vaccine can cause retardation and puts ""little children's lives at risk."" When asked about the remark on Sept. 15, 2011, in San Rafael, Calif., Bachmann continued to hedge somewhat, saying, ""I didn't make any statements that would indicate I'm a doctor, I'm a scientist, or making any conclusions about the drug one way or the other."" She added that she was merely relaying the concerns of a woman who was ""very distraught."" But Bachmann turned down a chance to apologize for her earlier comments. Soon after Bachmann made the claim, medical professionals raced to counter the notion that an HPV vaccination can cause mental retardation. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which includes 60,000 primary care pediatricians, released the following statement: ""The American Academy of Pediatrics would like to correct statements made in the Republican presidential campaign that HPV vaccine is dangerous and can cause mental retardation. There is absolutely no scientific validity to this statement. Since the vaccine has been introduced, more than 35 million doses have been administered, and it has an excellent safety record. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians all recommend that girls receive HPV vaccine around age 11 or 12. That’s because this is the age at which the vaccine produces the best immune response in the body, and because it’s important to protect girls well before the onset of sexual activity. In the U.S., about 6 million people, including teens, become infected with HPV each year, and 4,000 women die from cervical cancer. This is a life-saving vaccine that can protect girls from cervical cancer."" Many in the medical community pointed to the vaccine's track record in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. This is a database co-sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration that tracks ""adverse"" health events following vaccinations, ranging from minor to serious. The database has limitations -- some adverse events may not be overlooked if VAERS isn't notified, and the agencies who run it caution that just because an adverse event happened, it doesn't mean that the vaccination was the cause. However, VAERS is the largest such database available, and measured by its standards, the HPV vaccine in question has fared well in terms of possible side effects: ""As of June 22, 2011, approximately 35 million doses of Gardasil were distributed in the U.S. and VAERS received a total of 18,727 reports of adverse events following Gardasil vaccination. ... Of the total number of VAERS reports following Gardasil, 92 percent were considered to be non-serious, and 8 percent were considered serious. ... The vast majority (92 percent) of the adverse events reports following Gardasil vaccination have included fainting, pain, and swelling at the injection site (the arm), headache, nausea, and fever. Syncope (fainting) is common after injections and vaccinations, especially in adolescents. Falls after fainting may sometimes cause serious injuries, such as head injuries, which can be prevented by closely observing the person for 15 minutes after vaccination."" The remaining 8 percent of adverse events included such serious ailments as Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a nervous system disorder, blood clots and even death. However, the official analysis of the VAERS data is that the incidence of Guillain-Barré did not exceed the level in the comparable population at large, that ""most"" of the people who experienced blood clots also had other risk factors for clots, and that analysis of the 32 confirmed deaths suggested that either the deaths had been attributed to other causes or that ""there was no unusual pattern or clustering to the deaths that would suggest that they were caused by the vaccine."" Notably absent is any mention of mental retardation. And the official conclusion based on the VAERS data is this: ""Based on all of the information we have today, CDC recommends HPV vaccination for the prevention of most types of cervical cancer."" As our friends at FactCheck.org also noted, a blue ribbon panel convened by the Institute of Medicine has released a report in August about adverse events and vaccines, including HPV vaccines. The experts did find ""strong and generally suggestive"" evidence that a different condition -- a serious allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis -- may be caused by the HPV vaccine. It also found four published reports of Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis, a neurological condition that could impair mental capabilities. But Joseph Bocchini -- the chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (Shreveport) and a member of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices -- told FactCheck.org that even if the symptoms of Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis mirrored those seen by the woman who spoke to Bachmann, the number of cases was too small to assign any causal connection to the vaccine. So, beyond anaphylaxis, the IOM panel did not find any causal evidence to link adverse events to the vaccine. We checked with a couple experts in pediatric medicine for their view on Bachmann's claim. They said there was no scientific evidence to support it, and they added that the HPV vaccine has undergone the full complement of safety testing that all vaccines must undergo before going on the market. ""I have no qualms about advising this is a safe vaccine,"" said Christopher Harrison, a doctor and the director of the infectious disease research laboratory at Children's Mercy Hospitals in Kansas City, Mo. ""The millions of doses that have been given make clinicians comfortable recommending and giving it."" ""I've given it to both my daughters,"" said Kenneth Alexander, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Chicago Medical Center. ""It's as safe or safer as any vaccine out there."" ""This is an anti-cancer vaccine. We should be going to the rooftops and shouting 'Huzzah!'"" said William Schaffner, chair of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Our ruling In several national television appearances, Bachmann said a woman reported her child had experienced mental retardation after receiving an HPV vaccination. We can't judge the specifics of that case -- neither the woman nor the daughter have been identified as far as we could find and skeptics have offered a reward if the victim can be found. But even if Bachmann's portrayal of what happened is accurate, it falls well short of the scientific standard for demonstrating causality between an inoculation and an adverse health event. Ongoing studies of tens of thousands of reported adverse events following tens of millions of inoculations have revealed only a small number of serious ailments, only one of which -- anaphylaxis -- had strong enough evidence to suggest a causal link from the vaccine itself. Since Bachmann made her claim, medical organizations and individual experts have come out strongly against her implication that the HPV vaccine can cause mental retardation."
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38941
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Viral reports on social media have warned people to look for injection marks on crabs that are imported from China because they may have been injected with a highly toxic preservative called formalin.
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China Injects Crabs with Toxic Preservative Formalin
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false
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Food / Drink
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Reports that crabs imported from China have been injected with formalin are false. Formalin can be used as an embalming fluid to preserve animal specimens and tissue samples that are studied under microscopes. It can also be diluted and used as a disinfectant to kill parasites in fish. The FDA has approved three diluted forms of formalin for use in finned food fish and fish eggs, but crab is not listed among its approved uses. The FDA approval means that these forms of formalin are “scientifically show to be safe and effective when used according to the directions on the label.” However, there haven’t been any credible reports of crab imported from China being injected with toxic levels of formalin, as the social media posts claim. And photos that appear with these social media reports don’t show crabs being injected with formalin. They are from a December 2014 blog post that warns Malaysian consumers about crabs that have been injected with a solution to make them weigh more. According to a translated version of the blog post: “Be careful when you buy crab at this time because there are reliable reports that there is a pinhole in the abdomen because the crabs have injected feared and pricked with water to preserve freshness and increase the weight of the crab.” China is among the world’s largest producers of farm-raised fish. The FDA has challenged China’s seafood imports after finding carcinogens and antibiotics in them in the past. Still, warnings that crabs from China have been injected with formalin are unfounded. Comments
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4756
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Montana agency announces significant part of plant cleanup.
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Officials say they have finished a significant part of the cleanup at a former aluminum company in northwest Montana.
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true
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Environment, Montana, Hazardous waste
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The Montana Department of Environmental Quality said Friday that the cleanup of hazardous waste in the area used to reduce alumina as part of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company’s smelting process has been completed. The Daily Interlake reports that the Montana environmental agency says the step is a small part of the extensive cleanup project. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has designated the former plant as a Superfund site. The federal agency has said that spent potliner material can contain cyanide and fluoride, which can leach into groundwater. Landfills and ponds on the site also were used to dispose other waste from the plant. The plant operated between 1955 and 2009.
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76
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Several states wary of $48 billion opioid settlement proposal.
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Several U.S. states that have been ravaged by the opioid epidemic are pushing back on a proposed $48 billion settlement framework that would resolve thousands of lawsuits against five drug companies accused of fueling the addiction crisis.
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true
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Health News
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The proposal would bring an end to all opioid litigation against AmerisourceBergen Corp(ABC.N), Cardinal Health Inc(CAH.N) and McKesson Corp(MCK.N), drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Inc(TEVA.TA)(TEVA.N), and Johnson & JohnsonJNJ.J. The companies have proposed paying $22.25 billion cash mostly over 18 years, while services and drugs to treat addiction valued at $26 billion by the companies would be provided over the coming decade, mostly by Teva. Officials in states such as Ohio, New Hampshire and West Virginia — all hard hit by the deadly drug addition crisis — voiced concerns about the proposal. James Boffetti, the associate attorney general for New Hampshire, said in an interview he was troubled that payments were stretched over many years. “The concern is, I think, the states need money now to create the infrastructure for treatment,” he said. Small states fear the money will be divvied up by population rather than need. “Any global opioid settlement that doesn’t reflect the unique and unprecedented damage imposed on West Virginia through the opioid epidemic should be DOA,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said on Twitter on Tuesday. Some 400,000 U.S. overdose deaths between 1997 and 2017 were linked to opioids, according to government data. Roughly 2,600 lawsuits have been brought nationwide by states, local and tribal governments. The three distributors in a joint statement said they were committed to finalizing a global settlement and would continue working with the other parties on the details of the framework. Teva declined to comment. J&J said in a securities filing on Wednesday the deal would lower third quarter profit by $3 billion. The proposal, announced on Monday, was hammered out by the companies and attorneys general in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. It will need broad support among state attorneys general and will have to overcome opposition from the lawyers representing local governments that sued. Those lawyers declined to sign on when presented the proposal last week. Under the settlement framework, money for each state would be divvied up, with 15% going to the state treasury, 15% for local governments that filed lawsuits and 70% going to a proposed state fund aimed at addressing the crisis. Boffetti predicted it would takes weeks for states to determine whether they back the settlement framework. North Carolina’s attorney general, Josh Stein, acknowledged that a detailed term sheet needs to be developed. “There are a lot of details and mechanics that need to be added to it,” Stein told Reuters in an interview. “That will happen in the coming weeks.” The proposal did win a major supporter on Tuesday. Tom Miller of Iowa, the longest-serving attorney general, publicly backed the proposal, calling the framework “an important step in addressing the crisis.” Colorado’s attorney general, Phil Weiser, called it a “very promising development.” The lawsuits accuse distributors of failing to flag and halt a rising tide of suspicious orders and drugmakers of overstating the benefits of opioids while downplaying the risks. The companies have denied any wrongdoing. Drugmakers say their products carried government-approved labels that warned of the addictive risks of opioids, while distributors argue their role was to make sure medicines prescribed by licensed doctors were available for patients. The proposed deal has widened a fault line between attorneys general and local governments. Cities and counties generally hired private attorneys to bring their cases, and attorneys general want to limit the amount of the settlement that goes to pay private lawyers. The attorneys for local governments also generally opposed Teva contributing opioid treatment drugs to the settlement, instead of cash, in part because of concerns that the framework placed an inflated value on those drugs. Last week’s talks failed to reach a global deal, and on Monday, the three wholesale distributors and Teva struck a last-minute $260 million settlement with two Ohio counties, averting the first federal trial over opioids. North Carolina’s Stein said he looked forward to resolving concerns about the proposal and warned that settling lawsuits individually was unsustainable. “If we proceed on the current path and each county and city brings their case and extracts whatever amount they may be able to get from these companies, the companies will end up bankrupt,” he said. “The opioid crisis is a national problem that demands a national solution.”
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37979
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Circulating video depicts an attempted child abduction at a Florida pizza shop.
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Haze shrouded India’s capital city again on Monday, with residents braving dangerous air quality to return to work after a weekend of clearer air and better weather.
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mixture
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Fact Checks, Viral Content
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The air quality index of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi stood at “hazardous” levels of 497 as of 0630 GMT, with levels of airborne PM 2.5 - particles that can reach deep into the lungs - touching nearly 700 in parts of the city. That is more than 10 times the recommended safe limit of 60 for PM 2.5. A dip in wind speed and temperature is making air denser, trapping pollutants and worsening air quality, said Vivek Chattopadhyay, a senior programme manager at New Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment. The city government of Delhi, a metropolis of over 20 million, is restricting the use of private cars until Nov. 15 with an “odd-even” system - allowing cars on alternate days, depending on whether their licence plate ends in an odd or even number. The scheme, which includes a two-day waiver for a religious festival, has helped little, prompting environmentalists to call for urgent action. “The chief minister (of Delhi) needs to declare an emergency,” said Bharati Chaturvedi, founder of the Chintan environmental advocacy group. “If this was the plague, he would have declared an emergency.” Every year, as India’s winter season approaches, farmers in Delhi’s neighboring Punjab and Haryana states, where agriculture is a mainstay, burn off rice field stubble in preparation for the sowing season. The smoke from fields mixes with vehicle exhaust and construction dust, making Delhi the world’s most-polluted capital. India’s Supreme Court last week chided authorities for their failure to curb the pollution and asked the city government, its neighboring states and the federal government to work together to help improve air quality.
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33087
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A video shows Koko the gorilla spontaneously using sign language to issue a warning about climate change.
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The Koko climate change PSA is a novel and compelling way of focusing viewer attention on a political message, but it’s basically just a staged commercial, not an expression of sagacity about Nature issued by a non-human creature.
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false
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Politics, climate change, global warming, koko
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If you want an audience to take heed of what you have to say, sometimes the messenger who delivers it for you can be just as important as the message itself. Depending on the nature of your communiqué, you may find it has a much greater impact on your intended audience if it is conveyed a a sympathetic figure who can tug at people’s heartstrings (e.g., a child, a Native American, a mother, a veteran) or a respected figure whom viewers perceive as knowledgeable about the subject at hand (e.g., a judge, a policeman, a college professor). A messenger who brought both those qualities to the table was Koko the gorilla, a primate who purportedly understands approximately 2,000 words of the spoken human language and can communicate her thoughts to humans via her use of more than 1,000 signs of what ‘Gorilla Sign Language’ (a modified version of American Sign Language). In 2015 two non-profit organizations, the Gorilla Foundation (who oversee Koko’s care and training), and NOE Conservation (who seek to safeguard biodiversity), teamed up to produce a Public Service Announcement (PSA) featuring Koko in conjunction with the United Nations Climate Change Conference (also known as the COP21 Climate Conference) held in Paris in December of that year: That video captured Koko supposedly signing about the importance of our protecting and preserving nature, a message that (given the nature of the proceedings it was associated with) was interpreted as a plea to acknowledge the issue of climate change. The NOE said as much, declaring that the video captured “Koko reacting after she has been informed about what is at stake at COP21.” And the press release issued with the video by the Gorilla Foundation asserted that Koko was indeed being “clear” about wanting to convey the notion that “Man is harming the Earth”: Because of her unique ability to communicate with humans in sign language, Koko is a natural ambassador for endangered species, and thus we agreed to co-produce a short video PSA (Public Service Announcement) contingent on Koko’s willingness to participate. Koko was clear about the main message: Man is harming the Earth and its many animal and plant species and needs to “hurry” and fix the problem. We humans may disagree on the possibly deleterious effects our activities are having on our global environment, but how could we possibly ignore a poignant plea from a gorilla — a message delivered by a personification of Nature itself, who is not coincidentally regarded as sympathetic and knowledgeable regarding the subject at hand? Some viewers took the video a little too literally, however, and were surprised at Koko’s pithy and timely exhortation to heed the perils of global warming. But nothing about the video indicates that Koko can actually entertain, much less communicate to humans, thoughts about environmentalism. For starters, as noted in a 2014 Slate, human-ape communication may be far more about anthropomorphization than actual linguistic expression, especially when it comes to the expressing ideas rather than communicating basic needs: [C]onceding that the scientific jury is still out on whether gorillas are capable of sophisticated emotions doesn’t make headlines, and admitting the ambiguity inherent in interpreting a gorilla’s sign language doesn’t bring in millions of dollars in donations. So we get a story about Koko mourning Robin Williams: a nice, straightforward tale that warms the heart but leaves scientists and skeptics wondering how a gorilla’s emotions can be deduced so easily. Koko is perhaps the most famous product of an ambitious field of research, one that sought from the outset to examine whether apes and humans could communicate. In dozens of studies, scientists raised apes with humans and attempted to teach them language. Dedicated researchers brought apes like Koko into their homes or turned their labs into home-like environments where people and apes could play together and try, often awkwardly, to understand each other. The researchers made these apes the center of their lives. But the research didn’t deliver on its promise. No new studies have been launched in years, and the old ones are fizzling out. A behind-the-scenes look at what remains of this research today reveals a surprisingly dramatic world of lawsuits, mass resignations, and dysfunctional relationships between humans and apes. Unlike us, it seems that apes don’t care to chitchat. Psychologist Susan Goldin-Meadow points out that studies with Kanzi (a bonobo) show that only 4 percent of his signs are commentary, meaning the other 96 percent are all functional signs, asking for food or toys. Similar skepticism about Koko emerged in the 1980s, when Herb Terrace published a fairly scathing critique of ape language research. Among other criticisms, Terrace asserted that Koko’s signs were not spontaneous but instead elicited by [her handler’s] asking her questions. In any case, Koko’s supposed message about climate change and biodiversity is completely lacking in context: the viewer has no idea what any offscreen handlers might have said or done to elicit the signing she produces, or whether the video is anything more than a collection of disjoint, completely unrelated signs strung together into a narrative fashioned by humans rather than a gorilla. Even if we were to assume the (highly unlikely) possibility that Koko’s signing was completely spontaneous and unguided, her “message” is highly ambiguous and non-specific — outside of humans’ suggesting a framework for us to employ in interpreting it: I am gorilla. I am flowers, animals. I am nature. Man Koko love. Earth Koko love. But Man stupid. Stupid! Koko sorry. Koko cry. Time hurry! Fix Earth! Help Earth! Hurry! Protect Earth. Nature see you. Thank you. For all we know, this discourse might have been prompted by Koko’s having just witnessed a clumsy gardener on a power mower carelessly amputating a crop of blooming roses in a nearby flowerbed, and she’s expressing that she wants someone to repair the damage by reattaching the severed buds to their stems. Even the Gorilla Foundation admitted that Koko was “briefed” on the subject at hand and provided with a “script” for the video, which was “edited from a number of separate takes”: Turns out Koko was very interested in the subject [of preserving biodiversity], which we briefed her on via a recent issue of National Geographic titled “Cool It!” We also presented her with a script drafted by NOE (as any celebrity ambassador asked to do a PSA would expect) and allowed her to improvise during s series of brief daily video discussion sessions, in which Koko also had to learn a few new signs, such as “Protect” and “Nature.” The resulting PSA was edited from a number of separate takes, for brevity and continuity. Barbara King, a biological anthropologist at the College of William and Mary who writes about human evolution, primate behavior, and the cognition and emotion of animals, commented on the the Koko PSA thusly for NPR: [R]eminds me of earlier attempts by the Gorilla Foundation to showcase Koko’s ability to understand things that there’s little chance she could understand, at least in the ways suggested. Anthropomorphism — the projection of so-called human qualities onto other animals — is not inevitably wrong. Other animals may share with us many ways of thinking and feeling, and recognizing that fact is often appropriate. But the anthropomorphism in this video is not appropriate. Not even linguistically inclined apes comprehend anything close to the dynamic interplay between humans and nature that underlies anthropogenic climate change. King also quoted Sherman Wilcox, professor of linguistics at the University of New Mexico, as saying in reaction to this video: This is obviously a doctored video composed of highly edited clips of single signs pieced together to make it look like Koko is actually saying something, when she’s not. It is disconcerting on so many levels. I fear it diminishes the seriousness of the climate change issue. Climate change deniers already feel like scientists are lying to the public. We don’t need to give them fake videos. A Huffington Post article on the topic similarly quoted skeptics from the fields of linguistics and primate research: But can a gorilla really grasp abstract concepts like climate change and biodiversity? “Of course not,” Herbert Terrace, director of Columbia University’s Primate Cognition Lab, told The Huffington Post. Terrace criticized the video as “highly misleading” because “we don’t know what Koko’s trainer was signing to her before she uttered the various signs … attributed to her.” Frans de Waal, director of Emory University’s Living Links primate research center, suggested that the conservation video hurts the credibility of those who study animal intelligence. “Koko’s human-coached message goes well beyond anything that a gorilla understands or cares about, such as human global impact,” de Waal told HuffPost. He added that “stunts” like this one “have given the ape-language field a bad name, whereas there is so much more to discover if we just study what cognitively advanced animals can do of their own accord.” “The problem comes in when we take an ape’s accomplishments and then … insist … on putting her forward as a wise old woman, and she’s not,” [Barbara] King said.
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29633
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Court testimony proved that a biotech company harvests organs from live fetuses.
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San Francisco Superior Court Judge Christopher Hite denied the prosecution’s request for a gag order, citing the attorney’s First Amendment rights and noting that prosecutors had failed to show a connection between the alleged harassment and statements made by Daleiden’s attorney. But the judge also stated that anyone caught intimidating a witness would be prosecuted.
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false
|
Politics
|
The anti-abortion website LifeSite published a story containing a headline that said the CEO of the biotech company StemExpress admitted in court to “selling beating baby hearts, intact baby heads.” That headline was not only false, but it presented a security risk to a witness in a criminal trial, according to a report from an investigator with the California state Department of Justice. The LifeSite story is based on an ongoing preliminary hearing in the criminal case against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, the anti-abortion activists behind the making of controversial, heavily edited “sting” videos targeting Planned Parenthood in 2015. The videos, which were produced by Daleiden’s non-profit organization Center for Medical Progress (CMP), attempted unsuccessfully to show that Planned Parenthood was illegally trafficking in fetal tissue. But while Planned Parenthood was cleared in resulting investigations, Daleidon and Merritt were criminally charged and are currently facing 15 counts of felony invasion of privacy in California. The LifeSite story presents readers with a horror movie-like scenario taken, as it claims, from the testimony of a woman the court identifies only as “Doe 12” but whom LifeSite says is the “CEO of StemExpress”: Beating hearts are being snatched out of live babies in an organ-harvesting scheme. It’s a sensational, graphic claim that reflects cultural tropes. But it’s not true. The gist of the story can be distilled from a quote by Peter Breen, an attorney from the Thomas More Society, a conservative legal-activist organization, which is representing Daleiden pro bono. “If you have a fetus with an intact head and an intact body, and intact extremities, that is something that would indicate that child was born alive, and then had their organs cut out of them, or that that child was the victim of an illegal partial-birth abortion,” Breen told LifeSite. Our efforts to reach Breen about this comment were unsuccessful. But here’s what the LifeSite story reports in support of that comment: Breen told the court that StemExpress was mentioned in connection with Stanford University studies where Langendorff perfusion was used, a technique that “requires a beating heart.” “Does StemExpress supply fetal hearts to Stanford?” he asked Doe 12. She hesitated to answer because, she said, “there’s so much targeting of researchers.” However, Judge Christopher Hite told her the question was relevant. “Yes, we have provided heart tissue to Stanford,” Doe 12 said. She also admitted that CMP photos are accurate and that sometimes a baby’s intact calvarium is attached to the baby’s body and sometimes it is not. It’s a leap to claim that supplying heart tissue to Stanford, “where Langendorff perfusion was used,” means that StemExpress supplied beating hearts to the university. In fact, the claim betrays an ignorance of what the Langendorff perfusion is when it is applied in the context of stem cell research. We spoke to one researcher whose work has involved fetal heart stem cells as well as the Langerdorff perfusion technique. This researcher, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the topic, explained to us that there are two basic ways a Langerdorff perfusion is used. While one way does involve getting a heart to beat directly after it has been removed from a laboratory animal, the method that is relevant for stem cell research does not. The latter approach uses enzymes to digest away tissue to isolate heart stem cells. These hearts do not arrive at the lab “beating,” the scientist told us, nor could they be made to beat again, given the time it takes to transport the tissue. Similarly, researchers sometimes work with fetal brain tissue to research neurological problems with stem cells. Though it is certainly possible, fully intact fetal heads are uncommon in the samples that arrive for work in research samples. While we do not know what specific testimony led to the discussion of intact fetal heads, its alleged mention in court is not evidence of an illegal partial-birth abortion. State laws vary, but in California, consent is required prior to the donation of fetal tissue, and it is illegal to profit from fetal donation or procurement. State prosecutors had requested the judge in Daleidon and Merritt’s criminal case issue a gag order barring their attorneys from speaking to the media, stating that Doe 12 has been subject to intimidation and threats as a result of her testimony. Prosecutors cited Breen’s “inaccurate” portrayal of her testimony in the LifeSite story as well as the CMP Twitter account that has live-tweeted the hearing and identified unnamed witnesses by giving their organizations and job titles. Doe 12 filed a report with the California Department of Justice alleging that after her Sept. 5, 2019, testimony, a woman pulled up alongside her as she drove home, screamed at her, filmed her, and attempted to collide with her vehicle. The investigator also wrote that one of Doe 12’s neighbors had seen a car parked near her home on several occasions during the hearings and believed someone was “casing” Doe 12’s home. “Doe 12 also provided me with a Life Site News link to an article with the heading, ‘StemExpress CEO admits selling beating baby hearts, intact baby heads in Daleiden hearing,'” California DOJ Special Agent Brian Caldwell wrote. “This statement is false and further increases security risk to Doe 12.”
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7024
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Matchmaker’s business flourishes amid ‘dating app fatigue’.
|
Michal Naisteter approached a city planner at Reading Terminal Market and bantered with a pediatrician at the Bok Bar rooftop. At a Franklin Institute Science After Hours event, she was intrigued by a young entrepreneur, and she chatted up a Delaware politician at a local coffee shop.
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true
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Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Financial markets, Business, Science, Dating, Reading
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No matter where she meets people, her introduction remains the same. “Hey, I’m Michal. I’m a married matchmaker,” she says. “Are you by any chance single, ’cause I think you’re really cute.” All those people ended up saying yes to Naisteter, 35, who for two years has worked as a matchmaker for the national company Three Day Rule. They are soon added to her company’s pool of more than 4,500 Philadelphia singles, most of whom are not paying members but are open to being set up. After a meeting where they have a “heart to heart” with Naisteter, she considers matching them with a client. While many people may start humming along to the song from Fiddler on the Roof when they hear the word matchmaker, Naisteter’s company emphasizes a modern approach to what may seem like a quaint method for finding love. There has been demand for matchmaking services as the proliferation of apps has chipped away at the stigma associated with seeking outside help for dating, an IBISWorld report on the growing $3 billion industry shows. Even with free options like Tinder at the fingertips of singles, some people turn to matchmakers for a more personalized, albeit pricey, experience. People in Philly seem particularly disgruntled with the city’s dating pool, Naisteter said. Though loyal to the city, they say living here is like a small town where they already know everyone. That’s simply not true in the sixth largest city in the United States, she says. For those who want to work with Naisteter, there is a $5,500 premium membership fee for three months, with higher priced options for six and 12 months. With this payment comes an in-depth meeting about anything from family history and past relationships to the attributes of a potential partner, as well as a professional photo shoot. Then, Naisteter will search LinkedIn, Instagram, and networking events, or while living her daily life, like grocery shopping, to find people to match with her clients, with a goal of at least one match a month. Other matchmakers range from national companies like the paid-service It’s Just Lunch to Danielle Selber, who is called the “in-house matchmaker” at the Philadelphia nonprofit Tribe 12, which encourages people to make a $36 donation if they are satisfied with the experience. The way Naisteter views it, a matchmaker saves her clients time by searching on their behalf and then screening people before a first date to make sure they are representing themselves accurately and are a good fit. Her objective, she says, is getting people on fewer but better dates. Three Day Rule launched in Philadelphia in May 2016, three years after its founding in Los Angeles. In that time, the company says, it has matched about 550 people in Philly and sat down with more than 1,500 singles. Naisteter has worked with more than 50 paying clients and of her current clients, the youngest is 26 and oldest is 67. While Naisteter said there is not one metric for success, since not everyone is looking to be married right away if at all, the company said that in the last couple years, 70 percent of its clients overall were still dating one of their matches when their contract ended. Even if the people Naisteter meets don’t fit well with a paying client, she helps them improve their dating profiles or offers general advice. “I’m like a cheerleader and a sex therapist and your girlfriend all rolled up into one,” she said. Modern matchmaking Three Day Rule CEO Talia Goldstein started listing her colleagues’ recent successes on one of their recent weekly conference calls with matchmakers in 10 cities, including Los Angeles and New York. “For matching shoutouts, Melissa has two second dates and a third date. Samantha has a third date. Julia has a second date, and a client who went on hold to date her match....” But when it was Naisteter’s turn, she didn’t highlight a traditional success like a wedding. She told a story about rejection. He is in his 30s with a healthy career, but no relationship. Any time she sent him a match, he would ask: “What do I say to her?” ″What do I text her?” ″Where should we go?” Naisteter has worked on empowering him to make his own decisions. “If you want to meet someone amazing, you have to be amazing yourself,” she would tell him. So he gave it a try. He took a date to a ping pong bar in Philly and thought it was fantastic. But when Naisteter debriefed the woman after, she said he didn’t talk about things he did outside of work, and she didn’t feel as if he would be interested in what she does for fun, like salsa dancing. Naisteter relayed this to him and told him the woman wasn’t interested in a second date. “So the next day, he wrote to me, ‘You know what, I think I’m still going to write to her, like I would be down to go as friends. I want to go salsa dancing, or I would come to one of the events that you organized,’” Naisteter told colleagues. Naisteter considers her job more than just getting people dates. Along the way, she wants them to learn more about themselves and how that reflects what they are looking for in a partner. In a way, she’d been readying herself to be a matchmaker long before she even knew a job like this existed. After taking a human sexuality course as an undergrad at Pennsylvania State University, she went on to earn a master’s in that topic at Widener University. She lived in Tel Aviv for a year, teaching English to children of migrant workers. She also worked in Boston and did HIV counseling on needle exchange vans. After working in public health, she decided she wanted to do more on the education side and learn Spanish. So she went to South America with a backpack and suitcase and ended up in Medellin, Colombia, for four years. Back in Philly, she wanted a career change that blended her education, experience, personality and life history, and found this job while searching online with a friend one night. While in Medellin, a friend set her up with her now-husband. The two have an 8-month-old daughter, Hanna Rodriguez. With clients, Naisteter will tell them about her husband, Manuel Rodriguez. At 31, he is younger than her and from a different religion. “If we were on an app, I could’ve potentially swiped the wrong way.” But instead of focusing on physical attributes or what was written down, the friend simply said: “You’re a good person, and he’s a good person.” They call that friend “our cupid, or our matchmaker.” ‘Dating app fatigue’ It isn’t likely that matchmaking services like Three Day Rule will overtake the online and mobile dating market, said John Madigan, an industry research analyst at IBIS. Tinder, PlentyOfFish, and OkCupid are all brands from Match Group Inc., which IBISWorld reports has about 42.3 percent of the industry’s market share. Match Group’s stock has more than quadrupled to about $61 Monday from $15.20 in November 2015. Dating sites like Match.com, eHarmony, and Chemistry.com comprise half of the market. Mobile dating, which can be found free with apps like Hinge and Bumble, is 31 percent. Matchmaking is just 12 percent. Match Group was an early investor in Three Day Rule in 2014. But Madigan has noticed that “dating app fatigue” is driving demand for matchmakers. “People are getting tired of swiping right, swiping left, ‘Do I find this person attractive?’ It’s a very superficial-based connection,” he said. While other matchmaking firms do this work, Madigan singled out Three Day Rule in his report because it has been “growing quite quickly,” doubling in revenue in 2018. After spending years swiping through five different dating apps, Ed Cahan, 37, an engineer who works in real estate, was losing hope. His friends were married and having their second children, and he felt his time was ticking away. He got coffee with Naisteter and asked how the premium membership worked. “I thought about it for a couple days, and then I was like, ‘You know what, I tried all the apps, I tried all these things, Why not? I’ll say yes and I’ll see what happens.’” So they met up again. Naisteter optimized his dating profile by helping him get new photos and linking his Instagram account to show off his woodworking hobby. She told him his usual date suggestion of coffee around 6 p.m. was just plain bad. Since he doesn’t drink, she suggested going to a nice restaurant at 8 p.m. for dessert and a better ambiance. Cahan, who lives in Northern Liberties, told her how he was looking for someone who was Jewish like him, adventurous, entrepreneurial, and outdoorsy. When she sent over his first match, he told her the next day that she nailed it. “You listened to me and you found exactly what I was looking for,” he recalled. The two went on a dessert date last month at Parc. Even though he said it was a good date, the two haven’t gone on a second. Now he is waiting for more matches. ___ Online: https://bit.ly/2GEQ8Hi ___ Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.inquirer.com
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26689
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A post comparing two construction workers — “Joe legal” and “Jose illegal” — says “Jose” pays no taxes yet gets free medical care, food stamps, welfare, and 'head of the class' priority for his children in applying for college.
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The Facebook post ignores that a significant percentage of undocumented immigrants do pay income taxes, payroll taxes, and state and local taxes. It also ignores that most undocumented immigrants cannot legally claim federal benefits, such as food stamps and welfare. Young undocumented immigrants can get medical coverage in a few states, but they are the exceptions. Undocumented immigrants aren’t placed at the head of the line for college admissions or financial aid.
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false
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Immigration, Education, Health Care, Race and Ethnicity, Poverty, Workers, Facebook Fact-checks, Facebook posts,
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"A Facebook post critical of illegal immigration — comparing two construction workers, ""Joe legal"" and ""Jose illegal"" — has been shared more than 222,000 times since it was created in July 2018, and it’s still circulating. But the post is rife with inaccuracies. You can read the full text of the 553-word post here. But here’s a sampling: ""Joe legal works in construction, has a Social Security number and makes $25.00 per hour with taxes deducted. ""Jose illegal also works in construction has no Social Security number and makes $15.00 per hour cash, under the table. ... ""Joe legal pays medical and dental insurance with limited coverage for his family at $600.00 per month, or $7,200.00 per year. Joe legal now has $24,031.00. ""Jose illegal has full medical and dental coverage through the State and local clinics and emergency hospitals at a cost of $0.00 per year. Jose illegal still has $31,200.00. ""Joe legal makes too much money and is not eligible for food stamps or welfare. Joe legal spends $500.00 per month for food or $6,000.00 per year. Joe legal now has $18,031.00. ""Jose illegal has no documented income and is eligible for food stamps, WIC and welfare. Jose illegal still has $31,200.00. ... ""Now, when they reach college age... ""Joe legal's kids may not get into a State school and may not qualify for scholarships, grants or other tuition help, even though Joe has been paying for State schools through his taxes, while... ""Jose illegal's kids go to the, 'head of the class' because they are a minority. ... ""Its way PAST time to take a stand for America and Americans!"" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Much of the post is wrong. Here’s an analysis of the major points. Actually, many undocumented immigrants do pay taxes. This has been especially true in recent years, as most key immigration bills included provisions that would require paying taxes as a prerequisite for securing legal status. The most common mechanism may involve the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN. Since 1996, people in the United States who do not have a Social Security number, and who therefore aren’t eligible to be employed, have been able to get an ITIN. Many, though not all, ITIN filers are undocumented immigrants, experts say. In 2013, 4.3 million people filed tax returns using ITINs. ITIN filers paid $9 billion in payroll taxes in 2014. A 2013 report by the conservative Heritage Foundation found that the average undocumented immigrant household paid $10,334 in taxes, or $17.6 billion paid overall. Experts estimate that half of all undocumented workers pay federal income taxes, Kim Rueben, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, told PolitiFact in 2016. That’s not much below the rate of Americans as a whole, since many Americans earn too little to owe federal income taxes. Then there are payroll taxes. The Social Security Administration estimated that in 2009, 3.1 million unauthorized workers paid into Social Security via payroll tax, even though most will not be able to collect those benefits. Beyond that are state and local taxes. A 2016 study by the liberal Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy estimated that in 2013, undocumented immigrants paid $11.64 billion in state and local taxes, such as sales and excise taxes, property taxes, and income taxes. This is largely wrong, though there are a few exceptions. In July 2019, California approved state-funded Medicaid coverage for low-income, undocumented adults age 25 and younger. A half-dozen states and the District of Columbia use state funds to provide Medicaid to children regardless of immigration status. Elsewhere, and for other age groups, undocumented immigrants only have access to emergency care. In 1986, Congress responded to concerns that emergency rooms were refusing to treat indigent and uninsured people — a practice known as patient dumping — by approving the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. The act, signed by President Ronald Reagan, requires hospitals with emergency rooms that participate in the Medicare program to medically screen, treat and stabilize any patient (including illegal immigrants) who shows up with an emergency medical condition. The law doesn't require that hospitals offer preventive or follow-up care. (Joe legal can get emergency care this way, too, should he need it.) Undocumented immigrants are unable to obtain federal premium subsidies on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. So in most states, short of an emergency situation, they’re going to have to pay in full for private medical insurance if they want to get routine or preventive care, just like Joe legal would. Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for most federal benefits. There are a few exceptions — including the emergency disaster assistance and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC. They are barred from programs such as Supplemental Security Income or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Not even individuals protected with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status — that is, those who came to the United States without authorization as children and who remain undocumented — qualify for these benefits. There are two asterisks to note. FIrst, an undocumented immigrant may have a spouse or relatives who are citizens and who are eligible for such programs. But any benefit to the undocumented immigrant would be indirect, and it is legal for a citizen to receive those benefits. Second, it’s possible that an undocumented immigrant could fraudulently apply for such benefits. Ruth Wasem, a professor at the University of Texas’ Lyndon B. Johnson school of public policy, said there are no good estimates of the rates of fraud in these programs by undocumented immigrants. However, she’s skeptical that they are especially high. ""Do people commit fraud? Of course,"" she said. ""But why is someone who is trying to keep a low profile to avoid deportation going to risk that kind of behavior? And to the extent that there is fraud and identity theft in these programs, it’s nothing that U.S. citizens aren’t doing in abundance."" Experts could not think of any way in which an undocumented immigrant would get a leg up in college admissions or financial aid. The only possible exception would be generalized affirmative action preferences — but even this is not as simple as the Facebook post puts it. Specifically, under affirmative action, ""Jose illegal"" would be on the same footing for attending and paying for college as legal immigrants of color and U.S. citizens of color. Indeed, ""Joe legal"" could be a person of color, putting him on the same affirmative action footing as ""Joe illegal."" The Facebook post compared two construction workers — ""Joe legal"" and ""Jose illegal"" — and said ""Jose"" pays no taxes yet gets free medical care, food stamps, welfare, and ""head of the class"" priority for his children in applying for college. The post ignores that many undocumented immigrants do, in fact, pay income taxes, payroll taxes, and state and local taxes. It also ignores that most undocumented immigrants cannot legally claim federal benefits, such as food stamps and welfare. Finally, experts said there’s no way an undocumented immigrant would get placed at the head of the line for college admissions or financial aid compared with U.S. citizens and even legal immigrants."
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8962
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New blood test detects early stage pancreatic cancer
|
The headline of this news release — ‘New blood test detects early stage pancreatic cancer’ — is misleading since the study results are quite preliminary, and the blood test was given to those already known to have cancer. For many readers the headline might suggest there’s a new screening test currently available that can detect this very lethal cancer in anyone, when that’s clearly not the case. The strength of this news release is that it firmly establishes the need for early diagnosis in this difficult to diagnose condition. Where it falls short is explaining what the main finding of detecting cancers with “96 accuracy” means, the significant limitations that place this impressive finding in a more appropriate context, and the potential influence of significant conflicts of interest among the authors. A very small minority of cases of pancreatic cancer are caught early. By the time it’s usually diagnosed it’s frequently quite advanced and much more lethal. Any test — blood-based or otherwise — that could catch this cancer early has the potential to improve survival … and be lucrative for developers. This news release teaches several lessons worth highlighting that we often find when blood tests are hyped as “catching cancer early.” First, by design, these tests are first applied (retrospectively) to people already known to have cancer. Just how useful they would be in screening the general public requires larger (prospective) studies. And this brings up a second lesson: The most important information for doctors and patients alike is how good is the test at detecting a cancer that’s there (specificity) and ruling out a cancer that’s not there (sensitivity). Thorough coverage of such blood tests needs to scrutinize the specificity/sensitivity, when possible. [For further explanation on sensitivity and specificity see our toolkit article on the topic] Finally, as is the case with this study, the financial stakes involved are significant. Much of the research in early cancer detection is industry-funded. Reporters covering such industry-backed tests should make this clear to the public, as well as seek independent sources to comment on the study design and results.
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false
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blood test,Lund University,pancreatic cancer
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Cost is not mentioned. Although the blood test is experimental, researchers would likely be able to provide a rough estimate of what such a 29-biomarker assay might cost. From the lead author: “Our test can detect pancreatic cancer with 96% accuracy at stage I and II while there is still the possibility of successful surgical intervention” Using “accuracy” without context is misleading for two reasons. First, it’s not until the end of the news release that we learn that these impressive results are in people with already documented pancreatic cancer. Second, the 96% is somehow correlated with specificity (number of true cancers picked up by the test) and sensitivity (number of true cancers missed). That means 4% of those with cancer will be missed by the test (but the paper reports 6% false-positives; again, confusing). Harms are not discussed and two types of harms are relevant here. The study — but not the news release — mentions a false-positive rate of 6%; that’s the fraction of people erroneously diagnosed with a cancer they don’t have. (Who might then go on to endure the costs and risks involved with subsequent evaluation.) The flip side would be: what’s the false-negative rate? That’s the number of people who are told they’re cancer-free but really aren’t. The potential emotional harm in this case is quite clear. This is important as well because pancreatic cancer is a rare condition. We know that a good screening test works best when the disease has high prevalence in a population, so when dealing with something rare, the 6% leading to harms may mean something very different. It should have been made more clear to readers that the blood test was given to people already known to have pancreatic cancer. The findings are much too preliminary to suggest that such a test could be used as a clinical screening tool until it’s validated by larger scale prospective studies. This makes the news release headline potentially misleading. This news release does not disease monger. It does quite well in establishing that an early detection method for pancreatic cancer is sorely needed since early clinical diagnosis is notoriously difficult with this very lethal cancer. It should have been shared with readers that nearly half the study authors have financial ties to Immunovia AB, the biotech company developing this IMMray™ blood test for detecting pancreatic cancer. The lead author quoted in the news release is a co-founder of the company and the chairman of its board of directors. The release doesn’t mention how pancreatic cancer is currently diagnosed — CT scan, biopsy, carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 blood test that measures the CA 19-9 level in the blood — and how this test might compare. At the very end of the news release we read: “In the future, the screening method could be used to screen people who are at high risk of developing pancreatic cancer, such as those with a hereditary risk, newly onset diabetes patients, and patients with chronic inflammation of the pancreas. The next step has already been initiated, which is a large US prospective study for high risk individuals.” This is an important inclusion but it would have helped to put this higher up in the news release because it provides an opportunity to emphasize that the blood test is unproven as a screening tool. More importantly, it’s currently not commercially available and the news release should have made this clear. The release doesn’t specifically claim novelty, nor should it based on this very preliminary research. There are currently two other blood tests that are marginally useful (when taken in the context of other tests) in helping to diagnose pancreatic cancer or monitor treatment: CA 19-9 and CEA. There are no other existing blood tests that are routinely used by oncologists to diagnose pancreatic cancer. The preliminary nature of these findings render the headline phrasing premature and unjustifiable.
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9931
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Celebrex may curb colon cancer, but with caveats
|
This story about Celebrex’s potential to prevent colorectal cancer satisfied most of our criteria and gives readers the correct bottom line on this study. The story should have taken a bit more care to explain that the investigators were looking at a surrogate outcome, and it could have quantified the harms of treatment more precisely. But even in the areas where it fell short, the story did end up providing enough information to advance the reader’s understanding. As the story points out, screening via colonoscopy does not always catch polyps before they have a chance to progress to cancer. Drugs that can reduce the number of polyps that develop in the first place (e.g. Celebrex and aspirin) might therefore have a role to play in prevention efforts, especially in individuals at high risk. The challenge is to balance this potential benefit against the well established risk of adverse effects with these medications (i.e. heart problems with Celebrex and gastrointestinal bleeding with aspirin). At present, there isn’t enough evidence that the benefits of treatment outweigh the harms for most people.
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true
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Cancer,Reuters Health
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The story manages to work costs into the discussion: “At a cost of several dollars per day, depending on dosage, [Celebrex] is much more expensive than older pain relievers such as ibuprofen.” The story reports the benefits in appropriate statistical terms, noting that “new polyps were found in 58 percent of people on placebo, and only 51 percent on Celebrex.” The story could also have given us the number of advanced polyps that were prevented in each group. And, as noted above under the “Evidence” criterion, the story should have explained that these differences in polyp incidence might not translate directly to the number of actual cancers prevented. Since we’ve already docked the points for this omission, however, we’ll award a satisfactory here to recognize the appropriate use of absolute risk numbers. If we were tough on the “evidence” criterion grade, we go a little easy on this one. The story notes that Celebrex users were more likely than the placebo group to develop polyps once they stopped taking the drug, and it quantifies this risk appropriately in absolute terms. However,cardiovascular risk — which is the main concern with this drug — is described only in relative terms. The story states that those treated with the drug had a 66% higher risk of serious cardiac disorders. Although we acknowledge that this is a picky point, the story should have reported the absolute rate of these problems in both groups and the associated difference in risk. This would have helped readers understand how common cardiovascular events were in the study overall and how concerned they should be about the increased risk in the Celebrex group. Nonetheless, because of the overall handling of harms and repeated mention of safety concerns, we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt. We appreciated this story’s generally restrained take on the results, which included mention of “caveats” right in the headline and some discussion of the study’s limitations. There’s also a solid explanation of how one might balance benefits and harms of treatment, and the story ends with appropriate emphasis on the doctor-patient relationship and the importance of shared decision-making regarding treatment. An important shortcoming, however, is the failure to explain that polyps are a surrogate endpoint. The story should have been clearer about the fact that these were precancerous lesions that were being assessed, and that most such polyps do not progress to cancer. The number of actual cancers prevented would likely be lower than what is suggested by the study results. Although the story does explain that polyps are not in themselves cancerous, but “could lead to colorectal cancer,” there should have been more discussion of how this affects our interpretation of the results. A tough call, but we think we our observation is important. The story states that colorectal cancer strikes 1.2 million people each year. It probably should have specified that this figure represents a global tally and not the incidence in the United States. Since the story quotes an American researcher and the study appears in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, readers might assume that the statistics are also U.S. – centric. With that being said, neither this nor anything else in the story rises to the level of disease-mongering. The story notes that the study was funded by Pfizer, maker of Celebrex, and includes commentary from an independent expert who didn’t participate in the study. The story notes that most people should rely on colonoscopies to find colorectal cancer in its early stages rather than take a risky drug to prevent it. It also mentions the fact that aspirin is being studied for its potential cancer prevention effects. The story states that Celebrex is the only COX-2 inhibitor remaining on the market in the U.S., so readers should know it’s available. The story could have been more clear that the drug is available only by prescription and can’t be purchased over the counter. There is appropriate acknowledgment of previous research on the potential for COX-2 inhibitors to prevent cancer. There was enough original reporting for us to be certain that this was not based on a press release.
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33092
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"A riot broke out after a woman accidentally defecated while administering ""vodka butt shots"" on New Year's Eve."
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Like Now8News, But Thats None Of My Business carried no disclaimer warning readers that its content consisted primarily or entirely of “satire” stories (the latter site didn’t even bother to upload a photo to its own site, and hotlinked to a third fake news site’s extant image). The existence of “vodka butt shots” itself was debatable; a Google search restricted to earlier in December 2015 returned few results relating to any such alcohol consumption practice.
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false
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Junk News, but thats none of my business, fake news, hoaxes
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On 27 December 2015, the web site Now8News published an article titled “Woman Gives ‘Vodka Butt Shots’ At Bar, Causing Riot After Diarrhea Explosion”; a more popular iteration was published on 4 January 2016 by the site But Thats [sic] None Of My Business (the latter included the “New Year’s Eve” embellishment.) According to the original: An evening of body shots and drunken adults turned into a violent riot over the weekend after several men lined up to receive ‘vodka butt shots’ from 28-year-old Brittany Sullivan. According to patrons at Timber Creek Bar in St. Louis, Missouri, it is not uncommon for women to crawl on the bar and offer body shots to men. However, it was the first time the shots had ever been delivered in this way. “Yeah, this chick was real drunk. She went over to the corner with a funnel, a bottle of Kettle One and her girlfriend, poured the vodka in the back door and stuck a straw in there,” said Tim Wolfson who was at the bar that evening. “She let loose a good one and clear liquid flew out. So several of the drunk dudes in there went for it. But it was the last guy that got more than he bargained for. It was the most disgusting thing I had ever seen in my entire life. Especially the corn, when I saw that I lost it.” The article’s gross-out factor and party-gone-awry theme made it a social media sensation, and many readers weren’t aware it originated with well-documented hoax purveyor Now8News. The mug shot used was of a woman arrested in 2011 for a DUI (not connected to any “vodka butt shots” riot.) Her identity was discoverable, but it appeared her record was since expunged. In April 2015, the woman’s unusual mug shot was swiped by a separate hoax news site for a different fabricated claim. The background image was stolen from an 27 March 2014 KPTV article about a stabbing in Portland, Oregon, and was similarly not related to the story. Previous clickbaiting fabrications advanced by Now8News included claims a man had sex with a pig in the bathroom of a Walmart; aborted fetuses were used as an ingredient in Chicken McNuggets; Walmart bananas were infested with deadly parasitic worms; a woman engaged in a sex act with a breakfast sausage; a different woman was arrested after “trying on” feminine hygiene products at Walmart; a man fed his unfaithful fiancee’s remains to her parents; a man was found cannibalizing a teen inside a haunted house attraction; a lottery winner died after gold plating his genitalia; and that a tube of cookie dough exploded inside a female shoplifter (also at Walmart).
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4811
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Trump tells young athletes to play to win, have a good life.
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Taking his turn in the batting cage and swinging a golf club, President Donald Trump joined a group of famous athletes for a field day with kids at the White House on Wednesday as he kicked off an effort to increase youth participation in sports.
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true
|
Baseball, Misty May-Treanor, Mariano Rivera, Youth sports, New York, Politics, Beach volleyball, North America, Health, Sports, Golf, Herschel Walker, Donald Trump
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“Work hard, get in the game, play to win and, most of all, have a good time,” the president told the youngsters. He later told them to “have a great life.” His administration wants to reverse a trend of declining participating in athletic activity and to make youth sports more accessible to economically disadvantaged students. At the event on the South Lawn, Trump also spotlighted members of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. The long-established group is headed by former New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera, retired beach volleyball Olympian Misty May-Treanor and ex-NFL running back Herschel Walker. After addressing participants, Trump joined athletes at stations that included flag football, baseball, golf and track and field. He asked kids to name their favorite players and posed for photos. “Any Tigers? Who’s the next Tiger?” he asked the young golfers, referring to champion Tiger Woods. Trump issued an executive order in February refocusing the council on youth sports as opposed to President Barack Obama’s emphasis on fitness and healthy eating. Trump, who played high school sports and is a competitive golfer, has tried to work with public and private groups to address declining participation in youth sports. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and senior adviser, told reporters in a conference call before the event that sports participation lags disproportionately among young girls and children who live in economically distressed areas. Many high schools have “pay to play” policies requiring students to pay a fee to join a school sports team, making it difficult for families to afford after-school sports. “We must break down barriers to youth sports participation and empower each child to reach his or her full potential through sport and play,” Ivanka Trump said. She said that by the time girls reach age 14, they drop out of athletics at two times the rate of boys. Other participants at the White House event included “The Incredible Hulk” actor Lou Ferrigno, who befriended Trump while appearing on “Celebrity Apprentice”; former New York Yankees baseball player Johnny Damon; and professional golfer Natalie Gulbis. Trump particularly seemed to enjoy getting the chance to hit a golf ball on a work day. “I love golf,” he said earlier of his favorite sport. The council was established in 1956 by President Dwight Eisenhower to promote youth fitness and sports. Each president has often placed his own stamp on the council and its priorities. During Obama’s presidency, first lady Michelle Obama launched the sports council in 2010 in conjunction with her “Let’s Move!” initiative and took part in hula-hooping and jumping rope as ways to fight childhood obesity. Trump’s administration plans to create a national strategy to promote youth participation in sports and set the stage for a series of events that will culminate around the 2020 Summer Olympics. Trump has bragged about his athletic abilities, telling The Wall Street Journal in a January interview: “I was always the best athlete. People don’t know that.” Trump once owned the USFL’s New Jersey Generals, led by Heisman Trophy-winner Walker, and he frequently plays golf with pros, members of Congress and world leaders at clubs he owns. White House doctor said earlier this year that Trump acknowledged he’d be healthier if he lost a few pounds by exercising more and eating better. Dr. Ronny Jackson, who has since left that post, told reporters that he would arrange for a dietitian to consult with the White House chef to cut calories and recommend a low-impact, aerobic exercise program for Trump with the aim of shedding 10 pounds to 15 pounds this year. ___ Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report. __ On Twitter follow Ken Thomas at https://twitter.com/KThomasDC
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9123
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Colored glasses may provide light sensitivity relief post-concussion
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This release offers few details on the actual benefits and evidence of wearing colored lenses to reduce light sensitivity following a concussion. There is no cost information, no comparison to alternatives (although alternatives are mentioned), no specific results on how patients fared in reducing light sensitivity and little in the way of description of the study. To the casual reader, one might think that there’s a story here. But that’s what makes the lack of information so problematic. One can almost see the headlines: “Have a concussion? Look at life through rose-colored glasses.” With no proof in this release, reporters and readers can be misled into thinking that these findings are a bigger deal than they really are. Photophobia, or sensitivity to light, is a common symptom in the days or weeks following a traumatic brain injury. If the study results hold up in larger trials, wearing colored glasses instead of dark sunglasses indoors to reduce headaches could be a useful solution for this temporary condition.
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mixture
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concussion,light senstivity,photophobia,University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center
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There is no mention of costs in the release. The study provides no actual numbers to back up the claim that 85 percent of the patients had improvements in their symptoms. The only hard number it mentions is “51 patients.” But the study itself says, “Of the 39 patients studied who had vision symptoms, 76% complained of photophobia…symptoms were relieved in 85% of patients reporting photophobia.” So first that drops the number to 30 (depending on how they rounded). Then, 85 percent of that would be 26 (generously rounding up), which is a pretty small number. Not to mention that we have no idea what relief of symptoms means. And for how long did these symptoms go away? The release says that there were no reported side effects while wearing colored glasses. It recommends against wearing colored glasses while driving since “certain colors make seeing stop lights or emergency vehicle lights difficult.” The true size of the study is obscured. There’s no sense of the duration. And there’s no explanation of the methodology. We did not find any disease mongering in the piece. Concussion and TBI numbers are very tricky because so few concussions are actually captured. TBIs are mostly tracked through ER visits. The CDC puts the TBIs that lead to ER visits at 2.8 million annually. So given that there are likely more mild concussions than true TBIs, this puts the 3.8 million number into conservative territory — if not well below where it should be. The release states, “There was no funding used for this study.” The release mentions some alternatives for finding relief from photophobia: “In addition to trying colored-lens sunglasses, the article suggests other ways to mitigate photophobia including wearing a wide-brimmed hat when outdoors, adjusting digital screen and device settings to an appropriate hue and brightness or purchasing filters for screens.” The release also notes that people find some relief by wearing dark sunglasses. These lenses are presumably available at optical shops, but it’s unclear from the release. The release doesn’t tell us if testing different colored lenses on people with concussions is novel research. It does say that researchers found that “wearing certain color-tinted sunglasses may be a good alternative to dark sunglasses.” We find the language largely descriptive and not overly effusive beyond what appears to be supported by the study, however limited in scope it is.
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5564
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2 Rutgers students diagnosed with bacterial meningitis.
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Officials at Rutgers University say two students have been diagnosed with bacterial meningitis, and both students were hospitalized.
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true
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Health, Rutgers University, Meningitis
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The latest case was reported Saturday while the other student was sent to the hospital on Feb. 4. NJ.com reports the first hospitalized student has been since released. The student admitted to the hospital over the weekend is being tested to determine the type of bacteria that caused the infection. Health officials have not yet recommended that Rutgers cancel any activities or classes on campus. The university says it is monitoring the situation with local, county and regional health officials. A Rutgers spokesman couldn’t immediately provide the ages and genders of the students or say whether they were undergraduates or graduate students. ___ Information from: NJ.com, http://www.nj.com
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17807
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"Live cats have holes drilled into their skulls,"" posts put into their heads and coils put into their eyes, and some have had their ears cut off or are intentionally deafened or starved at UW-Madison labs that do research to improve hearing in humans."
|
"PETA said: ""Live cats have holes drilled into their skulls,"" posts put into their heads and coils put into their eyes, and some have had their ears cut off or are intentionally deafened or starved at UW-Madison labs that do research to improve hearing in humans. Overall, some of the various parts of the statement were partially accurate, others were not."
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mixture
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Animals, Education, Health Care, Public Health, Science, Wisconsin, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,
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"Using a robo-call and a video, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals condemned experiments on cats that are done at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in an effort to improve hearing in humans. Yes, felines, as in your pet Fluffy. It turns out the UW has used domestic cats in such experiments for more than 30 years. PETA’s automated call, which doubles as the soundtrack for the video, was recorded by comedian and PETA activist Bill Maher. According to the animal rights group, the call went to more than 100,000 phone numbers on and near the UW-Madison campus on Oct. 8, 2013. That was several days before Maher did comedy shows in Madison and Milwaukee. On the call and in the video, which shows graphic images of cats being used in experiments at the UW, Maher says: ""On this very campus, dozens of live cats have holes drilled into their skulls, steel posts screwed to their heads and metal coils implanted in their eyes. Some cats have had their ears cut off. Others are intentionally deafened. Most of us find it hard to miss a single meal, but these cats are starved for up to six days straight for experimental sessions lasting for hours."" Stark allegations. UW-Madison responded the same day with a statement saying ""there is no factual basis"" for them. And yet, ""Many of the individual facts are true,"" veterinary school professor Eric Sandgren, director of the Research Animal Resources Center at UW-Madison, told us two days later. ""But the implication"" that the experiments amount to cruelty ""is not,"" he said. Let’s do some research of our own on the various parts of PETA’s claim. Why cats This item is not about whether researchers should use cats to try to improve hearing in humans; PETA opposes all use of animals in experiments. But here’s some of UW’s rationale for doing so: The design and improvement of hearing aids, as well as cochlear implants, which are surgically implanted devices that can help people with severe hearing loss, rely on the work of the UW cat research, Sandgren wrote on the UW website. The work is ""well-respected across the world and widely cited in the literature, with nearly 5,000 citations over the years. Thus, any medical advances in this area will use (the) work as a starting point."" The cat research is aimed at trying to understand how the brain works. It requires recording and studying a real functioning brain, which can't be ethically done in humans, according to UW. Cats are used because they have nervous system and auditory systems very similar to those in humans. The experiments help researchers understand how the brain integrates information from the two ears, UW says. This circuitry plays a major role in humans' ability to detect signals in the presence of background noise, which is the major symptom of elderly people with hearing loss. That in turn helps improve the design of hearing aids and cochlear implants. PETA’s Jeremy Beckham, who manages the group’s investigations of labs, told us that despite more than three decades of experiments on cats, UW ""has absolutely nothing to show for it"" and that experiments on humans are more ethical and have more potential to help improve hearing. PETA’s targeting of the cat experiments made news in February 2013. A staff member of the group and actor James Cromwell (Oscar nomination for ""Babe"") were arrested after bursting into a University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents meeting in Madison and shouting that the research is torture, not science. Seven months later, in September 2013, the federal Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, a part of the National Institutes of Health, filed a report after investigating allegations by PETA that the UW-Madison cat experiments violated policy on the humane care of lab animals. The office found no such violations, although it said UW needed to improve procedures for controlling infections. For this fact-check, we received information from PETA, including an internal protocol form completed by UW researchers outlining their cat experiments, which the group obtained through an open records request. We also obtained information from UW through an interview with professor Sandgren and an article he wrote; and responses the university made to the federal investigation. We’ll break the claim by PETA into its various parts, using some of the script Maher read from. ""Dozens of live cats have holes drilled into their skulls, steel posts screwed to their heads and metal coils implanted in their eyes"" PETA noted that in the protocol form, filed in 2008, UW said it had been using a total of about 30 cats per year. However, Sandgren said the form lists 30 as only the maximum of cats that might be used in experiments. As for the drill, post and coils procedure, it has been performed on 18 cats over the past 10 years. He said he believes 18 is the total number since the experiments began. In the procedure, according to UW, cats are ""deeply anesthetized"" for surgery, then a hole is drilled in the head in order to implant an electrode in the brain. A head-holding stainless steel post is implanted on the skull with 10 to 15 small titanium screws. Extremely thin Teflon-coated coils are implanted around the eyeball. The head posts are ""nearly identical to part of the ‘halo apparatus’ used in humans to keep the head from moving after a spine injury,"" Sandgren said in the article he wrote. The surgery is done to ""stabilize the head during experiments and monitor eye movements to measure the cats’ ability to localize sounds."" Because the coils are not placed in the eye or cornea, ""they are not likely painful to the animals. The procedure and technique has been utilized for many years in different species in labs around the world."" So, PETA overstates the number of cats that have undergone the procedure but describes the procedure accurately. ""Some cats have had their ears cut off. Others are intentionally deafened."" Unlike the current experiments, in which cats can remain in the UW lab for a period of years, until roughly 2005 some experiments were done in which cats were euthanized before the experiments ended, Sandgren said. In those cases, the outer ears were removed so that more precise recordings could be done. PETA's Beckham told us contended that some of those cats lived for a few days after the procedure before being euthanized. As for intentional deafening, around 2008 or 2009, UW did a pilot study in which two cats were intentionally deafened with an antibiotic in order to explore whether bilateral cochlear implants provide more effective sound localization, and therefore better hearing, than single implants. The study did not produce significant results so it was not repeated, Sandgren said. Again, PETA is partially accurate on this part of its claim. In the past, parts of ears were cut off of cats who were then euthanized. But the deafening procedure is no longer done. ""These cats are starved for up to six days straight for experimental sessions lasting for hours."" PETA cited a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in October 2012 by a former UW veterinarian who was involved in the cat experiments. He said that one reason cats were getting infections is their overall health suffered because of ""sporadic calorie deprivation."" Beckham, citing the UW’s protocol document, claimed some cats were completely deprived of food for up to six days. Sandgren told us cats would likely be unable to perform tasks for experiments and could die if they were completely denied food for up to six days. He said the cats are in fact given less food than they want, in an attempt to get them to perform tasks for their experiments -- which can last for several hours -- for which they are rewarded with food. He said the cats are regularly weighed and examined to ensure they are in good health. The federal investigation found that the seven cats being used in experiments at the time were in ""excellent clinical condition."" So, this part of PETA’s claim is overstated. Cats are given limited amounts of food during experiments, not starved for up to six days. Our rating PETA said: ""Live cats have holes drilled into their skulls,"" posts put into their heads and coils put into their eyes, and some have had their ears cut off or are intentionally deafened or starved at UW-Madison labs that do research to improve hearing in humans. Overall, some of the various parts of the statement were partially accurate, others were not. If you would like to comment on this item, you can do so on the Journal Sentinel’s web page."
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6488
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Abating bait: Decline in prized worms threatens way of life.
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Dan Harrington makes his living unearthing marine worms by hacking away at mudflats with a tool that resembles the business end of an old steel rake.
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true
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AP Top News, Fish, Business, Science, AP Weekend Reads, Maine, Dan Harrington, U.S. News
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He’s fine with the freezing weather, the pungent aromas and the occasional nip from an angry crab, but his latest problem is the big one — the worms just aren’t there like they used to be. “A bad day is zero worms,” said Harrington, a second-generation worm raker. “A bad day is when you try out five, six different spots and don’t even make enough money to replenish the gas that you put in your tank.” Harrington’s struggle, and that of his fellow wormers, has reverberations around the world. A mysterious drop in the harvest of two of the most popular worms for sport fishermen is proving expensive for anglers, perilous for bait shop owners and a threat to a way of life in Maine. Maine harvesters are by far the U.S.’s largest suppliers of sandworms and bloodworms, twisty, fat critters that can grow longer than a foot and have teeth that inflict a painful bite. Wormers dig the wriggling creatures out of coastal muck so they can be sold to fishermen worldwide. The worms are especially popular with American striped bass fishermen and in Europe. An October study in the journal Fish and Fisheries said bloodworms are the most valuable marine worm species on the retail bait market, and sandworms aren’t far behind. The worms, which burrow into the mud and eat things like algae and microorganisms, are coveted as bait because they are natural food to some fish. But the worm falloff has disrupted the supply chain. Maine’s catch of bloodworms has dropped from more than 600,000 pounds in 2004 to less than half that last year. Sandworms dipped by two thirds, to less than 130,000 pounds. Scientists are struggling to figure out where the worms have gone. Among the factors that could play a role in the decline are rising temperatures in the Gulf of Maine, changes in currents that distribute worm larvae and increased harvesting pressure, said William Ambrose, a Bates College professor and marine researcher. It’s also possible a growing number of invasive green crabs are preying on the worms, said Brian Beal, a marine ecology professor at the University of Maine at Machias. But Beal and Ambrose say more research is needed to understand what’s going on. Efforts by the government to intervene have been met with resistance. A committee of the Maine Legislature this year considered a bill that would’ve shut down worm digging for four months a year to help preserve the industry, but it didn’t pass. The proposal generated skepticism from as far away as the suburbs of Sacramento, California, where Big Red Worm Co. sells worms airmailed from Maine in boxes alongside seaweed and cooling packs. Shortening the season would be untenable, said operations manager Glenn Chadaris. “That would pretty much kill every bait shop,” Chadaris said. Fishermen, too, have been feeling the sting. The price for bloodworms at the dock has more than doubled since 2001, to nearly $16 per pound, and that cost is eventually borne by consumers. Sandworms are less expensive but have similarly jumped in value. Patrick Paquette, a past president of the Massachusetts Striped Bass Association, said the retail price for a dozen marine worms has about doubled from five years ago. They typically sell for about $7 to $12 for a dozen. As a wild food source for bottom-dwelling fish, worms are especially effective for catching winter flounder in Boston Harbor’s popular recreational fishery, Paquette said. But, he added, “It’s extremely more expensive.” Maine considers marine worms a fishery, and it’s one of the most valuable in a state known for crowd pleasers like lobsters and clams. The worm harvest was worth about $5.6 million last year. Worming, which requires a $50 license, has long been an employment source in rural areas without much industry. Some fulltime diggers can make more than $50,000 in a good year, Harrington said. Others dig worms when they aren’t raking clams, trapping lobsters or fishing for eels. Some suspect the lower harvest might mean fewer people are worming, but state data show the number of diggers has held steady, with 880 in 2007 and 857 last year. It’s also possible the remaining diggers are doing the back-breaking work less often as they age or have a harder time finding worms. Harrington, who’s been raking for 38 of his 46 years, describes his back as “a train wreck” but says he plans to stick with it. “The idea of walking in through a gate and having it close behind me doesn’t appeal to me,” he said. “I like to be out in nature, out in the mud.”
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13337
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Cancer and matters to do with kidney failure kill more people in Kenya today than malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS combined.
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"Ruto said that cancer and kidney disease ""kill more people in Kenya today than malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS combined."" The precision of the numbers leaves a lot to be desired, but based on the best estimates, Ruto isn’t even close. Using conservative estimates, deaths from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are double those from cancer and kidney disease."
|
false
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Global News Service, Public Health, William Ruto,
|
"At the launch of a new political party at a sports stadium in Nairobi, Kenya, the country’s deputy president William Ruto talked about a disease that Vice President Joe Biden has made his life’s mission. At the start of the year, following the death of Biden’s son to brain cancer, the vice president took the lead in the administration’s Cancer Moonshot project, an effort to rapidly accelerate cancer research. Ruto cast cancer as a top public health priority for his country. ""Cancer and matters to do with kidney failure kill more people in Kenya today than malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS combined,"" Ruto said Sept. 9, 2016. Given that AIDS is the No. 1 killer in sub-Saharan Africa, and malaria ranks fourth, our Africa Check partners decided to check Ruto’s numbers. He is wrong. For the record, Ruto’s office did not provide any supporting data. A dearth of numbers Solid data is sorely lacking in Kenya as it is in most sub-Saharan African nations. But the numbers that are available disprove Ruto’s claim. Kenya just launched a national cancer registry, but it won’t be fully in place until 2019. For the time being, the highest estimate puts the number of cancer deaths at 28,000 in 2015. On kidney disease, Kenya has no national data at all. The World Health Organization estimates 3,100 deaths for 2014. Combined that’s a rough count of 31,100 deaths. WHO is the most reliable source for tuberculosis death estimates in Kenya as well, with about 9,400 deaths in 2014. The United Nations AIDS program relies on statistical models to derive the number of AIDS deaths in Kenya. UNAIDS says it is ""logistically impossible and ethically problematic"" to investigate all deaths. According to its statistical model, there were between 28,000 and 50,000 deaths due to AIDS in Kenya in 2014, with 38,000 being the most likely figure. For malaria, the WHO said in its World Malaria Report for 2015 that it was unable to collect data for six East African countries, including Kenya, between 2000 and 2014 because of ""inconsistent reporting, or changes in health service accessibility or diagnostic testing"". The best we could find for malaria deaths was Kenya’s civil registration data, which provisionally shows 23,789 deaths in 2013 and 20,691in 2015. As you can see, while the numbers are far from perfect, they do not support Ruto’s point. This table pulls the numbers together. Even using the lowest estimates for AIDS and malaria deaths, the combined toll is greater than for cancer and kidney disease. Cancer/Kidney deaths AIDS/Malaria/TB deaths Cancer 28,000 Kidney disease 3,100 AIDS 28,000 Malaria 20,691 TB 9,400 Totals 31,100 58,091 There are efforts such as the Health Data Collaborative and the African Health Initiative that aim to beef up the health data collected in sub-Saharan Africa. But it will be a tough slog. Robert Black at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health helps oversee the data coordination program at the African Health Initiative and he told us it will take many years before these countries have robust systems. ""The funding that is available for this from both national and donor funds is grossly inadequate to reach that objective in the near term,"" Black said. In May 2016, Kenya became the first African country to launch a national effort to ramp up its systems for collecting health data. One of the top priorities? Making sure that every death and cause of death is recorded. Our ruling Ruto said that cancer and kidney disease ""kill more people in Kenya today than malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS combined."" The precision of the numbers leaves a lot to be desired, but based on the best estimates, Ruto isn’t even close. Using conservative estimates, deaths from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are double those from cancer and kidney disease."
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31774
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The FBI raided the CDC in the middle of the night to seize data on a link between vaccines and autism.
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WhatDoesItMean.com’s conspiracies seem to have a longer shelf life than most fake news since they’re often based on actual events or tragedies and layered with embellishments picked to fit existing rumors. Moreover, the CDC raid claim was popularized via a personal blog attributed to a doctor and not the known fake news site on which it first appeared, ensuring its likely continued spread decoupled from its dubious origins. The item in question utilized old video related to a CDC vaccine conspiracy theory.
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false
|
Junk News, cdc, fake news, fbi
|
On 23 January 2017 a blogger (going by the name Dr. William Mount) published an article claiming that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had conducted a middle-of-the-night raid on the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in search of data proving a link between vaccines and autism: This morning President Trump ordered the CDC Headquarters in Atlanta to be raided at 3:00 Am Their Time. Although Unconfirmed the CDC did tell me on the phone a few minutes ago: “We Are Not Allowed To Comment On That.Please Email me and we will give you a statement about it. ” I also had 36 Posts on my video 10 minutes before it was posted… Long before the Employees began showing up to work the FBI was busting down doors and seizing computers. Accompanying these FBI Agents was Dr William Thompson — who is a CDC Whistle Blower. The raid was ordered by the President and was led by Sally Yates – Acting Attorney General and part of the King and Spalding Law Group, which was also working with President Trump’s huge law firm: “Jones Day.” All of the records for the Vaccines – what is in them, what they have done to people across the globe – it is all being seized as you read this. As soon as President Obama took office he granted both the CDC and Monsanto protection in their massive use of GMO Foods and Vaccines to kill people world wide. That protection is now gone. The employees involved in murder and disabling people world wide have two choices: Become a whistle blower or face 20 years to life in prison. There is no place you can hide on this planet or in this planet. So what is in Vaccines that make them so deadly??? Of the 202 children we have worked with 2 were autistic due to Vaccines given to the Mothers while she was in the military. The other 200 became autistic the day they were vaccinated and all have Indigo Aura … Those with Chrystaline Aura’s were killed outright. This author has a Chrystaline Aura. The blog post was peppered with extremely questionable assertions, and it didn’t take long to trace it back to an even less reliable source: A stunning Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) report circulating in the Kremlin today states that just hours after President Donald Trump and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey “warmly embraced” in the White House yesterday, FBI agents conducted a massive early morning raid on the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) based in Atlanta, Georgia, accompanied by Doctor-Scientist William Thompson — who is one of the most feared government whistleblowers in the United States for his exposing the vaccine-to-autism link cover-up. The “unconfirmed report” referenced by social media users and conspiracy-oriented blogs originated with (and as initially reported by no source other than) the fake news site WhatDoesItMean.com, described by RationalWiki as follows: Sorcha Faal is the alleged author of an ongoing series of “reports” published at WhatDoesItMean.com, whose work is of such quality that even other conspiracy nutters don’t think much of it. Each report resembles a news story in its style but usually includes a sensational headline barely related to reality and quotes authoritative high-level Russian sources (such as the Russian Federal Security Service) to support its most outrageous claims. Except for the stuff attributed to unverifiable sources, the reports don’t contain much original material. They are usually based on various news items from the mainstream media and/or whatever the clogosphere is currently hyperventilating about, with each item shoehorned into the conspiracy narrative the report is trying to establish.
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4828
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Alaska Mental Health Trust begins accepting land sale bids.
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A mental health department has begun accepting bids for parcels of land in southeast Alaska up for auction in its annual land sale, officials said.
|
true
|
Mental health, Health, General News, Ketchikan, Alaska, Juneau
|
All plots of land, ranging from $12,400 to $112,000 would be sold to the highest bidder in a sealed bid submission process, the Juneau Empire reported Friday. The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority is expected to continue the auction until Nov. 12, Trust officials said. The Trust Land Office in Anchorage is expected to open the submitted sealed bids Nov. 14. Parcels are to be accepted “as is” and “where is” with “no guarantees, expressed or implied, as to its suitability for any intended use,” according to the department’s website. Plots of land are located south of Juneau in areas surrounding Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka and Wrangell where some regions lack access to water or constructed roads, the department said. For example, three parcels for sale about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Ketchikan would need individual generators for electricity and water, officials said. The department has held this land auction since 1998 to benefit programs that serve state residents with a variety of mental health issues, officials said. Last year, more than $980,000 was generated from the sale. ___ Information from: Juneau (Alaska) Empire, http://www.juneauempire.com
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37483
|
A viral photograph shows people gathered at the Ohio State House to protest coronavirus social distancing measures, and clearly in violation of said guidelines, in April 2020.
|
Viral ‘Ohio State House COVID-19 Protest’ Image
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true
|
Fact Checks, Viral Content
|
On April 14 2020, images of a large crowd gathered in Ohio to protest COVID-19 social distancing measures (while clearly violating those measures) circulated on social media:Trump supporters protest against #Quarantine policies in Ohio. 😳#Covid_19 pic.twitter.com/8ksZO6rq3h— Zakieyah Koronfol (@ZakieyahK) April 15, 2020An April 14 2020 Facebook post featuring the same photograph seen above was captioned:Here are the dipshits giving each other COVID to protest the quarantine at the Ohio State House this morning, looking like a frame from Zach Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake.Other tweets claimed the image was captured a day earlier, on April 13 2020. One user stated the location was Columbus, Ohio:This photo was taken April 13th. These Trump supporters are protesting a #StayAtHome order from the Republican governorTrump, your words have consequencesThese brainwashed cult members are doing exactly what the experts warned them not to do#SocialDistancing#StayHome pic.twitter.com/dPr1L5xuZe— Brad Beauregard Jr (@BradBeauregardJ) April 14, 2020This is from a corporate sponsored protest in Columbus. Shame on the organizers who would set this up, and shame on the legislators who are failing to meet these people’s needs. pic.twitter.com/U1fBnGaGKZ— Dan “presumptuous sinner” Doubet (@dandoubet) April 15, 2020A Google Image Search was, initially, not very helpful in identifying the events depicted:The photograph is real and was taken by Joshua Bickel, a Columbus-based photojournalist.An April 13 2020 story in the Columbus Dispatch used the image as a featured photograph in an article published the same day, and updated a day later. A caption aggregated more broadly by the Associated Press provided information about the date and location of the depicted event:Protesters stand outside the Statehouse Atrium where reporters listen during the State of Ohio’s Coronavirus response update on Monday, April 13, 2020 at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. About 100 protesters assembled outside the building during Gov. Mike DeWine’s weekday update on the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, upset that the state remains under a Stay-At-Home order and that non-essential businesses remain closed. (Joshua A. Bickel/The Columbus Dispatch via AP)That article began:Some Republicans in the Ohio legislature are publicly calling on Gov. Mike DeWine to consider removing coronavirus-related restrictions beginning next month [in May 2020], while on Monday [April 13 2020], around 100 protesters gathered outside the Statehouse during Dewine’s daily COVID-19 press briefing.A growing chorus of Ohio’s Republican lawmakers want Gov. Mike DeWine to set a date for the first phases of re-opening businesses, schools and public places.“We need to get the economy open, even if that means social distancing of some sort for months to come,” Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, wrote in a Facebook post. “We can’t stay like this much longer, and the hundreds of thousands of Ohioans who’ve lost their jobs or the thousands of small business owners can’t keep doing this either, or their lives will be irreparably destroyed.”The Dispatch reported “a variety of different Facebook groups” were behind the Ohio protests, and spoke to a protester:Another demonstrator, John Jenkins of Pleasantville, was bearing an upside down American flag, traditionally a distress signal.“Ohio is currently under distress,” Jenkins said. “The United States is generally under distress.”Jenkins said the demonstrators were organizing on a variety of different Facebook groups, but pointed to Ohio Stands United, a group with 6,800 members, as one of the chief avenues of organization for the two recent protests.The Facebook page currently has a number of videos uploaded by members of Monday’s protest, as well as a video of a member shooting an order from the governor with a rifle.Joe Marshall, who did not identify where he was from, said he was representing Anonymous Columbus Ohio.That group had a header photo that showed the group’s name and the Ohio state flag between a prominently displayed pair of hands — one holding a blue pill, and one holding a red pill:Per the Anti-Defamation League:In posts about American political parties, the red pill generally refers to the GOP, while the blue pill is aligned with the Democratic Party.For many, the red pill is just the first step in a longer journey. Being “redpilled” means shifting away from one set of beliefs to another set of (antithetical) beliefs. This can be as basic as a Democrat becoming a Republican, or as radical as someone coming to believe that Jews control the world or that feminism is destroying the West.Mainstream usage of the term includes conservative speaker Candace Owens naming her YouTube channel “Redpilled Black,” a reference to her “awakening” as a black American and moving away from liberal beliefs in favor of conservatism and nationalism. Similarly, Fox News once referred to Kanye West as having taken the “red pill” when the rapper expressed his support for President Trump.HoustonChronicle.com carried the Associated Press reporting, and included another photograph of the gathering. In the second image, protesters could be seen holding signs which read “OPEN OHIO.”The images were accurately described as showing a protest decrying Ohio’s social distancing measures — while the measures were still in place. The circulating photograph was taken on April 13 2020 in Columbus, and the events (like other subsequent rallies in Kentucky and Michigan) were organized via Facebook groups.
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31323
|
A woman was hospitalized with burns after photocopying her breasts in Bishan, Singapore.
|
Eye experts play down the risks of photocopying the face once or twice.
|
false
|
Medical, health, Medical, pranks
|
On 22 May 2017, the Telegraph Sun web site reported that a Singaporean woman was hospitalized with burns after photocopying her breasts in a prank. A 25-year-old Singaporean woman is recovering in hospital after an attempted prank involving a photocopier backfired painfully for her yesterday afternoon. According to local media reports, the woman was dared by her friends to strip naked and run inside a convenience store in Bishan. Once inside, she was to take a photocopy of her breasts using the store’s machine… …According to the clerk, there was a moment of silence as the copier’s beam scanned across the woman’s breasts. This was followed by a howl of pain… “Her breasts were bright red,” he told journalists. “The beam of light from the copier must have burned them.” Despite citing “local media reports,” we found no trace of this story, or anything similar, in Singaporean news media, or indeed any reports of any kind corroborating the article. The story quotes several individuals, but offers no names. The only details provided are the age of the woman and the name of the town. The article bears several of the hallmarks of being fabricated, or an exaggeration of a real incident, and its authenticity could not be confirmed. Furthermore, the Telegraph Sun, which claims to have been founded in 1972 and to be “one of the most-read news outlets across Western Europe,” did not have a web site until November 2016. It features no bylines, no original reporting, and stories which are clearly fabricated. The Telegraph Sun combines the names of two British news newspapers, The Telegraph and The Sun. Additionally, the beam of light from a photocopier does not generally burn human skin. Union Safe, a web site managed by the Labor Council of New South Wales warns that “burns from hot components are also a potential hazard when clearing paper misfeeds or jams,” but does not mention the possibility of burning from photocopying one’s skin. The biggest danger that a photocopier’s light poses is eye strain and headaches. In 2007, a five year-old boy complained of sore eyes (and no burns) after his face was photocopied at school. At the time, the BBC reported:
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1953
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Moderate drinking cuts risk of Alzheimer's, study shows.
|
Light to moderate social drinking, a glass or two of wine or beer a day, can reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to American researchers.
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true
|
Health News
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After analyzing more than 140 studies dating back to 1977 and involving more than 365,000 people, scientists at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine found that moderate drinkers were 23 percent less likely to develop forms of dementia and cognitive impairment. Moderate drinking is defined as a maximum of two drinks per day for men and one drink for women. “It is well accepted that a glass of wine is good for your heart and reduces coronary artery and cardiovascular diseases,” said Edward J. Neafsey, a co-author of the study. The findings show the moderate alcohol consumption has same effect on the brain. Wine was more beneficial than beer or spirits, according to the findings published in the journal Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment. But the researchers said most studies in the analysis did not distinguish between the different types of alcohol. But heavy drinking, three to five drinks a day, was associated with a higher risk of dementia. Both Neafsey and his co-author Michael A. Collins, professors of molecular pharmacology and therapeutics, suggest that small amounts of alcohol stress and toughen brain cells and enables them to better cope with the stresses that lead to dementia at a later date. “It causes a mild stress ahead of a serious stress which then protects the tissues and the cells,” Neafsey explained. Another theory suggests that the well-known cardiovascular benefits of moderate drinking can also improve blood flow to the brain increasing the brain metabolism. Neafsey does not recommend non-drinkers to suddenly start drinking, and for people who do drink to enjoy their alcohol in moderation. Exercise, education and a Mediterranean diet can also reduce the risks of developing dementia. “The key words here are light to moderate drinking,” he said. “The enjoyment of a good meal with friends and glass of wine is a traditional human pleasure that most people enjoy.”
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7882
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India struggles with coronavirus shutdown; Pakistan cases top 1,000.
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India’s 1.3 billion people were under lockdown on Wednesday to prevent an explosion of coronavirus cases as the government struggled to deliver essential goods and calm nerves.
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Health News
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered everyone indoors for the next three weeks, saying it was the only way to avoid a disaster and effectively shutting down Asia’s third-largest economy. Crowds of people thronged shops to stock up on milk, rations and medicines in the hours before the restrictions went into effect at midnight on Tuesday even though Modi said these would be available throughout the lockdown. Others including laborers and day workers headed home to the countryside from cities such as Delhi, many walking because public transport also stopped. “My daughter needs allergy medicines regularly. The medicine shops are open but how do we reach there?” said Yash Goswami in the northern town of Moradabad. “Who wants to risk a run-in with the police?” Reuters photographers witnessed several cases of Indian police officers hitting people out on the street with sticks. One rickshaw driver, who showed bruises on his calf, said he was defying the lockdown because he was unable to feed his four children otherwise. The Home Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Some medical companies said the lockdown was complicating their operations, with workers struggling to get to work and products stuck. India’s tally of 606, including 10 deaths seems tiny compared with those in China, Italy and Spain, but health experts have warned that the world’s second most populous country faces a tidal wave of infections if tough steps are not taken. The lockdown comes after evidence indicated it was spreading out into India’s countless small towns after a first wave in Delhi, the commercial hub Mumbai, and other big cities. That has raised the prospect of a cash-strapped public health sector being overwhelmed. India has just 0.5 hospital beds for every 1,000 people, compared to 4.3 in China and 3.2 in Italy. “The only way we can save ourselves is by social distancing, and staying inside our homes,” said Information Minister Prakash Javedkar. “A little bit of inconvenience now will save so many lives.” India’s population is even more densely packed than China’s, raising the risk of rapid transmission of the virus. In New Delhi, Modi met his cabinet at his residence, with ministers sitting apart from each other in a large room. The government is considering an economic stimulus package of more than 1.5 trillion rupees ($19.6 billion) to fight the downturn, two sources said. The economy was already growing at its weakest pace in more than a decade. “Asking people to stay at home is necessary but the majority of the population can’t afford to sit at home without work and pay,” said Madhura Swaminathan, head of economic analysis at the Indian Statistical Institute in Bengaluru. British bank Barclays pegged the loss to India at $120 billion or 4% of GDP. “We are shaving down our calendar year 2020 (January- December) GDP forecast from 4.5% to 2.5% and for financial year 2021( April 2020-March 2021) forecast to 3.5%,” Rahul Bajoria, chief India economist, said in a report. Other countries in South Asia - home to a quarter of the world’s population - are also struggling as they try to put up defenses against the coronavirus. Pakistan’s tally of cases rose to 1,022, with eight deaths, its Health Ministry said. Authorities have shut down Sindh province, home to its largest city Karachi, even though Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was opposed to a full lockdown because the poor would suffer the most. Sri Lanka has sealed itself off from the outside world, suspending all flights in and out of the island nation. India, the world’s main supplier of generic drugs, on Wednesday banned the export of a malaria drug that is being tested as a coronavirus treatment, saying it had to meet domestic demand. Bangladesh, the second-largest apparel producer in the world, unveiled a $588 million package for its export sector, asking companies to use the money to pay workers. Confirmed cases, government figures Pakistan 1,022 India 606 Sri Lanka 102 Afghanistan 84 Bangladesh 39 Maldives 13 Nepal 3 Bhutan 2 TOTAL 1,871
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Diabetes drugs may help control lung cancer: study
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Early-stage research is attractive, but there’s baggage. Preliminary studies have indeed shown an association between diabetes drugs and reduced spread of lung cancer, yet anytime we try to interpret early research, we need to keep in mind why further studies are needed. With abysmal survival rates, lung cancer needs more options. An effective and safe—or worthwhile in the net balance—strategy to prevent, treat, or put the brakes on this deadly form of cancer would be most welcome. Thus we are eager to see future research to test the hypotheses presented in this early research. But it’s early research, which means the results have a lot of footnotes. Not simply legal fine print, each footnote is a potential game-changer, conveying some pretty daunting uncertainties. We think it’s important that coverage of such early research address the uncertainty. A mountain separates early research like this from more advanced clinical studies, and the mountain is mean and unforgiving. Early research comes up with new exciting ideas (it generates hypotheses). But over time we’ve found that a big proportion of these ideas don’t pan out when tested in bigger, tougher trials. They slip on the mountain and we move on to another idea. So it’s important to convey the stage of research and how many years of hard, uncertain work lie ahead before we can think about giving metformin to smokers. It’s challenging to report on preliminary research. Less information is publicly available, which means the journalist has less to go on, and then we readers get less. But the story is new, it’s hot, it’s exciting, and there’s an awesome potential to improve a lot of lives. We understand the pressures and readers’ interest, which we share, yet maybe even just one more sentence could’ve set the tone for how early this research is.
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mixture
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Cancer,Reuters Health
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Costs aren’t quite relevant as there are no regimens to compare yet. In other words, this was not a prospective study comparing different methods to prevent or treat cancer. However, we give a nod because we’re told that generic metformin is cheaper than TZDs. The article presents the rates of metastatic disease for each group in the study. That said, we suggest some areas where we believe it could’ve been stronger. We would’ve liked to have seen absolute quantities here. We would have liked to see the number of subjects in each treatment group (the “little n’s”) in addition to the study’s total headcount (the “big N”). What if 150 people were in one group and 7 in the other? It’s necessary to evaluate the quality of the study and add meaning to the 20% and 42% statistics. Several more benefits were summarized in prose without quantities, including claims about the comparative superiority of metformin to TZDs. While space would not permit all the numbers, surely there was space for more than one.
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24185
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"In the Senate version of the health reform bill, ""Every enrollee in the Office of Personnel Management enrolled plan, every enrollee has to pay a minimum of $1 per month towards reproductive rights, which includes abortion."
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Stupak says every enrollee in the Office of Personnel Management plan would have to to pay a minimum of $1 per month towards abortion
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false
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Abortion, National, Health Care, Bart Stupak,
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"With abortion as one of the biggest remaining stumbling blocks in the health care reform push, Rep. Bart Stupak has been in high demand on political talk shows. An antiabortion Democrat from Michigan, Stupak says he and at least 11 other House Democrats would vote against the Senate language on abortion, which he says would allow federal funding for abortions. His biggest issue is in the proposed government-created health exchange (for people who do not get their insurance through their employer), government subsidies could go to people who choose plans that cover abortions. But Stupak has repeatedly raised another point as well. ""The bill that they're using as the vehicle is the Senate bill, and if you go to page 2,069 through page 2,078, you will find in there the federal government would directly subsidize abortions, plus every enrollee in the Office of Personnel Management enrolled plan, every enrollee has to pay a minimum of $1 per month towards reproductive rights, which includes abortions,"" Stupak said in a Good Morning America interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on March 4, 2010. Stupak made similar statements in a Politico article on March 4 as well as in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews on March 3. The Senate language on abortion was written by Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who is an abortion opponent. While the language Stupak penned for the House version would prohibit insurance companies in the exchange from offering abortion services, Nelson's plan would allow companies to offer abortion services. But Nelson sought to ensure those services would be paid through patient premiums, not federal subsidies. In order to accomplish that, the Senate bill requires that all enrollees in plans that offer abortion services ""without regard to the enrollee’s age, sex, or family status"" pay a separate amount to cover the actuarial value of abortion services for the entire population covered by the plan. The insurer ""may not estimate such a cost at less than $1 per enrollee, per month."" So that's where Stupak gets his $1 a month figure. This is not necessarily an add-on cost. Many health insurance experts quietly acknowledge what Slate's Timothy Noah referred to as the ""gruesome reality"" that it actually costs insurance companies less to pay for abortions than it does to pay for prenatal care and delivery. But the Senate bill specifically states that the actuarial estimate ""may not take into account any cost reduction estimated to result from such services, including prenatal care, delivery, or postnatal care."" So the set-aside for abortions is at least $1, regardless of whether it costs less than a dollar, or whether it actually saves insurance companies money. In other words, this $1 a month is not really over and above what someone would pay for their insurance otherwise. It's a mechanism to segregate a pot of money from insurance premiums (rather than federal subsidies) that would pay for abortions. But Stupak didn't say the $1 a month was an additional cost, only that it would go ""towards"" abortion services. And that's correct. But Stupak errs when he says that ""every enrollee"" would have to pay the $1 a month. That extra dollar would be separated out only for people who select a plan that offers abortion services. Someone could just as easily choose a plan that does not cover abortions. In fact, the Senate bill requires that ""with respect to multi-State qualified health plans offered in an Exchange, there is at least one such plan that does not provide coverage of (abortion) services."" In other words, if you don't want to participate in a health plan that offers abortion, and for which you'll have to pay into an account specifically for abortions, you don't have to. We further note that the Senate bill also says that a state ""may elect to prohibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans offered through an Exchange in such State if such State enacts a law to provide for such prohibition."" So it's not required for states to offer plans in the exchange that cover abortions; but if they do have plans that offer abortion, they must also offer plans that do not. Lara Cartwright-Smith of George Washington University's public health school explains: ""The legislative language he's referring to is about how the government determines the value of abortion coverage for plans offered through the Exchange to ensure that federal money is not used to pay for that coverage,"" Cartwright-Smith said. ""This section does not apply to people who are covered outside of the Exchange, such as through an employer’s health benefit plan. Everyone buying insurance through the Exchange will have the option to enroll in a plan that does not include abortion. Those people will not pay any amount for abortion coverage and no federal funds for that plan will have to be segregated. ""If, and only if, an enrollee selects an insurance plan that includes abortion coverage, then the value of that abortion coverage must be calculated and that amount must be segregated from the value of the rest of the benefits of that plan, so that the enrollee can pay for the abortion coverage separately with their own private money. The calculated value of the abortion coverage must be at least $1. This process is to ensure that federal funds aren’t used to pay for abortion coverage. These rules only apply to plans in the Exchange that include abortion coverage, so people who select a plan that does not include abortion will not have to pay for abortion coverage even if other plans in the Exchange do offer it."" It's also important to note, she said, that these rules are about abortions for which federal funding is not allowed, such as elective abortions. Abortions for which federal funding is allowed, such as in cases of rape, incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother, may be covered by any plan in the exchange. We called Stupak's office, and they provided a statement from the congressman essentially acknowledging that his statement only refers to people who opt for a plan that covers abortions. But he warned that many people will be unaware that a portion of their premium would be earmarked for abortion. Stupak is correct that people who select a plan that covers abortions would have at least $1 a month of their premiums set aside for a fund that would pay for abortions performed for people in that plan. And everyone in that plan, even men, would have to pay into that account. But Stupak misspoke when he said, repeatedly, that ""every enrollee"" would have to pay into an account that would pay for abortions. In fact, the issue doesn't apply at all to people who choose a plan that does not cover abortion. And every state must offer a plan that does not offer abortion. Furthermore, people would have to be told up front if the plan they are considering covers abortions. So when Stupak says that ""every"" person would need to set aside this abortion money, it's not only wrong, we think it stokes misplaced outrage on an already highly charged issue. We rule Stupak's statement ."
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UK reviews medical marijuana ban after outcry over sick kids.
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The British government announced Tuesday it would move to lift its ban on cannabis-based medicines, amid mounting criticism over the denial of treatment to severely epileptic children. But it rejected calls to legalize marijuana for recreational use.
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true
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Legal Marijuana, Medical marijuana, Health, International News, Sajid Javid, Europe
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Home Secretary Sajid Javid told lawmakers cases like that of a 12-year-old epileptic boy denied cannabis oil for his condition showed there is “a pressing need to allow those who might benefit from cannabis based medicines to access them.” But he said the government had “absolutely no plans” to decriminalize the drug more widely. The change in stance came after the government relented and allowed 12-year-old Billy Caldwell to receive cannabis oil treatment that his mother said was needed to prevent life-threatening seizures. His mother, Charlotte Caldwell, has called for the laws governing medicinal marijuana use in Britain to be liberalized, saying cannabis oil is the only treatment that has warded off her son’s seizures. Javid said Tuesday that a license to use cannabis-based drugs would also be issued for 6-year-old Alfie Dingley, whose epilepsy causes scores of seizures a day. He said if a review by the country’s chief medical officer identified cannabis-based treatments with “significant medical benefits,” they would be legalized. He said the current legal situation was “not satisfactory for the parents, not satisfactory for the doctors, and not satisfactory for me.” Charlotte Caldwell welcomed the announcement, but said she wanted to hear more details. “Common sense and the power of mothers and fathers of sick children has bust the political process wide open and is on the verge of changing thousands of lives,” she said. “We are on the threshold of the next chapter of the history books.” The cases of Billy Caldwell and other sick children have put Britain’s drug laws under scrutiny. On Tuesday, former British Foreign Secretary William Hague joined a growing number of politicians and medical experts calling for the government to legalize marijuana. The former Conservative Party leader, now a member of the House of Lords, wrote in The Daily Telegraph that the war on cannabis had been lost and that it was “deluded” to pretend otherwise. He said “cannabis is ubiquitous, and issuing orders to the police to defeat its use is about as up-to-date and relevant as asking the Army to recover the Empire.” The Home Office said in response that “the government has no intention of reviewing the classification of cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and it will remain a Class B drug” — the middle rung on a three-point scale of illegal drugs.
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22371
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About 22 percent of adults in Rhode Island and approximately 30 percent of youth (ages 10-17) are considered obese.
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Rep. McNamara says 30 percent of Rhode Island youth, 22 percent of adults, are obese.
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mixture
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Rhode Island, Children, Public Health, Joseph McNamara,
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"Obesity is a heavy topic. Too many extra pounds add to our risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, sleep disturbances and a host of other problems. Research shows that, as a nation, we are getting fatter. That's more than a problem just for people who are overweight. When obesity levels rise and the population becomes less healthy, it drives up health costs, which affect all of us. But is it really true that more than 1 in 5 Rhode Islanders and nearly one-third of our teens and preteens aren't just overweight, they're obese? That was the contention of Rep. Joseph McNamara, a Warwick Democrat, when he introduced bills requiring restaurants to provide more nutrition information in hopes of combating the problem. ""About 22 percent of adults in Rhode Island and approximately 30 percent of youth (ages 10-17) are considered obese,"" he is quoted as saying in a legislative news release. Obesity is determined by your body-mass index, a number that's cumbersome to calculate, in part because it's often defined in metric units, which is one reason why many people don't know what their BMI is. (To calculate your BMI, take your weight in pounds and multiply it by 703. Next, convert your height to inches and multiply that number by itself. So if you’re 65 inches tall, multiply 65 by 65 to get 4,225. Then, you take the weight number and divide it by the height number, you get your BMI. Alternatively, you can go online at www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ and have the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute do the calculation for you.) If your body-mass index is 25 or higher, you're overweight. If the number is 30 or higher, you're obese. In easier-to-understand terms, a 5-feet-2-inches tall, 164-pound person is obese. So is a 6-footer who weighs 221 pounds. When we called McNamara's office to find out if that many Rhode Islanders really score 30 or more, we were directed to an online report from Eliza Lawson of the Health Department's Initiative for a Healthy Weight. Lawson, in turn, said McNamara's numbers are supported by reports based on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The state-by-state rankings compiled in 2009 by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation show that Rhode Island has an adult obesity rate of 21.7 percent, which would round up to the 22 percent cited by McNamara. The 2009 report also offers statistics for children age 10-17. That's where we found a Rhode Island number of 30.1 percent, matching McNamara’s number. But there's one big problem. That 30.1 percent figure isn’t for obese children. It includes all overweight children. To get the correct number for obese children, we went to the 2010 version of the report, which shows that the obesity rate for Rhode Island's youth, based on a 2007 survey, is much lower than McNamara states -- 14.4 percent. So how does Rhode Island rank? As adults, we have one of the lowest obesity rates in the United States. In the 2009 report, we were 48th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia; only Connecticut, Massachusetts and Colorado had lower obesity rates. In 2010, our obesity rate rose by 1.2 percentage points and we moved to 45th. Rhode Island's teens and preteens ranked 28th, essentially at the national average. (The adult percentages have a margin of error of plus or minus 0.9 percentage points. The childhood percentages, because the numbers are small, have a larger margin of error: plus or minus 3.2 points.) When we told McNamara that the data showed a much lower rate among children than he had cited, he produced a copy of an ""Eat Smart, Move More"" newsletter that gives the 30-percent figure. But that newsletter incorrectly quotes a 2010 Rhode Island Department of Health report, which had the correct figures on overweight and obesity. In summary, McNamara's assessment of adult obesity in Rhode Island is correct, if a bit outdated, and he fails to note that Rhode Island ranks as healthier than a large majority of other states. But his statistic on childhood obesity is way off - roughly half of what he said it was."
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10782
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Keep That 1876 Journal Handy, It Just May Help Treat Diabetes
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This is an engaging piece, detailing some of the behind the scenes work to uncover an additional use for a generic medication. While painting a generally optimistic view about the potential benefit of salsalate for people with type 2 diabetes, the story did not provide much information about the magnitude of benefit or the potential harms associates with use of this drug. The potential benefit from this medication addresses a pathway not commonly thought to be involved in type 2 diabetes. It is likely that it will be a long while before there is documented evidence about the utility of this medication in this context – a point that was not made in the story. Further, although framing this medication as an inexpensive option, the story failed to put that in the context of the other, generic and inexpensive type 2 diabetes treatments.
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mixture
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Although there was no specific price mentioned, the medication was described as ‘a cheap generic’. Further – there was discussion about a goal being to see it remain inexpensive. That said – it still would have been helpful to include the price since it is a currently available product. The story did not provide information about the magnitude of benefit, either in terms of the drug’s ability to improve glucose load or about longer term benefits such as its impact on the predicted chance of heart attack. The only potential harm mentioned with this medication is that it carries a safety warning about increased risk of heart attack and stroke associated with its use. The story went on to discuss that salsalate carries this warning because of its drug class but that there isn’t evidence demonstrating that these risks are associated with its use. The would seem to be confusing – does this medication increase the risk of heart attack and stroke or not? Further – because this drug has been around for a long time, a lot is known about its side effect profile at least among people with arthritis. It would have been helpful to at least mention the known major side effects. The story mentioned that there had been several observations made about the impact this drug may have to improve glucose levels and one study found that it ‘lowered the spike in glucose level’. However – as the claim was made that type 2 diabetes increased the risk of ‘everything from heart attacks to kidney failure’, the story should have made clear that there is currently no data on the impact of this drug to affect rates of heart attack or kidney failure. The story could have included the observed effect size in terms of glucose control from the 2 smaller studies that motivated the larger NIH trial that is currently underway. Because this drug has been around for a long time, we know a lot about its side effect profile among people with arthritis. It would have been helpful to at least mention the known major side effects. The story mentioned in passing that type 2 diabetes was the most common form of diabetes and that diabetes increased the risk of ‘everything from heart attacks to kidney failure’. As there was no context provided for this claim about what the magnitude of this increase was or how long an individual would need to have type 2 diabetes before being at increased risk, this statement could be considered disease mongering. The statement that this medication could ‘radically reduce these risks’ does not appear to grounded in data at this point in time. The story includes comments from two individuals who are not directly involved in the specific study to examine whether salsalate improves outcomes for individuals with type 2 diabetes. In addition to comments from Dr. Shoelson who is a proponent of expanding the application of salsalate, the story had comments from a researcher with an opposing viewpoint as well a spokesperson from the governmental agency funding the project. Other than a mention in passing about ‘costly medications’, the story did not contain information about means of treatment currently available for individuals with type 2 diabetes. While this drug was framed as an inexpensive, generic option, there are actually many low cost generic options that people with type 2 diabetes can use to keep their sugar level in check. There was no mention of this in the article. The story described the drug being investigated as ‘a cheap, generic’ and as currently being sold as ‘an inexpensive generic’. It would have been useful to clarify whether it was available as a prescription or an over-the-counter medication. The story was very clear that this is a compound with a long history which is now being investigated for a new purpose. Clear enterprise reporting.
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Unfunded mental health mandates weigh on Indiana schools.
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Some Indiana schools are worried that they don’t have the time or money to implement all of the mental health training mandated by state law.
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true
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Mental health, General News, Bullying, Suicide prevention, Terre Haute, Indiana
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Teachers are required to undergo regular training on suicide prevention, child abuse and neglect, human trafficking, bullying and CPR. Lawmakers this year added a requirement for all school employees who come into contact with students to undergo seizure awareness training. That law takes effect next July. “It sounds like a lot, but it is do-able and important,” said Sarah Pesavento, a counselor at Riley Elementary in Vigo County who trains her colleagues in bullying prevention and child safety related to abuse and neglect. Such state laws often are passed as unfunded mandates, meaning no resources are allocated to pay for the training sessions, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, the (Terre Haute) Tribune-Star reported . And it’s not just a matter of money. “The two issues we struggle with are paying for the programs ... and finding the time to implement them,” said Rick Stevens, Vigo County School Corp. assistant director of student services. “It’s time for state legislators to fund their mandates.” The Legislature passed 53 new laws during the 2019 session that affect public education. “Each of these bills have merit and are important for certain student populations that are under-served or have needs that need to be supported or protected,” said Terry Spradlin, Indiana School Boards Association executive director. Mike Brown, Indiana Department of Education director of legislative affairs, said lawmakers are aware of the challenges posed by the mandates but have taken little action to address them. “They realize that one item here or there, yeah, OK, we can get that through, but if you go back over the number of mandates we’ve placed on schools over the past 10 years, obviously it adds up,” Brown said. Republican state Rep. Tony Cook said he wants to form a committee to examine how to eliminate or reduce the number of mandates placed on schools and “streamline fiscal and compliance reporting to the General Assembly.” ___ Information from: Tribune-Star, http://www.tribstar.com
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9295
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Expanding Naloxone use could reduce drug overdose deaths and save lives
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This news release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advocates for wider use of the opioid antidote naloxone (narcan) among basic emergency medical staff to help prevent overdose deaths. But the argument it makes is confusing and not very well supported by the data in the study being reported on. The release tells us that there are “national guidelines that prohibit basic EMS staff from administering the drug as an injection” and that the “majority of states have adopted” these guidelines. But it never says why, which presumably is key to understanding the potential benefit versus the risks of allowing a broader group of EMS staff to administer the drug, even if doing so through nasal spray and not injection. It can be argued that restrictions on the use of naloxone are based mainly on historical precedent rather than legitimate concerns about harms of wider use. In fact, the drug is increasingly handed out for use by family and friends of substance users at risk of overdose. But the release lacks this crucial context, and the study it describes can’t tell us whether relaxing restrictions on use of naloxone by EMTs would make a difference in health outcomes. THE BIG ISSUE here is that this is a public health news release about advocacy for the use of naloxone, but the study does not demonstrate efficacy, and is not really about that. The study is important in demonstrating that naloxone is not provided as frequently by lower-level emergency staff, and that there exists potential for more administration if they were trained or otherwise permitted to use the drug. It is a leap to associate this with changing mortality rates; however, there is face validity in the proposition. This news release addresses the important and growing public health issue of opioid, particularly prescription opioid, overdose, and the challenges to more widespread use of an effective and low-risk antidote.
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false
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CDC,heroin,naloxone,narcan,opioids,overdose
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There is no mention of costs, either of the drug itself or of providing more training to basic EMTs to achieve certification to administer it. The release does not quantify the benefits of allowing staff with less experience to administer this drug. It says only that, “advanced EMS staff were more likely than basic EMS staff to administer naloxone.” It kind of quantifies some other things in relative terms. It says, for example, that “the rate of opioid overdose death was 45 percent higher in rural areas compared with urban areas.” OK. That’s a measure of the problem, although it would be nice to know how many deaths in absolute terms happened in rural areas in the year studied. It also says that “The use of naloxone by rural EMS staff, however, was only 22.5 percent higher when compared with urban EMS naloxone use.” But it is not known whether the rate of death was higher or lower in those patients who received or did not receive naloxone. Not knowing the absolute numbers here and not knowing whether naloxone actually made a difference in health outcomes when comparing rural areas to urban areas makes this number difficult to interpret. The release does not say anything about the potential risks here. The fact that lower level EMS staff have been banned from administering this drug suggests that it could be dangerous. However, the reality is that the risks of intranasal naloxone are not significant, so this should have been mentioned. The risk of an intramuscular injection are also low — more or less the same as the risk of any injection (minor bleeding, hitting a nerve, etc). The release should have mentioned the lack of risk and perhaps provided context for the strict regulation of naloxone use (which again is more historical than rational). Part of what makes the release confusing is that it appears to be advocating for two things. It mentions multiple times that only staff with advanced training are allowed to administer the drug. And it says that “Naloxone can be given nasally to a person suspected of overdose, allowing basic EMS staff to administer the drug without injection.’ But then it also says that “CDC recommends expanding training on the administration of naloxone to all emergency service staff, and helping basic EMS personnel meet the advanced certification requirements.” Perhaps both statements are true, but the release does not make it clear whether the agency’s strategy is focused on the training or the expansion to basic staff. This was an observational study of factors associated with naloxone administration across the country. It wasn’t an experiment designed to tell us whether relaxing restrictions on naloxone administration would have beneficial effects on overdose deaths. It’s problematic to use the publication of a study to make a bunch of policy and advocacy statements that are not based on evidence from the study that is the putative subject of the release. The release doesn’t spend much time discussing the evidence. In fact, the release sums up the nature of the study in just one sentence: “National Emergency Medicine Service Information System data for 2012 were reviewed to better understand factors associated with naloxone administration, including demographic data, 911 call information, and details about the scene of an injury or illness as reported by EMS staff.” That sentence begs many questions. How many people were included in the data? How many deaths? How many near misses? How often did naloxone save lives? How often did it cause harm? How accurate are these records? Are there areas — especially rural areas — that aren’t covered in the database? The questions could go on. None of them are answered. There was no disease mongering. The release says that, “In 2013, more than 16,000 deaths in the United States involved prescription opioids, and more than 8,000 others were related to heroin.” Not to split hairs, but the study data being reported on were from 2012, and it would have be even more useful to supply data on 2012 deaths for comparison. Put in context with all 2.61 million deaths that occurred in the U.S. in 2012, deaths involving prescription opioids and heroin do not amount to a significant total. They are, however, preventable, and so it’s a worthy goal to reduce them. It’s clear that the release comes from the CDC, and the release links back to the CDC website, which makes it clear for anyone who might not know that the CDC is funded by the federal government (your tax dollars). We’re giving the release points here because it does something that most releases never do. It actually gives a nod to alternatives. In a quote from CDC Director Tom Frieden, it says, “Many of these deaths can be prevented by improving prescribing practices to prevent opioid addiction, expanding the use of medication-assisted treatment, and increasing use of naloxone for suspected overdoses.” The major point of this release is that not enough EMS staff are administering the drug. It could have been made more clear that the drug is widely available for EMS staff, but that only a select few EMS staff can administer it in most states. But we think this passes the test. It would have been helpful to put the research in the context of previous work. Naloxone is not new. But are the results being reported new and surprising? What was known about naloxone use among EMTs previously? From the evidence presented, it is not justifiable to say that “Expanding Naloxone use could reduce drug overdose deaths and save lives.” Has it ever saved a life? Certainly. But that’s not made clear in this release. Would it save more lives if more people administered it? That’s a reasonable assumption, but it’s not something the study being reported on was designed to prove.
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34383
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Coconut oil is an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
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There are plausible mechanisms behind the notion that coconut oil could help with Alzheimer's, but the research is in its infancy.
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unproven
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Medical, ASP Article, Disease
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The cause of Alzheimer’s is unknown, although theories abound. Some evidence suggests that one cause could be related to lack of glucose metabolism in certain parts of the brain, as described in a 2014 case study published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience: The brain is one of the most metabolically active organs in the body, and under most conditions, relies almost exclusively on glucose for its energy needs. Using [a chemical tracer], the cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (CMRglc) can be measured. [Chemical tracer] studies in the early 1980s compared AD subjects with normal controls and found significant diminished cerebral glucose metabolism (DCGM) in AD patients. Coconut oil contains relatively high levels of medium-chain fatty acids, which break down into ketones in your stomach. Ketones can also be used as a source of energy for the brain (a process called ketosis) and there are at least some suggestions that ketones can help pick up the slack in a glucose-deprived brain suffering from Alzheimer’s. A 2014 study published in Neurobiology Aging compared the cognitive effects of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s after being treated with either a single dose of a specific chain fatty acid found in coconut oil, or a placebo: A single 40 g dose of [caprylic triglyceride, a fatty acid] induced mild ketosis and a significant positive correlation between performance on [a] paragraph recall task and [concentrations of ketones in the blood] was found. The scientific research in this area is in its infancy, and claims that coconut oil specifically, or ketosis in general, can play a role in ameliorating the affects of Alzheimer’s disease require more research.
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11853
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Satanists have teamed up with the ACLU and Planned Parenthood in Missouri to roll back the rights of the unborn.
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"Our ruling Rep. Ann Wagner claimed on her campaign website that ""Satanists have teamed up with the ACLU and Planned Parenthood in Missouri to roll back the rights of the unborn."" Rep. Ann Wagner claimed on her campaign website that ""Satanists have teamed up with the ACLU and Planned Parenthood in Missouri to roll back the rights of the unborn."" The Satanic Temple, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have all disputed the notion that the organizations are collaborating, teaming up or acting as allies. The Satanic Temple, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have all disputed the notion that the organizations are collaborating, teaming up or acting as allies. Furthermore, Wagner has incorrectly lumped the Church of Satan with The Satanic Temple. Furthermore, Wagner has incorrectly lumped the Church of Satan with The Satanic Temple. To hell with this claim."
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false
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Abortion, Legal Issues, Missouri, Ann Wagner,
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"U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., has been circulating a petition, encouraging constituents to add their names to ""Stand for Life"" against Satanists, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. She’s posted on Twitter and Facebook, linking to a petition on her campaign website, that says ""Satanists have teamed up with the ACLU and Planned Parenthood in Missouri to roll back the rights of the unborn."" She went into more detail in an Oct. 25 Facebook post, Wagner wrote, ""As Planned Parenthood continues its march through Missouri to expand abortion practices, an organization called the Satanic Temple has emerged as their ally, pressuring legislators and filing state and federal lawsuits in an attempt to erase protections for the unborn. I refuse to stand by as unabashed Satanists challenge our respect for life in Missouri. Add your name to stand in support of life."" In her social media posts, Wagner also includes a graphic that shows a red pentacle next to the text, ""Stand Against Planned Parenthood and The Church of Satan."" We reached out to Wagner to see where she was getting this information. Her campaign manager, Brecht Mulvihill, sent us a link to a statement from The Satanic Temple, and linked to articles from The Kansas City Star, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Newsweek, Slate and Huffington Post. We wanted to know, has The Satanic Temple ""teamed up"" with the ACLU and Planned Parenthood in Missouri as Wagner claims on her website? Planned Parenthood and The Satanic Temple have taken separate court cases seeking to lower restrictions on abortion in Missouri. In November 2016, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit challenging a Missouri statute that required abortion clinics to be licensed as ""ambulatory surgical centers."" The lawsuit also challenged requirements that stipulated that physicians who provide abortions must have admitting privileges from a nearby hospital. After a judge ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley and Director of Department of Health and Senior Services Randall Williams appealed the case. Most recently, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU of Missouri lost a separate lawsuit that challenged the state’s 72-hour waiting period requirement. The Satanic Temple has filed its own lawsuits at both a state and federal level challenging the state’s informed consent materials, ultrasound and 72-hour waiting period requirements. The organization is claiming the requirements violated a Satanic Temple member’s First Amendment rights. One of the first outlets to report the simultaneous court cases was a Slate article published on Sept. 12. The author suggests a recent increase in abortion access in the state may be because of The Satanic Temple’s lawsuit, writing, ""Missouri’s recent stroke of good fortune in the reproductive rights realm may have to do with intervention from the fiery underworld."" The Slate article was picked up by other sites and is referenced in other articles from outlets such as The Kansas City Star and Patheos. Brietbart also wrote about the recent efforts by Planned Parenthood and The Satanic Temple. However, the Brietbart article took the story a bit further and claimed in its headline that the two organizations teamed up and that, ""The Satanic Temple has often lent its muscle to pro-abortion efforts alongside Planned Parenthood."" The fact-checking website Snopes debunked this and rated this claim in a fact-check published on Sept. 14. The Satanic Temple also tweeted about their independence: Wagner not only claimed that The Satanic Temple was ""teaming up"" with Planned Parenthood, but also the ACLU. Spokespersons from both organizations said there was no relationship with the temple. Lucien Greaves, co-founder and spokesman for The Satanic Temple, said early attempts to get the ACLU’s help didn’t work. ""We are not collaborating nor competing with Planned Parenthood and we have no formal relationship with the organization,"" Greaves said. ""We contacted the ACLU of Missouri when we were initially seeking legal counsel for the case we’re now litigating. After a few enthusiastic calls wherein we were led to believe they were interested in taking our case they soon stopped responding to our messages and we never heard from them again."" Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp, a professor in the humanities and religious studies program at Washington University in St. Louis, observed that Wagner may be drawing connections between the two groups for political reasons. ""It looks like a scare tactic to me,"" Maffly-Kipp said. ""My observation is that many conservative Christians use the specter of Satanism as a way to rally support behind their cause."" So what does The Church of Satan have to do with all of this? In Wagner’s Facebook post, she names The Satanic Temple in the text but also names The Church of Satan in the accompanying graphic. Those are two separate organizations. The Church of Satan pointed this out to Wagner by replying to her tweet with the incorrect graphic on Oct. 25, writing, ""We have nothing to do with this,"" and linking to a statement on its website. We reached out to The Church of Satan, which confirmed that Wagner seems to have its organization confused with The Satanic Temple. The Church of Satan said it has not received a response from Wagner to its tweet, and said it believes the confusion began with ""a mix of ignorance, laziness, and intentional misinformation."" Rep. Ann Wagner claimed on her campaign website that ""Satanists have teamed up with the ACLU and Planned Parenthood in Missouri to roll back the rights of the unborn."" The Satanic Temple, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have all disputed the notion that the organizations are collaborating, teaming up or acting as allies. Furthermore, Wagner has incorrectly lumped the Church of Satan with The Satanic Temple. To hell with this claim."
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28679
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A new Social Security Administration rule would bar Social Security recipients from owning guns.
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What's true: A new Social Security Administration rule would add Social Security disability recipients who have been deemed unable to manage their own affairs to the federal background check system for gun purchases. What's false: All Social Security recipients are not being barred from owning or purchasing guns, and persons affected by the new rule can appeal their inclusion in the background check database.
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mixture
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Politics Guns, gun control, social security
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In July 2015, the Social Security Administration (SSA) proposed — and in December 2016 issued — new rules to “implement provisions of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 (NIAA) that require Federal agencies to provide relevant records to the Attorney General for inclusion in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).” The rule update was originally tagged as part of an effort by the Obama administration to strengthen gun control efforts after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, efforts that include trying to plug holes in the firearms purchase background check system. The intent of the rule is to bring the Social Security Administration in line with other laws that regulate who gets reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), a database used to prevent gun sales to excluded classes such as felons, drug addicts, dishonorably discharged service members, fugitives, and illegal immigrants. The rule would require that the Social Security Administration report to the Attorney General, for inclusion in the NICS, Social Security recipients who have been deemed unable to manage their own affairs due to “marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease”: Criteria for inclusion in the NICS include that an individual is disabled based on a finding that the individual’s impairment(s) meets or medically equals the requirements of one of the mental disorders listings. These listings consist of medical conditions that we consider severe enough to prevent a person from doing any gainful activity, regardless of age, education, or work experience. Individuals whose impairments meet a listing are the most severely disabled individuals we serve. If we find an individual to be disabled based on a listing-level mental impairment, and he or she satisfies all of the remaining requirements, we are required to report them to the NICS. If we do not find an individual to be disabled based on a mental impairment, he or she has not met the reporting requirements and we will not report them to the NICS. Such persons would thus be unable to purchase firearms unless they successfully appealed the removal of their names from the NICS database through an established appeals process. Opponents of the rule have maintained that the implementation of a process to automatically report impaired individuals to the background check system could unfairly exclude large numbers of people who pose no real danger to others through gun ownership: Though such a ban would keep at least some people who pose a danger to themselves or others from owning guns, the strategy undoubtedly would also include numerous people who may just have a bad memory or difficulty balancing a checkbook, the critics argue. “Someone can be incapable of managing their funds but not be dangerous, violent or unsafe,” said Dr. Marc Rosen, a Yale psychiatrist who has studied how veterans with mental health problems manage their money. “They are very different determinations.” Rosen said some [people] may avoid seeking help for mental health problems out of fear that they would be required to give up their guns. Ari Ne’eman, a member of the National Council on Disability, said the independent federal agency would oppose any policy that used assignment of a representative payee as a basis to take any fundamental right from people with disabilities. “The rep payee is an extraordinarily broad brush,” he said. Other critics maintain that the appeals process established by the rule is an unfairly onerous one: [T]he rule forces affected beneficiaries to file a petition for “restoration” of rights and to somehow prove their possession of firearms would not harm public safety or the public interest, even though the government never established, or tried to establish, the contrary. Regarding the expense of the psychological and medical evaluations required for this purpose, the administration claims it should be “reasonable,” although it does not and cannot claim it will actually be affordable to those who are affected by the rule. The federal background check system was created in 1993 through the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (named after White House Press Secretary James Brady, who was severely wounded during the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan) and requires gun stores to check the names of prospective buyers through the system before every sale. The database holds over 13 million records, entered at the local, state, and federal level, but it has not always served its intended purpose due to inconsistencies in reporting and use — for example, after Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people in the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, it was found that he had been declared mentally ill by a court and ordered to undergo treatment, but the law in effect at the time did not require that he be added to the NICS database. A similar system already in use by the VA for beneficiaries has drawn similar criticisms: The VA reports names under a category in gun control regulations known as “adjudicated as a mental defective,” terminology that derives from decades-old laws. Its only criterion is whether somebody has been appointed a fiduciary. More than half of the names on the VA list are of people 80 or older, often suffering from dementia, a reasonable criterion for prohibiting gun ownership. But the category also includes anybody found by a “court, board, commission or other lawful authority” to be lacking “the mental capacity to contract or manage his own affairs” for a wide variety of reasons. The agency’s efforts have been criticized by a variety of groups. Social Security would generally report names under the same “mental defective” category. The agency is still figuring out how that definition should be applied. About 2.7 million people are now receiving disability payments from Social Security for mental health problems, a potentially higher risk category for gun ownership. An addition 1.5 million have their finances handled by others for a variety of reasons. Since 2008, VA beneficiaries have been able to get off the list by filing an appeal and demonstrating that they pose no danger to themselves or others. But as of April [2015], just nine of 298 appeals have been granted, according to data provided by the VA. Thirteen others were pending, and 44 were withdrawn after the VA overturned its determination of financial incompetence. Although this rule implementation has been reported in some quarters as an attempt to bar all Social Security recipients from gun ownership, it would pertain exclusively to the subset of Social Security disability recipients who have been deemed incompetent to handle their own financial affairs.
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4698
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4 charged with defrauding insurers of more than $200M.
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Four Mississippi residents are accused of defrauding insurers of more than $200 million, the latest indictments in a still-unfolding investigation into pharmacies that prosecutors say bribed health care providers to prescribe handcrafted high-dollar medications that were in many cases unnecessary.
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true
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Mississippi, Health, Indictments, Business, Laurel, U.S. News, Hattiesburg
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Indictments against Hope Thomley and Randy Thomley of Hattiesburg, Glenn Beach Jr. of Sumrall, and Gregory Parker of Laurel were unsealed Monday in Hattiesburg. The Thomleys and Beach were associated with Advantage Pharmacy, one of the businesses that authorities place at the center of the scheme. Advantage pharmacist Jason May of Hattiesburg and marketer Jay Schaar of Gulfport pleaded guilty earlier. As previously alleged, Beach, May and others figured out how to make compounded medications that insurers would pay high prices for, “regardless of the individual medical needs of the beneficiaries or the effectiveness of the high-yield compounded medication,” according to the indictment. Some prescriptions were worth more than $10,000 apiece. Marketers recruited dentists, physicians, nurse practitioners and others to writing bogus prescriptions to patients they never examined, prosecutors allege. “The defendants and their co-conspirators created pre-printed, check-the-box prescription forms,” the indictment states. Prosecutors allege pharmacy owners paid kickbacks of a certain percentage of revenue to prescribers as well as the marketers they signed up. Prosecutors document millions in payments to marketing companies they say made the kickbacks. Hope and Randy Thomley face 24 and 23 felony counts, respectively, including conspiracy, health care fraud and money laundering. Beach faces 16 counts. Parker, a nurse practitioner accused of prescribing medications to patients without examining them and lying to federal investigators, faces eight counts. Beach pleaded not guilty Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael T. Parker and was released on $25,000 bail. Gregory Parker did not enter a plea and was released on $25,000 bail. The Thomleys are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. Hope Thomley and lawyers for Beach didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Monday, but they have denied wrongdoing in a civil lawsuit that seeks to seize their assets. “The government believes Hope Thomley is a bad and greedy person with millions of dollars in dirty money. It could not possibly be more wrong about her,” wrote lawyer Paul Calli in February in a parallel civil case. “Hope is a wife, mother, and grandmother. A former health care executive, Hope is a self-made woman who has worked hard and worked honestly for everything that she has.” As part of the prosecution, the government is trying to seize $17 million in cash, six vehicles and 16 pieces of real estate from the Thomleys and Beach. Those assets have been frozen in the civil case for more than two years pending the criminal investigation. Among the health care professionals already convicted is a 78-year-old Ocean Springs physician sentenced to 3½ years in prison. An Alabama nurse practitioner also has pleaded guilty. One product Advantage offered was a “dietary supplement” made with over-the-counter ingredients for which insurers paid thousands of dollars per bottle, according to court documents. “Get me rolling on dietary supplements,” the indictment alleges Parker texted to Hope Thomley in 2014. “I need to make some cash, and I think I can burn through a lot of that stuff!” Another formulation contained ketamine, a controlled substance, it said. The Thomleys face additional charges for dispensing that without a valid reason. Prosecutors say Advantage also waived copayments under the table, even though it wasn’t supposed to, because the conspirators knew patients would refuse expensive medications if they had to pay. ___ Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy . Read his work at https://www.apnews.com/search/By%20Jeff%20Amy .
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36064
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"People should rescue fawns with ""curled ears,"" but leave fawns with ""straight ears"" alone, as a fawn with ""curled ears"" has been abandoned."
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‘Ears are Straight, Fawn is Great, Ears are Curled, Fawn is Alone in the World’ Wildlife Rescue Meme
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mixture
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Fact Checks, Viral Content
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"In October 2019, the Facebook page “Wild Souls Wildlife Rescue and Rehab” shared a following meme advising people to leave fawns with straight ears alone, because “curled ears” are indicative that a young deer has been abandoned by its family:The page added:Let’s say it together.. Ears are curled fawn alone in the world 💕❤️Otherwise fawn most likely is waiting for mom to come back in the exact spot she was told to.The text on the meme was originally shared by the page “Wild Heart Ranch” in May 2013:Various versions of that image and the original quote were shared to sites like me.me in 2019, as well as Reddit’s r/aww in May of that year:""Ears are straight, fawn is great. Ears are curled, fawn alone in the world."" Look at the ears before picking up a fawn. It takes a few days of not eating for the ears to curl. Here’s a photo of both scenarios. from awwPresented advice in rhyming form involved both suggested restraint (leaving some fawns alone if their ears were “straight,”) as well as a proactive response (“rescuing” a fawn with “curled ears.”) In the image, the fawn at the upper left had “normal” ears, and the one on the bottom right’s ears were curled back.Iterations of the meme and its catchy rhyming advice were widespread across social media platforms, making it relatively safe to assume that thousands of people were exposed to advice about deciding whether or not to interfere with a seemingly abandoned juvenile deer based on the appearance of its ears.Reporting on the subject of wildlife rescue and “helpful” interventions on the part of humans when it comes to young animals is fairly commonplace. In May 2019, the Dallas News published an item with a headline summarizing many wildlife rescuers’ positions on spontaneous rescues: “Leave young wildlife alone: Trying to help young animals in the wild can do more harm than good.”Citing “wildlife biologists, game wardens and licensed wildlife rehabilitators all over” Texas, the article noted that seemingly beneficial actions undertaken by well-meaning humans “could be a death sentence for a white-tailed deer fawn, bluejay fledgling, baby fox or rabbit,” including an anecdote illustrating the risks of untrained wildlife rescuers:Amy Sethman of Burnet knows the drill all too well. Several years ago, Sethman’s ex-husband found a days-old fawn bedded down in a field. Thinking the fawn had been abandoned by its mother, he scooped it up [and] brought it home.The couple quickly found out caring for a young deer isn’t as easy as it might seem. They also learned it is illegal to possess one without the proper permit.Too much time had passed to take the fawn back where it was found, so they started making phone calls to locate a licensed wildlife rehabilitator to care for it. Sethman said the rehabilitator wasn’t happy when she learned how they wound up with the baby deer.“She was pretty mad about it when we told her what happened,” Sethman said. “She scolded us pretty good. It was a lesson learned. The fawn should have been left alone.”Noting that some fawns do simply get sick and die, the article explained that typical fawn behavior is often mistaken for distress, and that they should be left alone:Fawns will often curl up in the grass or beneath the shade of a bush. The animals are born scent-free with tannish coats and around 300 white spots to help them go undetected by predators. They are genetically programmed to remain motionless with their head low and ears flat while in the hiding mode.It is during these away times that humans usually encounter fawns and pick them up. Sadly, the well-meaning gesture often spoils any chance of the youngster being reunited with its mother. It also places the now orphaned fawn in a situation where it is totally dependent on humans for survival … Those that do live never benefit from the learned behaviors their mother would have taught them. This reduces the animal’s chance of survival in the event it is released back into the wild at an older age.“People need to understand these fawns aren’t abandoned,” [wildlife expert Alan] Cain said. “They are more likely to do harm to the fawn by picking it up and trying to take it to somebody. The chances of it surviving are a lot slimmer than if they just leave it where they found it.”The article advised that observing from a distance is the best course of action for humans concerned about fawns — particularly during the spring. In 2014, Crystal Bridges Trails and Grounds made similar observations about humans’ desire to intervene and “save” distressed deer:Being used to a more attached, “helicopter” style of parenting, we humans will sometimes worry if we find a fawn alone in the woods. We assume the mother has abandoned the fawn or been killed, leaving the poor baby orphaned. Our instinct may be to gather it up and “rescue” it.We encourage you to stop and observe before doing anything of that sort. It is more than likely that the mother deer is nearby and will come back in the evening to feed and care for her fawn. You serve the fawn best by leaving it undisturbed in place. If you are concerned, you may come back in the evening to feed and care for her fawn. You serve the fawn best by leaving it undisturbed in place. If you are concerned, you may come back in the evening and check to see if the fawn is still alone. Chances are, the mother will have come for it by then. Many healthy fawns are “kidnapped” every year by well-meaning humans who don’t understand deer habits.That page cited a since-archived page of advice from Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources, “Before ‘Rescuing’ That White-tailed Fawn … Think Twice!” The Department indicates that a curled up fawn is “almost certainly” not abandoned, advising that untrained people refrain from interfering with deer in the wild:What should a person do when they encounter a young fawn hiding on the ground? Never try to catch it. If the fawn is lying down, enjoy the moment and then quietly walk away. Do not describe the location to others. If the fawn attempts to follow you, gently push on its shoulders until it lies down and then slowly walk away. The doe would do the same thing when she wants the fawn to stay put.Removing deer or other native wild animals from the wild, raising them and keeping them in captivity without the approval of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is against the law. The unnatural conditions of life in captivity can lead to malnutrition, injury and stress at the hands of a well-meaning captor. Wild animals that become accustomed to humans can pose a threat to themselves and to people. Remember, if you observe a fawn, enjoy the moment, but do not pick it up.Even wildlife rehabilitators who referenced the “curled ears” or “bent ears” signifier largely advised people to leave deer alone and emphasized:Unless [you] know the mother is dead, leave a fawn alone. Does are sensitive to human smells … do not touch the fawns!Time and again, wildlife experts warn about the greater risk of creating a “wildlife abduction” when intending a “wildlife rescue.” New Jersey’s Wild Baby Rescue Center provides several ways to tell a fawn is “in distress,” one of which involves bent or curled ears:Directly thereafter, the rescue recommends anyone who sees a fawn in apparent distress contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, as a professional would will be able to recognize whether or not the animal is actually in distress. Further steps are given for situations where it is necessary “to move an injured/abandoned animal,” but the first point to note is that the advice given is to call an expert and not touch the animal yourself, if at all possible.The Wildlife Center of Virginia cites a number of “fawn-nappings” each year carried out by well-meaning people, and provides a chart of advice:View post on imgur.comSecond Chance Wildlife Center published a detailed information sheet [PDF] for people concerned about an apparently wounded or abandoned fawn. Once again, they offer “some simple questions you can ask yourself to determine if the fawn needs a rehabilitator’s assistance,” and add that it is best to call a wildlife expert instead of “showing up at their door with a fawn in your arms.” The Humane Society similarly advises concerned people to call an expert and to not handle the fawn.Not to put too fine a point on it, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) wrote in 2015:Every springtime, the National Wildlife Federation gets numerous emails and phone calls from concerned people asking the following question:“I found an abandoned fawn! Where can I take it?”The answer is almost always the same:The fawn isn’t abandoned and you should leave it right where it is.A 2017 Facebook post about the intersection of good intentions and bad outcomes after people tried to “rescue” a fawn illustrated why wildlife experts are so vociferously opposed to humans interfering with seemingly abandoned fawns:Hard facts about life and death in fawn. I know I’ve posted this over and over but I know there are always more people who don’t know. This little fawn was brought to us today after the good Samaritans had it for three days. They had fed it goat milk out of one of the tiny little pet bottles you can get at Petco or PetSmart (the type for kittens, etc.). Needless to say he was dehydrated, [weak], and constantly twitching. With two rehabilitators and a veterinarian here, we could not save him. We went to work on him immediately, gave fluids, warmed him, stimulated him, and he even drank a little DEER milk. He died within 15 minute of getting here. I spoke with the people who said they called a lot of places over the weekend and couldn’t get help. They did not call us. Folks, if you google “wildlife rehab or rescue”, you will find us.In that unfortunate real-life instance, well-intentioned people “rescued” and attempted to nurse a fawn “back to health” for three days. When wildlife rehabilitators were finally called, the fawn died within 15 minutes of its arrival to their center. That rescue noted that in other cases, people sought advice and the fawns were reunited with their mothers:I do realize that people mean well but we see this so often that it is very sad. Share. Spread the message around that fawn are not abandoned by their mothers. The mother goes away to keep from drawing attention to the fawn but they will return. LEAVE THEM ALONE and for goodness sakes, if you don’t, call a rehabilitator immediately. There is no way to NOT find a rehabilitator if you really try. Vet’s offices know about us, Fish & Wildlife officers know about us, the Police Dept. knows about us, the Sheriff’s office knows about us. Animal Services knows. Google. Thank you. I’ve already spoken with two different individuals who took fawn but called. I was able to tell them to take the fawn back where they found them and leave them for their mothers (both cases happen to be on their property and they could watch from a distance). In both cases, mother came back like I said she would.In July 2017, Gila Wildlife Rescue reiterated that advice and described similar experiences, imploring Facebook users to share a post about the risks inherent in untrained rescuing of fawns:PLEASE DO NOT pick up any baby deer unless the mother is dead, WITHOUT CONTACTING US FIRST! Each year fawns in our area are picked up by well-meaning people who have basically stolen them from their mothers and written their death sentence … If a deer is picked up and fed milk that is meant for humans, its chance of survival is very, very slim. It causes a severe diarrhea that can cause them to die within hours. We only raise fawns that their mother has died and use a special formula, and even then, their survival isn’t guaranteed. Most of the problem is the stress that is caused by well meaning people picking them up, called capture myopathy, so, DO NOT TOUCH!!! If you call us after you have picked up a fawn, we will tell you to put it right back where you picked it up from because you have then stolen it from its mother. Please act responsibly and do what is best for the deer and NOT what makes YOU feel good. Keep human interference out of the picture. It will be better for the fawn.Unfortunately, a catchy “ears are straight, fawn is great, ears are curled, fawn alone in the world” meme has traveled far and wide on the internet, tacitly encouraging well-meaning humans to “rescue” baby deer if they suspect the fawn’s ears signal malnutrition. The meme is not wrong, in that curled ears are one sign a fawn is malnourished and therefore in distress, but wildlife rescues and experts are unanimous and emphatic in their insistence that those without wildlife-specific training do not touch fawns they believe to be in distress. Whether or not a fawn’s ears are “curled” or “bent,” experts and rescuers advise calling rehabilitators or other animal services and never, ever touching a fawn in the wild.Each year, rescues lament the baby deer inadvertently killed by well-meaning people who “rescue them to death.”"
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10030
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Even at Advised Doses, Tylenol May Harm Liver
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This is an article that reports on a recent research study that suggests that the recommended maximum dose of Tylenol may be sufficient to cause problems in the liver. It would have been helpful for the article to point out that patients should be aware of the acetaminophen content of all medication (prescription and over-the-counter) to be sure that they are not exceeding dosage recommendations. This article raises safety concerns about acetameninphen use. However, the article could have been more clear that the increases in liver enzymes reported are only markers for possible liver damage and that none of the study subjects actually sustained liver damage in the course of the study. In its discussion of liver damage, the article failed to mention N-acetylcysteine which can be used to counteract the liver damage that may result from acetaminophen. This article could have done a better job of putting the potential problems associated with acetaminophen use in perspective by including some context about other problems associated wth the use of other pain relieving medication. The alternatives (aspirin or other NSAIDs) are not “safe” either. People may move away from acetaminophen to other analgesics based on their reading of this article. Reporting about acetaminophen without the context of the alternatives and their associated problems is an issue. The story did emphasize the important message that it is not prudent to take more acetaminophen than needed or recommended.
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true
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There is no mention of the costs for acetaminophen. But since the focus of the story is on harms of the drug, not on promoting its use, cost is less of an issue. There were no benefits in this study; the study volunteers were healthy volunteers. The implied message is that acetaminophen may not in fact be safe. Although that may be the case, the alternatives (aspirin or other NSAIDs) are not “safe” either. People may move away from acetaminophen to other analgesics based on their reading of this article. Reporting about acetaminophen without the context of the alternatives and their associated problems is an issue. The absolute values for increased liver enzyme levels are presented as a composite value for those taking acetaminophen alone or in combination with other drugs. The article should have included some explanation about what an increase in liver enzymes means. And the story didn’t mention anything about N-Acetylcysteine or NAC that can be used to counteract the liver toxicity observed. The article mentioned that the news came from a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (July 6, 2006), and explained that the information came from healthy individuals who were either given placebo, extra strength tylenol or prescription pain relievers that contain a comparable amount of acetaminophen. The story did not reflect on the possible limitations of the study having a relatively small sample size. This article raises safety concerns about acetameninphen use. However, the article could have been more clear that the increases in liver enzymes reported are only markers for possible liver damage and that none of the study subjects actually sustained liver damage in the course of the study. A spokesperson from the pharmaceutical company which had been developing an acetaminophen and opioid combination medication (also the company that funded the study) was quoted. McNeil, the makers of Tylenol, as well a clinician not involved in the research were also quoted. The story didn’t discuss alternatives to acetaminophen. The alternatives (aspirin or other NSAIDs) are not “safe” either. People may move away from acetaminophen to other analgesics based on their reading of this article. Reporting about acetaminophen without the context of the alternatives and their associated problems is an issue. It also would have been useful to include information about N-Acetylcysteine or NAC, the apparent antidote to the liver toxicity noted in the study. The article mentions that acetaminophen is available over-the-counter; it also mentioned the restriction in England on how many acetaminophen tablets can be sold at one time. The article accurately reported that acetaminophen is a widely used, over-the-counter medication. This article does not appear to be based solely or largely on a news release.
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2630
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Exercise, meds both help depressed heart patients.
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People with heart disease who are also depressed may get as much relief from their depression symptoms with regular exercise as with medication, according to a U.S. study.
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true
|
Health News
|
People take part in a free weekly yoga class on the front lawn of Parliament Hill in Ottawa July 25, 2012. The class runs every Wednesday from May through September. REUTERS/Chris Wattie Researchers writing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that of 101 heart patients with signs of depression, those who exercised for 90 minutes per week and those who started taking Zoloft both improved significantly compared to participants assigned to drug-free placebo pills. Pharmaceutical firm Pfizer supplied the Zoloft, known generically as sertraline, and placebos for the study, but researchers said the company was not involved with any other part of it. Alan Rozanski, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, said exercise can be thought of as another “potent tool on the shelf” to fight depression in heart patients. “The attractiveness of exercise is that it has so many other physical benefits and it ought to be something very highly considered,” said Rozanski, of St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals in New York. According to the study authors, up to 40 percent of heart patients have symptoms of depression, and depression itself has been linked to a higher risk of further heart trouble. Past studies have produced mixed results on whether or not antidepressants or other established treatments may ease depression in heart patients, but there is a growing body of research that suggests exercise may help. On Tuesday, researchers published a separate study of over 2,300 people with heart failure randomly assigned to exercise or usual care, which found the extra activity led to modest reductions in depression symptoms. “We wanted to evaluate exercise and antidepressant medications in patients with heart disease and elevated depressive symptoms,” said James Blumenthal, the lead researcher on both the current study and the earlier report. Blumenthal, a clinical psychologist at Duke University medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, recruited 101 heart patients with depression between June 2006 and September 2010. Those patients were separated into three groups. 37 went to supervised exercise sessions three times per week for a total of 90 minutes, 40 were given Zoloft and 24 took a placebo, with each intervention lasting four months. The researchers analyzed participants’ depression scores on a standard scale from 0 to 68, where 0 to 8 is considered normal and higher scores reflect more severe depression. Before the start of treatment, each group’s average score ranged from about 13.5 to 14.5. Depression symptoms improved across the board over time, but participants in the exercise and medication groups saw a bigger benefit than those on the placebo. Scores fell by 6.1 points in the Zoloft group, by 7.5 points among exercisers and by 4.5 points in the placebo group. Exercisers were also less likely to be tired or report sexual problems than people on antidepressants, the researchers said. SOURCE: bit.ly/d1cHYE
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1770
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Science meets voodoo in a New Orleans festival of water.
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Perhaps no other city in the United States is as well-suited as New Orleans to wed a scientific discussion of environment with a celebration of the occult.
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true
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Environment
|
That’s exactly what unfolded on Saturday at “Anba Dlo,” an annual New Orleans festival where prominent scientists joined with practitioners of the voodoo religion to look for answers to the challenges of dealing with water. In “The Big Easy,” a low-lying Louisiana city devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and threatened by the BP oil spill of 2010, water is a subject nearly impossible to ignore. Four representatives of Rand Corp, the global consultancy that helped develop the state’s master plan for coastal restoration, joined a dozen environmentalists, architects and policy specialists who took part in Anba Dlo, which translates from a Haitian dialect as “beneath the waters.” The event was held at a community center in the New Orleans neighborhood known as Bywater, one of those pounded by Katrina. Against a backdrop of elaborate Halloween decorations and voodoo-themed performance stages, the discussion centered on how South Louisiana, by necessity, is developing new models for water management. “I’ve spoken at a lot of conferences around the country, and this festival is pretty unique,” said Jordan Fischbach, a policy researcher for Rand in Pittsburgh. “But then, this is New Orleans,” he added with a laugh. The festival, now in its seventh year, is the brainchild of Sallie Ann Glassman, a longtime New Orleans resident who is a high priestess in the Haitian religion of voodoo and an anti-poverty activist. In 2006, the year after Katrina, Glassman and her husband, real estate developer Pres Kabacoff, built the multipurpose community center in the devastated Bywater neighborhood. Her voodoo shop – where Glassman holds readings and healings, and dispenses talismans, voodoo dolls and chicken foot fetishes – became the first tenant of the new “healing center,” which in time came to house a restaurant, fitness center, fresh-foods grocery and performing arts space. Glassman regularly uses the center to stage events aimed at strengthening the neighborhood, and she sees the Anba Dlo festival as a natural way to focus attention on one of the biggest problems facing New Orleans and the region. “As a priestess, it’s my work to bring balance and healing and wholeness to the community, so this is absolutely in keeping with my work,” she said. During the afternoon symposium, which drew about 100 people, both Katrina and the BP oil spill figured prominently in the discussion about how Louisiana can restore its coastal marshes. Katrina and other storms seriously damaged the coast, and the oil spill led to massive litigation that eventually will funnel billions of dollars in penalties to Louisiana to help pay for the damage. “Dollars alone won’t make anything happen, but dollars do matter,” Mark Davis, director of the Tulane University Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy, told the symposium as he discussed the estimated $50 billion cost of implementing Louisiana’s master plan for rebuilding its coast. As twilight fell on New Orleans, the scientific discussion faded into the background and hundreds of costumed revelers gathered for a parade that would launch a night of live music, psychic readings and acrobatic performances. At midnight, Glassman was slated to perform a ceremony in which she would invoke the voodoo mermaid spirit known as La Siren. “She is the force of the great ocean and power of water to work away at the hard rock of reality,” Glassman said. Glassman prays to the spirit “partially to apologize for what we’ve done to the water, but also to bring us guidance to fix the damage and live more in harmony with the planet,” she said.
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9473
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Adamas Pharma secures approval for Parkinson's dyskinesia drug
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One of the main drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease, levodopa, frequently causes a disabling side effect known as dyskinesia. Drugmakers of a newly approved drug, Gocovri, claim their medication can ease this side effect. For patients, Gocrovi may be a welcome addition. But there are a number of important unanswered questions that this story doesn’t answer. Notably, that this drug is essentially the same medication as amantadine, which has been used off label for this condition for years. Will Gocovri really be an improvement, or just an expensive version of amantadine? Since the basic ingredient in Gocovri, the antiviral drug amantadine, has been on the market for decades, one wonders what kind of medical advance this approval represents. Some independent perspective was needed in this story to help readers–including investors who read business news like this–make sense of the claims.
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false
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Gocovri,Parkinson's
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While raising hopes of patients, it is irresponsible to be mentioning this “new” drug, as well as its basic, generically-available ingredient, amantadine, without discussing costs to patients. The new drug is likely to be much more expensive than generic amantadine, as this STAT article reports. The only benefit information we receive is this: “With Gocovri, which targets both dyskinesia and off time, patients will be able to reclaim about 3.6 hours of their day, CEO Gregory Went said in an interview ahead of the decision.” One wonders how the drug was tested, and how the comparator group fared. Without this information, the story is robbed of its relevance. There is little to no information to help patients understand the potential benefits. For example, how many hours had the patients in this study “lost” prior to going on this medicine? What is the impact on quality of life of this extra time? For how long do patients benefit from the drug? None of the harms related to amantadine are mentioned in this release. One has to be especially cautious of the drug’s effects on the central nervous system, including nervousness, anxiety, agitation, insomnia, difficulty in concentrating, and exacerbations of pre-existing seizure disorders. There is little information about the strength of the medical evidence to support the use of this drug in Parkinson’s patients with dyskinesia. What does the evidence show? How high-quality is the evidence? What were the limitations? There was no disease-mongering. Outside sources not connected to the study would have been a great addition to the story, but there were none. The story mentions that deep brain stimulation is a treatment option for those with severe symptoms. The story makes this clear: “The company said the drug is expected to be available in the fourth quarter, and formally launched in January 2018.” The story makes it clear that this is the first time this drug has been approved by the FDA for this indication. However, we wanted to know: How does this version compare to the currently available amantadine that has been used off label for this condition? Is it worth the extra cost and hassle of switching? While it didn’t provide much beyond the drug company’s news release, it didn’t appear to rely solely on the release, as there were some statements from an interview.
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35184
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U.S. President Donald Trump advocated that the pay of public officials be stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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All Americans should share this and we make this demand of our Government. That is OUR MONEY! !
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false
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Politics, COVID-19
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In March 2020, the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic prompted many state and local governments to issue temporary orders imposing shelter-in-place, lockdown, and business closure restrictions in order to slow the spread of the virus. Many businesses that were shut down had to lay off workers, leaving some people facing a future without paychecks for an indefinite period of time. Around that time a popular social media post circulated, attributing to U.S. President Donald Trump the sentiment that citizens should demand all holders of public office — at the federal, state, and local government levels — have their pay stopped in order to put them in the same economic boat with their constituents. The post’s text read as follows: Donald J. Trump I would like to be the first citizen of these United States to go on record demanding that all holders of public office (Senators, House Representatives, Governors, and Mayors etc.) be denied pay during this disaster. They have made the choice to stop the pay of millions of Americans and they should be held to the exact same standard as us citizens. We the citizens CAN NOT AFFORD TO PAY THEIR SALARIES AT THIS TIME DUE TO THEIR DECISIONS!
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29100
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Access to Michelle Obama's senior thesis was restricted until after the 2008 presidential election.
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What's true: In early 2008 Princeton University placed a restriction on access to Michelle Obama's senior thesis that was stated as lasting until the day after the presidential election of November 2008. What's false: Princeton lifted the restriction on access to the thesis in March of 2008.
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mixture
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Politics Politicians, barack obama, michelle obama
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In every U.S. presidential election campaign, the two major parties’ candidates become the subjects of prolonged and intense scrutiny, with seemingly everything they’ve ever said or done becoming fodder for endless analysis, interpretation and criticism. The scrutiny doesn’t always stop with the candidates themselves, however — their parents, siblings, children, and other close associates sometimes find themselves the subjects of fervent investigation as well. Candidates’ spouses, in particular, are often a subject of great interest. Not only are they relatives that candidates have “chosen,” but they live with the candidates day in and day out, and they sometimes serve as political surrogates by stumping for their husbands or wives on the campaign trail. They probably know the inner workings of the candidates’ minds better than anyone else, and they’re presumed to be important sources of advice, counsel, and influence. All of this means that the senior thesis of Michelle Obama, wife of Illinois senator (and leading Democratic presidential contender) Barack Obama would naturally be a subject of considerable interest, especially since the subject of that thesis is itself a significant political topic. The former Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, who graduated from Princeton University in 1985 with a B.A. in sociology (and later earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988), wrote her senior undergraduate thesis on the subject of “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community.” Michelle Obama’s thesis became a matter of controversy (outside of its subject matter) in early 2008 when some interested parties who attempted to retrieve its content were informed by Princeton that access to the thesis had been restricted until after the presidential election in November 2008. Regardless of the reasons behind it, such a restriction naturally engendered suspicion that someone or something (in this case, presumably the Obama campaign itself) had a vested interest in keeping the information from reaching the public, which in turn served to heighten interest in the contents of the thesis. The Daily Princetonian noted that prior to 26 February 2008 “callers to Mudd [Manuscript Library] requesting information on Obama’s thesis were told that the thesis has been made ‘temporarily unavailable’ and were directed to the University Office of Communications,” but the university lifted that restriction after the Obama campaign made a copy of the thesis available through the web site Politico. As for the content of the thesis, the Daily Princetonian summarized it thusly: Obama, who concentrated in sociology and received a certificate in African-American studies, examined how the attitudes of black alumni have changed over the course of their time at the University. “Will they become more or less motivated to benefit the Black community?” Obama wrote in her thesis. After surveying 89 black graduates, Obama concluded that attending the University as an undergraduate decreased the extent to which black alumni identified with the black community as a whole. Obama drew on her personal experiences as an example. “As I enter my final year at Princeton, I find myself striving for many of the same goals as my White classmates — acceptance to a prestigious graduate school or a high-paying position in a successful corporation,” she wrote, citing the University’s conservative values as a likely cause. “Predominately White universities like Princeton are socially and academically designed to cater to the needs of the White students comprising the bulk of their enrollments,” she said, noting the small size of the African-American studies department and that there were only five black tenured professors at the University across all departments. Obama studied the attitudes of black Princeton alumni to determine what effect their time at Princeton had on their identification with the black community. “My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‘Blackness’ than ever before,” she wrote in her introduction. “I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong.” Much scrutiny and discussion has been focused on a single phrase contained within the thesis, the statement that “blacks must join in solidarity to combat a white oppressor.” This phrase has repeatedly been quoted out of context and presented as if it reflected Michelle Obama’s own philosophy, but in its full context it is clearly her speculation about what she thought some of the respondents she surveyed for her thesis (i.e., students who had attended Princeton in earlier years) might have been feeling: As discussed earlier, most respondents were attending Princeton during the 70’s, at a time when the Black Power Movement was still influencing the attitudes of many Blacks. It is possible that Black individuals either chose to or felt pressure to come together with other Blacks on campus because of the belief that Blacks must join in solidarity to combat a White oppressor. As the few blacks in a white environment it is understandable that respondents might have felt a need to look out for one another.
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1414
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UK cost body finally approves limited use of GSK's lupus drug.
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Britain’s healthcare cost watchdog has finally approved GlaxoSmithKline’s lupus drug Benlysta for limited use, after rejecting it since 2011 on the grounds that it failed to offer good value for money.
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true
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Health News
|
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said on Tuesday that the drug would be made available under a managed access scheme between GSK and the National Health Service (NHS) in England. This requires the treatment to be reviewed by NICE after three years, during which time further data will be collected on its benefit to patients. Benlysta, the first new treatment for lupus in a half-century, was approved in Europe five years ago but there has been debate about just how well it helps in treating lupus, a condition that causes the immune system to attack joints and organs. GSK will provide the medicine to the NHS at an undisclosed discount.
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8216
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South Korea designates regions hit hardest by coronavirus as disaster zones.
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South Korea on Sunday reported 76 new coronavirus cases and three deaths, marking the first time in over three weeks that new cases have dropped to double-digits, as President Moon Jae-in declared the hardest hit provinces “special disaster zones”.
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true
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Health News
|
It is the first time South Korea has declared a region a disaster zone from an infectious disease and under the status the government can subsidize up to 50% of restoration expenses and exempt residents from taxes and utility payments. South Korea, which has the highest number of cases in Asia after China, now has a total to 8,162 confirmed infections and 75 deaths, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said (KCDC). South Korea has been experiencing a downward trend in new cases and the latest numbers are significantly lower than the peak of 909 cases reported on Feb. 29 and down from the 107 recorded on Saturday. Citing an extended economic fallout, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said: “We will brace for all possibilities. We will minimize the impact on the economy of the people.” South Korean President Moon Jae-in declared the southeastern city of Daegu and parts of North Gyeongsang province as “special disaster zones”, the presidential Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said. Forty-one of the new coronavirus cases were from Daegu, where a secretive church at the center of the outbreak is located. The church has been linked to over 61% of cases, KCDC Deputy Director Kwon Jun-wook told a briefing on Sunday. Among the special disaster zones is Cheongdo county, home to around 43,000 people, where another cluster of coronavirus cases is located, and where South Korea’s first victim of the virus died. A total of 120 patients were released from hospitals and for the third day in a row the daily number of those recovered exceeded that of new confirmed cases since South Korea’s first case was confirmed on Jan. 20. “The number of infected patients have been decreasing the past week, and a daily infection has dropped from the previous week’s 500 to 100,” health minister Park Neung-hoo told reporters on Sunday. According to KCDC’s Kwon, the drop in new cases comes after most of the mass infection cases linked to the church members were identified. “What’s more important now is the remaining clusters of infection that is quietly making headway.” He pointed to a call center in Seoul, medical centers and nursing homes across as the new clusters. Starting Sunday, South Korea began to subject visitors from France, Germany, Britain, Spain and the Netherlands to - ‘special entry procedure’ - stricter border checks. It has imposed similar rules on travelers coming from China, Italy and Iran - countries that are suffering a major outbreak. Apart from measuring temperature at the airport, visitors from those countries now need to download an app the South Korean government rolled out to report whether they have any symptoms related to the virus everyday. South Korea is now planning to expand the procedure to all of its citizens and foreigners entering the country. “Given the development of the global pandemic, we don’t see it will be as meaningful to apply the special entry procedure on a particular country any more,” said Park. South Korea has been testing hundreds of thousands of people and tracking potential carriers like detectives, using cell phone and satellite technology.
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930
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China vows to tackle dead pig scam amid swine fever epidemic.
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Criminal gangs in China are faking outbreaks of African swine fever on farms free of the disease and forcing farmers to sell their healthy pigs at sharply lower prices, the agriculture ministry said on Friday.
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true
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Health News
|
The gangs are taking advantage of a highly contagious disease that has spread across much of the country and disrupted the world’s biggest pork market. The scam involves dumping dead pigs on farms and then spreading rumors that the farms are infected with African swine fever, which is often fatal for pigs but harmless for humans. The gangs then pressure farmers to sell their hogs at lower prices, violating farmers’ rights and affecting normal pig production, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement. The ministry did not give more details but it urged anyone who witnessed such activities to alert the authorities. “All localities should be vigilant and actively guard against it,” it said. Up to half of China’s breeding pigs have either died from African swine fever or been slaughtered because of the spreading disease, twice as many as officially acknowledged, Reuters reported last month.
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36207
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"The Australian ""Gympie-Gympie"" plant causes such intense pain that touching it is a likely death sentence."
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Does the Australian ‘Gympie-Gympie’ Drive People to Suicide?
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false
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Fact Checks, Health / Medical, Viral Content
|
While the damage caused by the plant species Dendrocnide moroides has been recounted in various outlets, one graphic spreading in August 2019 adds apocryphal claims to the stories around it.The graphic shows a photograph of the plant, commonly known as the “Gympie-Gympie,” with a caption reading:The world’s most poisonous plant is Gimpy Gimpy [sic]. IT is found in Australia. Merely touching it is so painful that it has led many animals as well as humans kill themselves. The pain is described as a mixture of an acid burn and electric shock. Mostly anyone who touches it prefer to commit suicide, than bear the pain.The claim has been posted on various “fact”-related boards on Pinterest and Facebook.It is true that a mere touch of a Gympie-Gympie leaf’s hairs can result in searing pain; in a September 2018 story, scientist Marina Hurley described the plant’s touch as being “like being burnt with hot acid and electrocuted at the same time.” She wrote:An intense stinging, burning pain is felt immediately, then intensifies, reaching a peak after 20 – 30 minutes.The hairs can remain in the skin for up to six months, with stings recurring if the skin is pressed hard or washed with hot or cold water.Not only do you feel pain from where you are stung, if it is a really bad sting, within about 20 minutes your lymph nodes under your arms swell and throb painfully and feel like they are being slammed between two blocks of wood.The intense throbbing pain from both the sting and from your lymph nodes can last anywhere from 1-4 hours, depending upon what species you touched, the amount of skin that was stung, and how hard you came into contact with the plant.However, most reports of deaths — self-induced or otherwise — caused by the plant appear to be apocryphal or unproven, such as those recounted in a 2009 Australian Geographic story about Hurley’s research around the closely related Gympie-Gympie tree (Dendrocnide excelsa). A former Australian servicemember wrote to Hurley in 1994 that after encountering the Gympie-Gympie while training during World War II, one comrade went “as mad as a cut snake” from pain after being stung and another shot himself after mistakenly using it to wipe himself::North Queensland road surveyor A.C. Macmillan was among the first to document the effects of a stinging tree, reporting to his boss in 1866 that his packhorse “was stung, got mad, and died within two hours”. Similar tales abound in local folklore of horses jumping in agony off cliffs and forestry workers drinking themselves silly to dull the intractable pain. […]He’s had too many stings to count but Ernie Rider will never forget the day in 1963 that he was slapped in the face, arms and chest by a stinging tree. “I remember it feeling like there were giant hands trying to squash my chest,” he said. “For two or three days the pain was almost unbearable; I couldn’t work or sleep, then it was pretty bad pain for another fortnight or so. The stinging persisted for two years and recurred every time I had a cold shower.”“It can certainly be painful and could potentially last up to weeks or a couple of months of fairly intense pain,” said John Downs, a medical toxicology fellow at the Virginia Poison Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. “But I couldn’t find any solidified accounts of anyone committing suicide to try to end the pain. What I did find is that these are not uncommon to find in Australian emergency departments and can be treated pretty readily there.”One study published in December 2013 in the Journal of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine found that up to that point only one human death had been reported in connection with the plant, in 1922.The Australian government did post tips online for anyone who might encounter Dendrocnide:If you get stung follow this advice:While this particular plant is native to Australia — it was first named the “Gympie bush,” as is the nearby region of Gympie, Queensland, after an indigenous name for the stinging tree — Downs did note that some species found in the United States can cause hives if touched in a similar fashion, though with nowhere near the amount of pain. He also advised readers researching poison-related claims to contact local poison control experts for more accurate information.
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34110
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"Austin public schools will force parents to allow the district to teach children ""how to have anal sex."
|
Because the Starnes article falsely states that the sex-ed classes offered at Austin ISD are “mandatory” when parents can in fact opt their children out, and because it grossly misrepresents the course material, we are labeling this claim “False.”
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false
|
Politics, fake outrage
|
As Austin public schools prepared to implement an overhauled sex-education curriculum for students third to eighth grade, an inflammatory and homophobic article by former Fox News commentator Todd Starnes circulated online, prompting some readers to ask Snopes whether it was accurate. “Texas School District Mandates Teaching Kids How to Have Anal Sex,” read the headline published by the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) on Oct. 29, 2019. Most of the story consists of quotes from angry attendees at the school board meeting the day before, during which the curriculum was approved unanimously. The new curriculum is expected to go into effect in May 2020. Although Austin Independent School District (Austin ISD) board did vote to update the sex-ed curriculum for third- to eighth-graders for the first time in 10 years, the Starnes article appeared designed to elicit maximum fear and outrage from readers. While liberally quoting from opponents of the curriculum update, it briefly describes supporters like this: “Those speaking on behalf of the plan included a nine-year-old child, a fourth-grader, the parent of a transgender second-grader, a lady who identified by the pronoun ‘they/them’ and some gal wearing a t-shirt that read, ‘I met God. They’re queer, y’all. '” “In spite of overwhelming opposition from parents and pastors, the district’s trustees voted early Tuesday morning to implement a pornographic sex education policy that includes instruction on anal sex and how to place a condom on an erect penis,” Starnes reported. The article was short on facts. No, parents will not be “mandated” to send their children to “pornographic” instructional sessions. For starters, none of the sex-ed lessons at Austin schools are “mandated,” and parents can opt their children out of “one, several, or all lessons,” according to Michele Rusnak, health and physical education supervisor for Austin ISD. “Opt out letters are provided to parents at the Parent Orientation meeting that happens in March or April, which is provided by the principal,” Rusnak said in an email to Snopes. “The campus also sends out the letter at least 3 weeks prior to instruction, which happens in May. Students opting out are provided SEL [social and emotional learning] type lessons in a different location.” Rusnak added that the new curriculum does not teach students “how to have anal sex,” but instead “refers to how anal sex is a way to transmit [sexually transmitted infections].” Overviews of both the elementary-level and middle school-level curricula can be found on Austin ISD’s website. The curricula are categorized into the categories of “healthy relationships”; “personal safety”; “identity”; “anatomy and physiology”; and “puberty and adolescent development.” When children reach the fifth grade, two additional categories are added: “pregnancy and reproduction,” and “sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.” The curricula state that the older students will learn, among many other topics, differing expressions of gender and how to communicate respectfully about that, along with “medically accurate” information and terminology about topics like puberty, reproduction, intercourse, and sexually transmitted diseases and prevention. The courses also teach children how to maintain personal boundaries and how the media can impact body image.
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3925
|
Medical marijuana in Louisiana: Questions about cost arise.
|
Three months after medical marijuana became available in Louisiana, doctors and clinics say some patients are finding the cost for therapeutic cannabis too high for treatment, pricing them out of a medication they waited years to obtain.
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true
|
Medication, U.S. News, Medical marijuana, Health, General News, Marijuana, U.S. News, Louisiana, Baton Rouge
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Nine pharmacies dispense medicinal-grade pot and set their individual prices. Dispensary owners say their charges reflect an industry with startup charges, small patient numbers and lengthy regulatory hurdles to meet. In August, Louisiana became the first Deep South state — and one of more than 30 states nationwide — to dispense medical marijuana, four years after state lawmakers agreed to give patients access. Now, the state is grappling with the growing pains of a new medical market and a patient group that can’t use health insurance to cover costs. Kathryn Thomas, CEO of The Healing Clinics, said a third of the medical marijuana patients across its five clinics in Shreveport, Monroe, Baton Rouge, Houma and Lafayette can’t foot the bill for the product. “They can’t afford ongoing treatment,” Thomas said. “It’s becoming the program for the elite.” The only cannabis currently available comes in a flavored liquid tincture, a bottle containing a dropper to use. One bottle can range from about $90 to $220, depending on concentration and pharmacy, according to medical marijuana advocates. Dr. Victor Chou, who has a medical marijuana clinic in Baton Rouge with more than 600 patients, said many of his patients take a dosage of about one bottle per month and are finding relief from chronic conditions. But one-quarter of his patients, Chou said, can’t afford the medication. “The average chronic pain patients would be spending maybe $1,000 a month at current prices for what they need,” he said. About 3,500 people have received medical marijuana since the program began, according to the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy. Under state law, Louisiana is allowing cannabis to treat a long list of diseases and disorders, such as cancer, seizure disorders, epilepsy, glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder and Parkinson’s disease. “We’re now working through the real kinks of a startup business and industry,” said Jesse McCormick, with the Louisiana Association for Therapeutic Alternatives representing the nine dispensaries. “They’re just like everybody else out here, trying to stay open and keep the lights on.” Only the agricultural centers at Louisiana State University and Southern University are authorized to grow medical marijuana. GB Sciences, LSU’s grower, is the only one currently providing product. John Davis, president of GB Sciences Louisiana, wouldn’t disclose its wholesale prices, but said pharmacies determine their own markups. McCormick said the pharmacies have higher tax liabilities and banking costs than other businesses, and he said some Louisiana dispensaries built facilities and carried costs for months with no income waiting for cannabis products. “I finally came up with our prices the night before we opened. It really was based on our expenses and what we had spent and lost, and what we needed to recover in five years,” said Doug Boudreaux, a pharmacist and co-owner of the Shreveport medical marijuana dispensary Hope Pharmacy. Pharmacies say if they get more patients, prices will go down. They say any addition of new products also will help, such as plans to offer dissolving strips taken by mouth and topical creams. Doctors and patients hope the addition of a second grower would drive down costs. Southern’s grower, Ilera Holistic Healthcare, is setting up operations, with plans to have medical marijuana on pharmacy shelves next year. Ilera CEO Chanda Macias said the company will have a manufactured-suggested retail price for products and will stress customer affordability to pharmacies. Chou’s hopeful the cost difficulties some patients are having will be addressed. “I want to be clear: there are a lot of people who are getting a really, really good benefit out of this. I have many people who tell me they’ve been totally pain free for the first time in years,” he said. ___ Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte
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27786
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"Hillary Clinton once said that ""women have always been the primary victims of war."
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[We] reiterate deep concern that, despite its repeated condemnation of violence against women and children in situations of armed conflict, including sexual violence in situations of armed conflict, and despite its calls addressed to all parties to armed conflict for the cessation of such acts with immediate effect, such acts continue to occur, and in some situations have become systematic and widespread, reaching appalling levels of brutality.
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true
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Politics Politicians, hillary clinton
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In December 2015, an image of Hillary Clinton was circulated via social media along with a quote ostensibly uttered by her about the primary victims of war: This quote originated with a 17 November 1998 speech that Hillary Clinton (as First Lady) delivered at a conference on domestic violence in El Salvador. One of the central themes of Clinton’s speech was the effect that war had had on that country (the Salvadoran Civil War had ended a few years earlier), specifically in regards to women and children. Clinton referred to women as the “primary victims of war” not just in the literal sense of being injured or killed themselves (as civilian non-combatants), but also as being left without the support and care of their male family members and seeing their own children suffer and die: The experience that you have gone through is in many ways comparable to what happens with domestic violence. Women have always been the primary victims of war. Women lose their husbands, their fathers, their sons in combat. Women often have to flee from the only homes they have ever known. Women are often the refugees from conflict and sometimes, more frequently in today’s warfare, victims. Women are often left with the responsibility, alone, of raising the children. Women are again the victims in crime and domestic violence as well. Throughout our hemisphere we have an epidemic of violence against women, even though there is no longer any organized warfare that puts women in the direct line of combat. But domestic violence is now recognized as being the most pervasive human rights violation in the world. Here in El Salvador, according to the statistics gathered by your government, 1 in 6 women have been sexually assaulted and the number of domestic abuse complaints at just one agency topped 10,000 last year. Between 25 and 50 percent of women throughout Latin America have reportedly been victims of domestic violence. The problem is all pervasive, but sometimes difficult to see. Every country on earth shares this dark secret. Too often, the women we see shopping at the markets, working at their jobs, caring for their children by day, go home at night and live in fear. Not fear of an invading army or a natural disaster or even a stranger in a dark alley, but fear of the very people — family members — who they are supposed to depend upon for help and comfort. This is the trust-destroying terror that attends every step of a victim of violence. For these women, their homes provide inadequate refuge, the law little protection, public opinion often less sympathy. That’s why we have to say over and over again, as Elizabeth has done and as so many of you have echoed, that violence against women is not simply cultural or a custom. It is simply criminal, a crime. The devastating effects of domestic violence on women are just as dramatic as the effects of war on women. The physical injury, the mental illness, the terrible loss of confidence limits the capacities of women to fulfill their God-given potentials. While some might argue that Clinton was inaccurate in labeling women as the “primary victims of war” (since the majority of military members are male), a resolution adopted by the United Nation Security Council in 2000 arrived at a similar conclusion, stating that “civilians, particularly women and children, account for the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict.” The United Nation Security Council repeated this assertion in 2008 when it adopted Resolution 1325, which stated in its introduction that rape and sexual assault were considered tactics of war: [C]ivilians account for the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict; women and girls are particularly targeted by the use of sexual violence, including as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instill fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group; and sexual violence perpetrated in this manner may in some instances persist after the cessation of hostilities. [We] condemn in the strongest terms all sexual and other forms of violence committed against civilians in armed conflict, in particular women and children.
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8179
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Overcrowded and unsanitary, Venezuela's prisons brace for coronavirus.
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The arrival of coronavirus in Venezuela is fueling concerns the disease could spread like a fast-moving fire through the country’s notoriously overcrowded and unsanitary prisons.
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true
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Health News
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Venezuela’s inmate population swelled during a decade-long surge in crime, overwhelming prisons and leading many police stations to convert temporary holding cells into ersatz jails where the accused can spend months or years awaiting trial. Venezuelan detention centers frequently lack bathrooms, people sleep on floors, and many inmates spend their days without shirts or shoes on, in part to combat the infernal heat of windowless facilities, according to Reuters witnesses and former prisoners. Human Rights Watch in a report this year said the country’s prisons are plagued by corruption, inadequate security and overcrowding. Family members of some 110,000 inmates now worry about how the government of President Nicolas Maduro will control coronavirus in a crisis-racked nation where even hospitals often lack running water, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. “The worry is that there’s contamination in there: people are sick; there’s even tuberculosis,” said Beatriz, whose brother is in prison for robbery. Like others contacted, she offered only her first name and asked that the prison not be identified. Those who have publicly complained about the conditions of imprisoned family members say prison authorities take reprisals against the inmates. She and other family members contacted by Reuters said visiting rights had been suspended to prevent the spread of the virus, but that it was not evident how prisons would prevent their own staff from transmitting the disease. While restricting visits could reduce exposure to the virus, it can also limit prisoners’ access to food because most inmates depend on family members to provide the bulk of their meals. Venezuela’s information ministry did not respond to a request for comment. “We have not yet heard any authority figure express concern for people in Venezuela who are imprisoned,” said Carlos Nieto of non-profit group A Window to Liberty, which focuses on the rights of prisoners. The group reported 224 cases of tuberculosis among inmates in 2019, 22 of which were fatal. That suggests many prisoners may suffer from the sort of respiratory illnesses that make people more susceptible to severe complications from coronavirus, rather than simple flu-like symptoms that comprise the majority of cases of COVID-19. A Window to Liberty last year said it recorded 494 cases of scabies in Venezuela’s prison population. The itching skin infestation thrives in environments with inadequate hygiene. The group estimates that 40% of the country’s inmates are still awaiting trial. Most of those are confined in police station cell blocks that are meant to hold people for 48 hours while they are processed by the judicial system. A 2018 fire in a police cell block in the city of Valencia killed 68 people, including two visitors, spurring a United Nations call for an investigation into the incident. “They don’t take them to see a doctor or anything like that unless they’ve got a court order,” said Sara, who said her son is awaiting trial in a Caracas cell block on accusations of theft that she says are false. She said another inmate in the same cell block suffered a foot infection so severe he could barely walk, and that police were slow to get him treatment. “There are always infections in there.”
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25837
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Federal agents in Portland have been “kidnapping and holding citizens without charges.”
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When Trump threatened to send federal agents to Philadelphia, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) accused the officers in Portland of “kidnapping and holding citizens without charges.” A federal judge ruled that one protester’s arrest was unconstitutional, and a Trump administration official said federal agents lacked probable cause for the second. Legal experts say those seizures meet the common language definition of kidnapping, even as they stressed that the officers involved would never be formally charged.
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true
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National, Criminal Justice, Pennsylvania, Bob Casey,
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"Democrats and civil libertarians have decried the Trump administration’s response to unrest in Portland, Ore., in recent weeks. Federal agents have been criticized for beating and pepper spraying a peaceful Navy veteran and shooting another man in the face with a nonlethal munition, fracturing his skull. When President Donald Trump threatened to send federal agents to Philadelphia, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) accused the officers in Portland of ""kidnapping and holding citizens without charges."" We wondered whether Casey’s description was accurate. Our analysis of this claim focuses on two detentions. A federal judge ruled one of them was unconstitutional, and a Trump administration official said agents lacked probable cause for the second. Legal experts say those seizures meet the common language definition of kidnapping, even as they stressed that the officers involved would never be charged. Federal agents don’t typically patrol American cities. But in late June, Trump signed an executive order directing federal law enforcement agencies to send personnel to cities where monuments had become focal points for protests against systemic racism and police violence. A few days later, Homeland Security agents from Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — who didn’t have proper training in riot control or mass demonstrations — arrived in Portland to support officers of the Federal Protective Service, the division responsible for protecting federal buildings such as the city’s Mark O. Hatfield courthouse, which had been vandalized. When Casey said protesters in Portland had been kidnapped, he was relying on news reports and legal documents that described two protesters who were picked up under ""irregular"" circumstances early July 15, said Natalie Adams, Casey’s spokesperson. One is Mark Pettibone, who said he was seized near the courthouse by a group of armed agents traveling in an unmarked minivan. Pettibone told Oregon Public Broadcasting that as the van drove off, officers covered his eyes and restrained his hands. Pettibone said he was taken to a building he later learned was the federal courthouse, loaded into a cell, and read his Miranda rights. He was patted down and photographed, and his belongings were searched. Officers didn’t tell him why he was being arrested, he said, and when he declined to answer questions without a lawyer present, he was released without any record of an arrest. The details are outlined in a sworn statement and were corroborated by Connor O’Shea, a friend who was walking with Pettibone moments before he was picked up. The other incident was captured in a now-viral video. It shows a team of federal agents dressed in combat gear surrounding a peaceful protester, removing him from the street, and carrying him away in an unmarked van — just like Pettibone. The protester in the video hasn’t been identified. Legal experts said neither of these arrests was lawful because the officers lacked probable cause. When Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum sued the Trump administration, she argued that the agents who snatched Pettibone violated his Fourth and Fifth Amendments rights and that his detention constituted ""an unreasonable seizure."" Michael Mosman, the federal judge who ruled on the case, agreed. Mosman wrote: ""There is no video of this arrest and no evidence relating to its legality other than Mr. Pettibone’s sworn statements. Defendants have not refuted the state’s allegation that Mr. Pettibone’s seizure lacked probable cause. I therefore assume, only for the purposes of this opinion, that this seizure was unlawful and constituted a violation of Mr. Pettibone’s rights under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Regarding the arrest depicted in the video, Mosman added: ""The video shows the seizure but does not show any context for what preceded it. It therefore does not speak to probable cause one way or another because it is equally plausible that the individual was an innocent bystander or that he had committed some criminal act just before officers seized him."" But when a Trump administration official was asked to describe the probable cause, he admitted the officers had none. Rather, the agents wanted to question the man about a crime he might have observed — and believed they needed to move him to do so safely. Richard ""Kris"" Cline, deputy director of the Federal Protective Service, said at a news conference that as agents approached the man, ""they noticed that coming in their direction were violent demonstrators."" This necessitated moving the man ""to an area that was safe for both the officers and the individual,"" Cline said. Cline went on to argue that the officers’ conduct was lawful because it was not actually an arrest, but rather a stop, which does not require probable cause. Cline is wrong. Forty years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in Dunaway v. New York that taking a suspect into custody, transporting him to a new location, and detaining him for questioning is ""indistinguishable from a traditional arrest."" And for such an arrest to be lawful, probable cause is required. The court drew similar conclusions in Davis v. Mississippi and Hayes v. Florida. Harvard Law professor Andrew Crespo described the case law this way: ""Any one of these cases, standing alone, resolves the question at hand. Taken together, the conclusion is inescapable: When the agents put the man in the van, took him off the street, and brought him inside for questioning, they arrested him. Cline says they did so without probable cause. That means they violated the Constitution."" So, can these two incidents be considered kidnapping? Rosenblum used the word kidnap in her petition for an injunction against future arrests involving protesters. ""Ordinarily, a person exercising his right to walk through the streets of Portland who is confronted by anonymous men in military-type fatigues and ordered into an unmarked van can reasonably assume that he is being kidnapped and is the victim of a crime,"" Rosenblum wrote. Some legal experts didn’t hesitate when asked if what happened was kidnapping. ""Apprehending a person by force and holding him or her in captivity without legal authority is the definition of kidnapping,"" said Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law expert and the dean at Berkeley Law. ""That is exactly what was done to some who were apprehended in Portland."" Former federal prosecutor Ken White, an outspoken legal commentator on Twitter who goes by @popehat, said calling the detentions kidnapping is a mostly rhetorical question rather than a legal one because it’s unlikely the agents responsible would ever be charged. But he didn’t dispute that some elements of the crime of kidnapping match what happened to Pettibone and the other protester. ""The arrest could certainly be unlawful and in violation of the Fourth Amendment, which has consequences in any criminal case against the arrestee and potential civil consequences if the arrestee sues,"" he said. ""However, kidnapping is a different matter — that’s a criminal allegation against the cop."" He continued: ""The crime of kidnapping usually has an element of wrongful intent — so you’d have to prove not just that the arrest was unlawful, but that the cop knew and intended it to be unlawful, which is difficult."" George Washington University Law’s Jonathan Turley said it was ""reckless"" for Casey to call the incidents kidnapping when the seizures were most likely false arrests, which can occur when an officer believes, even wrongly, that he had legal authority to detain someone. Casey said federal agents in Portland have been ""kidnapping and holding citizens without charges."" It’s clear from Mosman’s ruling and from Cline’s remarks that the two detentions in question were unconstitutional or false, and it’s not in dispute that the two men were briefly held without charges. The circumstances of these two detentions fit many elements of the crime of kidnapping. This is true even if the crime is never charged or proved beyond a reasonable doubt."
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10989
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Prozac shows promise in recovery from stroke
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The story neglected to assess the quality of the evidence, and, thus, its tone prematurely casts an early study as a game-changer. It takes impressive results in a small number of patients for a nasty condition and builds up unbridled enthusiasm. “Largest study yet” doesn’t mean large enough to jump to conclusions. Stroke is a monster, and any effective, safe innovation to improve recovery would be most welcome. This isn’t the first study to put forward SSRIs, and hopefully more-powerful studies will confirm their benefits in stroke.
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mixture
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Reuters Health,Stroke
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It mentions that the drug is available generically and is generally inexpensive. It also discusses the economic impact of stroke, teeing up the potential downstream cost savings, in terms of disability care avoided, if the benefit of fluoxetine in this setting proves to durable. The story cites the absolute improvements on motor skill test scores. But these numbers are unanchored from context. All we know is that it was the score on a test of motor skills. We don’t know the measurement, the scale, or baseline values. So the numbers have no meaning for readers. It’s as if I told you “my running speed has increased by 10.” The lack of a baseline score is particularly relevant in this story because, as it turns out, the group receiving fluoxetine started with slightly more severe problems than the control group. Although the difference was not reported to be statistically significant, any difference in baselines scores for the primary outcome may reflect a flaw in how the study randomized people.
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17817
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Neville Chamberlain told the British people: ‘Accept the Nazis. Yes, they will dominate the continent of Europe, but that is not our problem. Let's appease them. Why? Because it can't be done. We cannot possibly stand against them.’
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"Cruz said Chamberlain ""told the British people: ‘Accept the Nazis. Yes, they will dominate the continent of Europe, but that is not our problem. Let's appease them. Why? Because it can't be done. We cannot possibly stand against them.’ "" We see an element of truth in this claim; Chamberlain invested repeatedly in diplomacy in hopes of heading off war and he bowed to some German objectives on the continent. But he simultaneously committed to British rearmament and also made it clear, publicly, that his nation would not sit back should Germany invade Poland."
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false
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Health Care, History, Texas, Ted Cruz,
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"In his September 2013 day-night-and-day U.S. Senate floor speech challenging the Obamacare law, Ted Cruz of Texas suggested that anyone saying the 2010 law could not be defunded was, well, being un-American. Brave colonists rebelled against the British, the Houston Republican said, when pundits of the age said it could not be done. Unionists later fought to preserve the nation, he said, even though ""a lot of voices"" said it could not be done. Cruz continued: ""If we go to the 1940s, Nazi Germany — look, we saw it in Britain,"" Cruz said, as transcribed by the Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper. ""Neville Chamberlain told the British people: ‘Accept the Nazis. Yes, they will dominate the continent of Europe, but that is not our problem. Let's appease them. Why? Because it can't be done. We cannot possibly stand against them.’ ""In America,"" Cruz said, ""there were voices who listened to that, I suspect the same pundits who said it couldn't be done. If this had happened in the 1940s, we would have been listening to them. Even then they would have made television. They would have gotten beyond the carrier pigeons and letters and they would have been on TV saying: ‘You cannot defeat the Germans.’"" Did Chamberlain declare his country should give way in Europe because it couldn’t withstand or defeat the Germans? We wondered. Senator's statement initially resonates Cruz offered no backup when we asked how he reached his characterization, which initially resonated because Chamberlain was unequivocally disinclined to war with Germany; he spent more than a year hoping diplomacy combined with rearmament would head off a showdown. Historians have written that he was hewing to a strategy of ""appeasement,"" a concept subsequently disparaged along with Chamberlain, who has been characterized as a failed leader who nearly let the Nazis overrun his country. A Chamberlain biographical web page from the BBC touches on the basics: ""Like many in Britain who had lived through World War One, Chamberlain was determined to avert another war. His policy of appeasement towards Adolf Hitler culminated in the Munich Agreement in which Britain and France accepted that the Czech region of the Sudetenland should be ceded to Germany. Chamberlain left Munich believing that by appeasing Hitler he had assured 'peace for our time'. However, in March 1939 Hitler annexed the rest of the Czech lands of Bohemia and Moravia, with Slovakia becoming a puppet state of Germany. Five months later in September 1939 Hitler's forces invaded Poland. Chamberlain responded with a British declaration of war on Germany. Historians say it didn't happen Still, four historians (including three based in England) uniformly told us Cruz’s claim was inaccurate in that it’s not correct that Chamberlain told the British people to accept Nazi domination of the continent because Britain couldn’t possibly stand against them. Cruz’s statement is ""skewed,"" William Roger Louis, a University of Texas history professor whose specialties include the history and politics of 20th century Britain, said by telephone. ""It’s a very distorted view."" On Chamberlain’s embrace of ""appeasement,"" Louis said: ""What Chamberlain meant was a reasoned solution to the problem… In retrospect,"" the term ""has come to mean a kind of defeatist view. That wasn’t the case at the time."" By email, Chamberlain biographer Nick Smart, who teaches at England’s Plymouth University, said Chamberlain did not say anything about giving in to the Nazis ""to anyone, let alone ‘the British people.’ There’s nothing like it in his diaries, speeches, or in any of the biographical treatments I have read."" British historian and journalist Andrew Roberts said by email: ""Of course"" Chamberlain ""didn't say that… He guaranteed"" the protection of ""Poland in 1939 and we were allied to France, so of course he didn't say Europe was not our problem. He declared wa(r) in Sept. 1939 sooner than have the Nazis in Poland and under Chamberlain we put troops into Belgium."" Checking Chamberlain biographies Next, we dipped into books on Chamberlain for indications of what he told the British people about letting the Nazis control the continent across the English Channel. Chamberlain became prime minister in May 1937 amid national wariness of another international conflict less than two decades after World War I, what was then called the Great War. Italy’s Mussolini and Germany’s Hitler both showed signs of bellicosity. Chamberlain was mindful, too, that British forces needed time to rebuild, making it necessary for him to exploit diplomacy toward slowing or stopping aggressive moves by the other countries, Smart wrote in his 2010 book, ""Neville Chamberlain."" Chamberlain, Smart wrote, agreed that Britain ""could not hope to meet simultaneously the threats of Germany, Japan and… Italy. It would therefore be necessary, as he saw it, to seek to confine and even isolate the German threat by using diplomacy to keep on friendly terms with Italy and Japan, whatever the provocation."" Meantime, Smart wrote, the prime minister accelerated rearmament. Chamberlain’s approach: Hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. Chamberlain also said the country should ""show our determination not to be bullied,"" Smart wrote. As noted by biographer Robert Self, Chamberlain said to the House of Commons in 1938: ""It is perfectly evident surely now that force is the only argument Germany understands,"" going on to stress the import of showing a ""visible force of overwhelming strength backed by the determination to use it."" Chamberlain acceded on taking of Sudetenland Still, Britain did not object when Hitler occupied German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland, that had been carved by treaty after World War I from what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But later, when Hitler pushed beyond the Sudetenland to Prague, Britain delivered a ""guarantee"" of Polish independence, followed by similar vows to protect Greece, Romania and Turkey, Smart wrote. Thrice, Chamberlain personally conferred with Hitler, most famously (or infamously) in Munich in September 1938, after which he told the British people to acclaim that he believed he had secured ""peace in our time."" This was before Hitler pushed farther into Czechoslovakia and, through the summer of 1939, built up forces along Germany’s border with Poland. By email, Chamberlain biographer David Dutton, a professor at the University of Liverpool, told us ""Chamberlain did not think the Nazis could be left to get on with what they wanted to do in continental Europe. If this had been the case, he would never have got involved in the 1938 Czechoslovakian crisis in the first place."" Dutton also wrote: ""What Chamberlain did understand was that Britain was in no position to resist Germany in the 1930s, not least because we could not look to reliable allies,"" including the isolationist United States. ""He justly feared war, especially from the air… but he knew that it might eventually come and that Britain had to prepare for it as best she could,"" Dutton said. Generally, Dutton called Cruz’s claim ""superficial and misleading."" Chamberlain in charge when war was declared In the end, Chamberlain was prime minister when Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on Sept. 3, 1939, two days after he told the House of Commons that the British government had made it ""crystal clear"" to Germany that if it invaded Poland, ""we were resolved to oppose them by force."" He added that the responsibility belonged to Germany’s leader, Adolf Hitler, ""who has not hesitated to plunge the world into misery in order to serve his own senseless ambitions."" Noting that German troops had crossed into Poland and bombs were landing on defenseless towns, Chamberlain said: ""In these circumstances there is only one course open to us."" Chamberlain that day did not indicate the British couldn’t defeat the Nazis. Rather, he said British armed forces were better prepared than they had been for World War I. Chamberlain also indicated he had lost his patience with Germany in Europe. ""It now only remains for us to set our teeth and to enter upon this struggle, which we ourselves earnestly endeavored to avoid, with determination to see it through to the end,"" he said. Otherwise, he said, ""we shall merely pass from one crisis to another, and see one country after another attacked by methods which have now become familiar to us in their sickening technique. We are resolved that these methods must come to an end."" Our ruling Cruz said Chamberlain ""told the British people: ‘Accept the Nazis. Yes, they will dominate the continent of Europe, but that is not our problem. Let's appease them. Why? Because it can't be done. We cannot possibly stand against them.’ "" We see an element of truth in this claim; Chamberlain invested repeatedly in diplomacy in hopes of heading off war and he bowed to some German objectives on the continent. But he simultaneously committed to British rearmament and also made it clear, publicly, that his nation would not sit back should Germany invade Poland. The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression."
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9244
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Novel 'patient-friendly' colonoscopy prep shows excellent efficacy and safety
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This release summarizes an investigational study on a ‘novel’ colonoscopy bowel preparation under development by a Massachusetts-based company. The release claims that the prep is a more palatable regimen that includes solid food bars and low-volume beverages. Researchers report that by the end of the Stage 2 clinical trial, the regimen was as safe and effective as two currently available colonoscopy prep formulations in cleaning out the colon, and, importantly, participating trial volunteers gave the preparation a high rating. The release did a good job of describing the study and quantifying benefits. The existing preps that the novel formulation was compared against were never mentioned and that seems an important omission. The release also didn’t provide enough details about harms, or a ballpark cost estimate, which it seems reasonable to expect in almost all news releases. The study was presented at the American College of Gastroenterology’s 2016 annual meeting. The standard bowel preparation and prolonged fasting required to ensure a clean viewing field for the gastroentologist is daunting and has been suggested as a limiting factor in acceptance. For those approaching the magic age, Dave Barry’s 2009 article in the Miami Herald provides a humorous look at this screening procedure. But the reality is that colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States and individuals should have a discussion about the benefits and risks of the procedure. The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening for colorectal cancer using fecal occult blood testing, sigmoidoscopy, or colonoscopy in adults, beginning at age 50 years and continuing until age 75 years. Should the prep described in the release hold up throughout the clinical trial process, it may be welcomed by individuals facing a colonoscopy.
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mixture
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Bioscribe,colon cancer screening,colonoscopy prep
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Although the prep is still moving through clinical trial stages, the anticipated cost of this new formulation will be front-of-mind among folks reading stories about it. The earlier this kind of information is offered the better. The release provides a modest amount of information on the results of the study providing both percentages and actual numbers on the success and acceptability of the comparisons. We would have liked to have seen an acknowledgement that the sample size is rather small and while the percentages seem impressive, they may not be clinically or statistically significant. While the text notes that individuals involved in the study experienced no “serious adverse effects,” it doesn’t define what “serious” means. The use of that adjective implies that participants may have experienced some side effects, however modest. And although this prep is too new to have gathered data over time about possible harms, the release claims it is as “safe” as some already available options. These standard preps are purgatives that often come with mild side effects such as stomach pain, nausea and syncope from induced bowel movements, and the inevitable damage to intestinal flora. Those side effects deserved a mention here. This news release goes into a good level of detail about the clinical trial. It was a randomized, single-blind study involving 65 patient volunteers (51 treated with different doses of the novel formulation and 14 with two already available preps). The release states these early results warrant advancement to a larger, phase 3 trial. It would have been informative to note the ages of the study participants. They ranged in age from 40 to 75. Colon cancer is an important public health issue. But the release may overstates things when it says, “Approximately 40% of those who ought to have a colonoscopy avoid the procedure…” We’re uncomfortable painting with a broad brush regarding who “ought” to be screened for colon cancer. Screening is a personal choice based on an evaluation of benefits and harms. The developer of this prep, ColonaryConcepts, LLC, is clearly identified in the news release, and a couple of other sources are also clearly linked to the company. However, one source, identified as the principal investigator for the study, is described in a conference abstract as a consultant for the company, but that was not made clear in the release. The clinical trial compares the outcomes of this colonoscopy prep to that of two existing, FDA-approved preps. But we’re never told what those preps were. There are many approved preparations including combining Gatorade with polyethylene glycol, tablets and laxatives. The release also could have mentioned that while colonoscopy is considered by some to be the gold standard, some groups, like the US Preventive Services Task Force, recognize other screening approaches including fecal occult blood screening and sigmoidoscopy. However, sometimes these procedures must be followed by a colonoscopy in the event of a positive screen. The news release makes it clear that the results reported come from a Phase 2 clinical trial and that Phase 3 trials may begin in early 2017. Put another way, the prep is not yet available. The news release uses the term “novel” to describe this new prep formulation. Although a variety of preps are now available, this study’s novelty appears to be its high level of patient satisfaction. The release doesn’t include any sensational or unjustified language.
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26806
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Facebook post Says the CDC recommends men shave their beards to protect against coronavirus.
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A 2017 CDC infographic shows how facial hair could interfere with respirator masks. The graphic is unrelated to coronavirus protection and the CDC has not recommended people should shave their beards to ward off the virus.
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false
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Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
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"Amid increased fears about a potential coronavirus outbreak in the United States, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention graphic from 2017 has resurfaced online along with the claim that the organization is recommending men shave their beards to protect against the virus. This is not true. The organization has made no such recommendation. The wrong information developed out of a CNN wire story that was re-packaged by San Francisco-based news station Kron4.com. We saw it shared on plenty of other news websites. The story was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Though the original Feb. 26 CNN story differs slightly, it also states that the CDC has suggestions about facial hair in relation with coronavirus protection, and fails to mention that the graphic is old and has no connection to the illness. The infographic, which covers over 30 different types of facial hair styles, is from 2017 and is unrelated to the current coronavirus outbreak – or any other illness. It instead warns that some beard styles can interfere with face masks. The graphic was originally posted in a CDC blog post that year during ""No Shave November"" that pointed out some of the problems certain types of beards could present with tight-fitting respirator masks. It’s one of several respiratory protection posters for the workplace compiled by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a CDC department. The graphic is specific to respirators, which the CDC does not recommend using outside of the workplace for protection against the coronavirus: ""CDC does not recommend the routine use of respirators outside of workplace settings (in the community). Most often, spread of respiratory viruses from person-to-person happens among close contacts (within 6 feet). CDC recommends everyday preventive actions to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses, such as avoiding people who are sick, avoiding touching your eyes or nose, and covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue."" For the record, a respirator is different than a surgical mask, as evidenced by this CDC graphic. Surgical masks aren’t considered adequate protection for respiratory illness, and only protect the face from large droplets and should be worn to shield others from your own coughs and sneezes. A headline claims that the CDC recommends men shave their beards to protect against coronavirus. The story, and others like it, say that facial hair can interfere with masks – and that isn’t untrue – but these posts in connection with the coronavirus are ultimately misleading. The story inaccurately says the CDC is telling people to shave their faces to help ward off the coronavirus and omits that the graphic was made years ago and unrelated to the current outbreak. It also misses health officials’ actual recommendation against using respirators for protection outside of the workplace."
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4902
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Study: Louisiana Medicaid expansion program has $3.5B impact.
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Louisiana’s Medicaid expansion program has helped create or support nearly 19,200 jobs across the state and $178 million in state and local taxes, according to a new economic analysis.
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true
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John Bel Edwards, Health, Medicaid, Local taxes, Louisiana
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The three LSU professors hired by the state health department to look at the program during the 2016-17 budget year determined that the infusion of $1.8 billion in federal spending on health care through the Medicaid expansion had a $3.5 billion economic impact in Louisiana. Economist Jim Richardson, the lead author on the study, said the jobs were spread around the state and should continue as long as the federal financing of the program continues. Gov. John Bel Edwards championed the Medicaid expansion and moved to enact it as soon as he took office more than two years ago. More than 470,000 people have enrolled in the government-financed coverage for the working poor and other nonelderly adults, which began July 1, 2016. The Edwards administration says more than 183,000 people in the program have received preventive services that in some instances have identified cancer, diabetes and other illnesses. Adults ages 19 to 64 with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level - about $16,750 for a single adult or $28,680 for a family of three - are eligible for the coverage through one of Louisiana’s Medicaid plans administered by private managed-care companies. Edwards, a Democrat, said Louisiana is saving more than $300 million this year by tapping into the Medicaid expansion’s enhanced federal financing rates for coverage the state already had provided to the poor and uninsured. The higher federal match rate makes the care cheaper for Louisiana. The federal government is paying most of the Medicaid expansion cost. Louisiana is paying a share that eventually increases to 10 percent. Lawmakers passed financing tools to help cover the state’s costs, including a tax hike charged on health maintenance organizations.
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8751
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Breast cancer vaccine helps body fight tumors.
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Researchers who designed one experimental breast cancer vaccine say they have fine-tuned the process and come up with another that they hope will be more effective.
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true
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Science News
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Breast cancer cells are seen in a handout photo. REUTERS/NCI/Handout Their new vaccine delivers a cancer-fighting gene into cells, which then produce immune system proteins as well as tumor-destroying cells. “In our own mind it is a very significant advance because we have put the gene into the cells in the body. The vaccine is produced by your own cells,” Wei-Zen Wei of Wayne State University in Detroit, who led the study, said in a telephone interview. “It is made right in your body.” The vaccine eliminated tumors in mice from a type of cancer called HER2 positive cancer, they reported in the journal Cancer Research. HER2-positive cancers account for between 20 percent and 30 percent of breast cancers. It even worked to eliminate HER2 tumors that had developed resistance to drugs designed to fight them, the said. The HER2/neu protein is over-expressed, meaning it is over-active, in several tumors including breast, colorectal and ovarian cancer. Herceptin, also known as trastuzumab, an expensive antibody-based drug made by Genentech Inc, can treat these tumors. But many patients eventually acquire what is known as resistance and the tumors start growing again. ANTIBODIES AND KILLER T-CELLS Wei’s team made a vaccine using so-called naked DNA from genes that produce the HER2 receptor — the molecular signal for the breast cancer tumors. They put this DNA, along with an immune system stimulant, into a ring of genetic material, called a plasmid, from a bacterium. They used a process called electroporation, which employs an electrical pulse, to force the compound through skin and muscle to immunize mice. Once in the leg muscles, the genes went to cells, which started producing HER2 receptors that activated antibodies and immune cells called killer T-cells, they reported. “The immune system goes around the body to look for cancer cells,” Wei said. When they then injected HER2-positive breast tumors into the mice, their bodies eradicated them. “Both tumor cells that respond to current targeted therapies and those that are resistant to these treatments were eradicated,” Wei said. “This may be an answer for women with these tumors who become resistant to the current therapies.” It might even be used to prevent cancer from coming back in women who have been successfully treated using Herceptin or other drugs, she said. Several groups are working on breast cancer vaccines that target HER2, including Seattle-based Dendreon Corp, which calls its vaccine Neuvenge, and privately held Apthera, whose vaccine is called Neuvax. Breast cancer is the top cause of cancer death among women worldwide, with 1.3 million new cases diagnosed annually and 465,000 deaths, according to the American Cancer Society.
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36487
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Image shows anti-socialism buttons opposing Medicare during the administrations of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.
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Are FDR and LBJ Era ‘Say No to Socialism’ Buttons Authentic?
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false
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Fact Checks, Politics
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On February 21 2019, economist and former United States Secretary of Labor Robert Reich published a tweet alongside what appeared to be an image of two political buttons from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s and Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaigns:Although Reich made no specific reference to the “say ‘no’ to socialism” buttons shown, he wrote:For over 80 years, Republicans have used the term “socialist” to attack every Democratic program that’s become essential to the wellbeing of Americans.The image featured two buttons or pins, both with an elephant, suggesting a Republican position:SAY ‘NO’ TO SOCIALISM TELL F.D.R. NO SOCIAL SECURITYSAY ‘NO’ TO SOCIALISM TELL LBJ NO MEDICAREOn first glance, it was a bit odd that two pins from very different eras (Roosevelt was president from 1933 through 1945, Johnson 1963 through 1969) would feature the same basic layout — the GOP elephant and the use of an identical phrase with the president and policy swapped out. Roosevelt was succeeded by Harry S. Truman and then Dwight Eisenhower, the latter a Republican who supported and expanded Roosevelt’s referenced New Deal.According to the Roosevelt Institute, bipartisanship was a large factor in the adoption of programs like Social Security and the New Deal:Many Americans, for example, assume that Franklin Roosevelt was able to get through such landmark pieces of legislation as the Social Security Act or the National Labor Relations Act because the Democrats held huge majorities in both houses of Congress. But the truth is that many of FDR’s harshest critics came from the conservative wing of the Democratic Party, while some of his strongest supporters were progressive Republicans.In the early days of the New Deal, for example, FDR teamed up with Republican Senator George Norris of Nebraska to create the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), our nation’s first major regional supplier of public power. On May 8, 1933, also a part of the famous 100 days, Republican senators Robert La Follette Jr. of Wisconsin and Bronson Cutting of New Mexico joined forces with Edward Costigan of Colorado to sponsor a bill authorizing $6 billion in public works expenditures. Moreover, the director of one of the most important New Deal stimulus agencies, the Public Works Administration (PWA), which among other things built the Triborough Bridge and Lincoln Tunnel in New York, the Washington National Airport, the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, the Grand Coulee Dam, and thousands of miles of public highways, was led by the progressive Republican head of the Department of the Inferior, Harold Ickes.Progressive Republicans even supported legislation aimed at securing the rights of workers to join unions and secure better wages, hours, and working conditions — the National Labor Relations Act and Fair Labor Standards Act — and the vast majority of Republicans in both the House and the Senate voted for the Social Security Act and the establishment of the Social Security Administration, whose first head was the former governor of the state of New Hampshire, Republican John G. Winant.When it came down to votes in 1965, Republicans were nearly evenly split in the House and Senate. It is accurate to say that opposition to Medicare’s adoption under Johnson was intertwined with rhetoric about “socialism,” but the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library described the issue as less about partisanship than special interests:In each case, the American Medical Association (AMA) was the chief culprit in killing the legislation, spending millions to brand the concept as “socialized medicine,” an ambiguous characterization that nonetheless made it intrinsically un-American. Conservatives also cast a wary eye. Actor Ronald Reagan, a darling of the growing conservative movement and soon-to-be California gubernatorial candidate, warned that such a program would “invade every area of freedom in this country” and would, in years to come, have Americans waxing wistful to future generations about “what it was like in America when men were free.”But sixteen years after Truman’s efforts were derailed by an unwilling Congress, Johnson believed “the times had caught up with the idea.” On July 30, 1965, Johnson traveled to the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, where the eighty-one-year-old Truman, lean and bent with age, his wife, Bess, in tow, watched Johnson sign Medicare into law.Use of an elephant as a GOP symbol dates back to the 19th century. It is also true that archival campaign pins expressing disapproval for Roosevelt existed, and the style of button in the tweet was not entirely implausible:The image as shared by Reich appeared in a 2016 blog post, but the author of the post noted that they were unable to vouch for the historical authenticity of the pins. A reverse image search revealed that versions of the image had been in circulation since roughly 2009, around the time the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare — became a topic of debate.Although the earliest appearances of the image crawled by the site were on forums and in blog posts, those iterations featured a larger and less degraded version of the image — with an additional button:That version provided additional contextual clues. Its third button used the same format, and read:SAY ‘NO’ TO SOCIALISMTELL OBAMA NO HEALTH CARE REFORMIn that context, a signature and detail at the top right of the image revealed that the series of “buttons” were the apparent work of political cartoonist John Sherffius for the Boulder Daily Camera. Originally published on November 24 2009, the cartoon in its entirety was available in a November 30 2009 post titled “The History of Just Say No.”As of February 2019, a modified version of the original work circulated on social media both in comments and in a high-profile tweet from Robert Reich. Reich made no mention of the origin of the image, leading some readers to believe that the buttons were authentic archival campaign material. However, their source was a 2009 political cartoon, and the commentary more apparent when the image was viewed in its original form.
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11602
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New melanoma drugs improve chances of survival
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No discussion of drug costs – which are substantial. And the story didn’t explain, as the New York Times did, that 38% of vemurafenib trial participants had to stop taking the drug or lower the dose because of side effects. And there wasn’t a word about side effects from ipilimumab. The competing New York Times story used clear restraint in describing the findings: “notable progress” “do not cure” “might add two to several moths to expected lifespans” “To be sure, more than half of patients with metastatic melanoma would not be helped all that much by either drug.” But this story had none of that. Instead, readers only read about: “uNPRecedented level of difference” “huge difference…Even if it diminished over time, who cares?” “uNPRecedented time” A better balance was possible.
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true
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Cancer,Reuters Health
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No discussion of costs – only of potential sales volume. Isn’t the significant cost of both drugs worth at least one line a story like this? Adequate job reporting the benefits seen in the two trials. The story mentioned only skin rashes and joint pain from vemurafenib, but the story didn’t explain, as the New York Times did, that 38% of trial participants had to stop taking the drug or lower the dose because of side effects. And there wasn’t a word about side effects from ipilimumab. Adequately explained. No disease-mongering of melanoma. One independent source – a panel moderator – and a stock analyst were quoted. The story adequately described the comparison data reported in the two studies. Adequately described. The story appropriately notes that vemurafenib is experimental and Yervoy has been approved for use in the US. The relative novelty of the two drugs was described. It’s clear that the story did not rely on a news release.
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9678
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Blood-boosters may give tiny preemies a developmental edge
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We liked both the quantification of the improvements seen in neurocognitive behavior and the context that is provided by an expert not associated with the study. Clear emphasis put on the fact that it’s a very small study and needs confirmation. Although the preterm birth rate in the United States has fallen in the past several years, it still hovers in the 12% range. Premature birth is associated with a host of short term and long term problems for the child so therapies designed to reduce both are welcomed. The use of drugs to stimulate blood production, obviating the need for transfusions highlighted in this story is a step toward a better understanding of how best to treat this vulnerable population.
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mixture
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Associated Press
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The costs of care for premature infants is very high (estimated to be $50,000 in a 2007 study) in comparison to children born at term. Both drugs used in the study are expensive as well, adding to the cost of care. We appreciate that there are likely economic and clinical tradeoffs that extend to later life in these children (at least based on the study results) but some estimate of treatment costs could easily have been included in the story. We liked the way in which the tidy results were provided. We are told of the absolute scoring differences between the groups. “They scored about 12 points higher on average on IQ tests than the untreated kids but about 10 points lower than the normal-weight group. On tests measuring memory and impulsive behavior, the treated kids fared as well as those born at normal weight.” And then provided with some very some helpful context. “Here’s how those differences would show up in a preschool setting: The untreated group would be the kids who struggle a little in class, while the those who got the medicines would do OK but not as well as those born at a normal weight, said Dr. Michael Schreiber, a prematurity expert at the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital.” Even if a study is silent on potential harms, the terrific added value of reporting a story for the public is that journalists can ask questions a study does not, and provide additional context. In this case, it would have strengthened the piece if one of the experts quoted had been asked to address potential harms even in a general way. The story does not provide sufficient information about the study, its design and potential shortcomings. The study design was a double blind placebo controlled trial that originally enrolled 102 preterm infants with all three groups receiving additional treatments including blood transfusions and iron supplementation. An interim report provided information on 80 subjects and this report is on 53 children. Based on the story the reader may get the impression that there were no subjects lost to follow up. We think this is always an important issue for journalists covering studies to include. There is no evidence of disease mongering. In addition to the enthusiastic comments of the senior author and Dr. Juul (who is conducting an ongoing trial) we are provided with quote from an unaffiliated expert in the field who provided a great comment on what the neuro-cognitive test results could mean in the life of the child. Beyond a brief mention of blood transfusions, the story does not provide information on what is currently done clinically to help premature infants. As noted, the subjects in the study all received additional standard treatments which are presumably provided as routine care. Some discussion of comparisons would have been helpful. The story does provide information on the availability of both drugs and there widespread use in cancer treatments. In that context, we were pleased to see the comments by Dr. Schreiber who “…said larger studies including more diverse patient populations are needed to determine if the drugs can help a broader range of preemies,” according to the story. The use of erythropoetin in premature infants has been the subject of a number of studies primarily looking at the need for blood transfusion. A 2010 published report in a larger sample followed for 10-13 years reported similar findings. Admittedly, the study was an observational study and not randomized. Technically then this is a first of its kind study. The story does not rely on a news release.
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9749
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A Grief So Deep It Won’t Die
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This feature story uses powerful anecdotes to examine whether “complicated” grief can be remedied by special therapy. The story references a review article in the New England Journal of Medicine, but appears to rest mainly on a single small clinical trial. We thought the quality of this evidence deserved a bit more scrutiny than the story provided. We were pleased, however, that the story quoted a skeptic and provided some context for the controversy of re-labeling grief in a way that could produce over-treatment. The story rightly noted the professional disagreement about whether and when to distinguish pathological or “complicated” grief from depression. Labels matter in how patients seek help. This story’s empathetic description of two women’s suffering risks unbalancing the discussion over “complicated grief” — a label that scientist-committees of the American Psychiatric Association have determined needs further study before it can be accepted. The story’s nod to this debate is essential to signal for readers that the risks and benefits of a relabeling aren’t fully established.
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mixture
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depression,diagnosis,DSM,grief,therapy
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The story does not tell us what it costs to get 16 weeks of complicated grief therapy. The insurance issues for medical care are thorny enough, but mental health coverage often lags behind other categories. The story would have been more useful had it mentioned that most therapy costs upwards of $150 an hour, and that a 16-week set might be more than $2,400 and might not be covered. The story explains how the participants in one small study were randomly assigned to different kinds of psychotherapy. The group receiving what is called “complicated” therapy showed more than 70 percent “much improved” or “very much improved” in the severity of their symptoms and impairment, compared with 32 percent in the standard psychotherapy group. That’s a useful and user-friendly way to characterize the results. Much better than saying something like, “More than twice the number of patients receiving complicated therapy saw significant improvement,” which is how many stories might have put it. The story does not come out and discuss the general topic of harms vs. benefits of “complex” therapy. But it does manage to clear our bar by quoting skeptic Jerome Wakefield, who says that labeling of people might result in over-treatment. “By diagnosing complicated grief just six months after a death, he said, “you’ll get a lot of normal people receiving treatment they don’t need,” including drugs. We’ll give the benefit of the doubt here, although it’s debatable whether a single quote about the controversy of labeling covers enough ground on this issue. There are a couple of concerns here. One is that the vivid portrayal of two women who personally benefited from complicated grief therapy risks overshadowing the evidence — which is not as clear-cut as these positive stories might suggest to the reader. We think that the story needed to tell the reader explicitly that the evidence is preliminary and based largely on a single small study. We are glad the story outlined the evidence, and we are glad it included the statement that “a larger, four-site study” was completed but not published. But we think it’s a stretch to talk about that unpublished study showing “similar effectiveness” to the first study without some clearer acknowledgment that this evidence hasn’t been reviewed or scrutinized by other experts. The story correctly shows the controversy over the labeling of one sort of grief as “abnormal.” Professionals are still arguing over that. But the story is on shakier ground when discussing the percentage of grieving people who might be affected by such “abnormal” grief. It references a study putting the proportion at around 7 to nine percent, then quotes an expert who says the “real” figure might be closer to 10 to 15 percent. We thought the story should have provided some justification for why the bigger figure was the “real” one. However, we don’t think that omission is enough to affect our rating of Satisfactory. The story includes several sources whose affiliations are well described, including a skeptical voice. There is no obvious conflict of interest, beyond the professional investment that some of these researchers might have in advancing the notion of “complicated” grief. The story spends time talking about ordinary vs. complicated grief, but it doesn’t describe what might be the alternative ways of a person coping with dysfunction years after a loss. Is treatment for depression sometimes effective? What are the alternatives to the label of “complicated grief?” We also found the description of the special therapy too brief. These few words were all we could find to define this new form: “focuses specifically on bereavement symptoms, and incorporates memories, photographs and recordings.” We hoped for more detail about how this therapy might differ from more traditional forms of psychotherapy. A consumer cannot tell from this story whether complicated grief therapy is widely available outside of research centers in urban areas. The story establishes the novelty of complicated grief therapy. The story goes beyond any news release to include independent reporting.
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2677
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U.S. dietary supplements often contaminated: report.
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Many popular dietary supplements contain ingredients that may cause cancer, heart problems, liver or kidney damage, but U.S. stores sell them anyway and Americans spend millions on them, according to Consumer Reports.
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true
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Science News
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The consumer magazine published a report on Tuesday highlighting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s lack of power to regulate such supplements, and said the agency rarely uses what little power it does have. The report from the influential group urged Congress to speed up small moves toward giving the agency more clout, especially in regulating supplements. Despite the “natural” labels carried by many of the supplements, many are contaminated. Yet Americans flock to take them, according to the magazine, citing the Nutrition Business Journal as saying the market was worth $26.7 billion in 2009. “Of the more than 54,000 dietary supplement products in the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, only about a third have some level of safety and effectiveness that is supported by scientific evidence,” the report reads. In addition, the FDA has not inspected any supplement factories in China, even though the agency set up field offices there starting in 2008, Consumer Reports said. The organization pointed to 12 supplement ingredients in particular that it said could be dangerous: aconite, bitter orange, chaparral, colloidal silver, coltsfoot, comfrey, country mallow, germanium, greater celandine, kava, lobelia, and yohimbe. Potential dangers include liver and kidney damage, heart rhythm disorders and unhealthy blood pressure levels, it said. The group is critical of the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act or DSHEA, which it describes as industry friendly and which prevents the FDA from regulating supplements in the same way as it regulates prescription medications. The Federal Trade Commission regulates the marketing of herbal supplements, whose makers are not allowed to claim they treat medical conditions. The FDA has banned only one supplement ingredient — ephedrine alkaloids — although it has persuaded many companies to pull their products off the market. “Supplements are marketed with very seductive and sometimes overblown sales pitches for increasing your performance in the bedroom, slimming down, or boosting your athletic prowess,” said Nancy Metcalf, senior program editor for the magazine. “And consumers are easily lulled into believing that supplements can do no harm because they’re ‘natural’,” Metcalf said in a statement. “However, some natural ingredients can be hazardous, and on top of that the FDA has repeatedly found hazardous ingredients, including synthetic prescription drugs, in supplements.” In May, the Government Accountability Office found that sellers of ginseng, Echinacea and other herbal and dietary supplements often tell consumers the pills can cure cancer or replace prescription medications. Experts at the Institute of Medicine said earlier this year the FDA needs to use the same strict standards to regulate supplements as it uses for drugs, and the GAO said the FDA should ask Congress for more power to regulate supplements.
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10423
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The Case Against – and for – Arthroscopic Knee Surgery
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This news story uses a recent meta-analysis of already-published research as the news hook to review the pros and cons of arthroscopic knee surgery to treat both acute and chronic knee pain. The article overall leaves thoughtful readers with a “think twice or thrice” take home message if they are considering arthroscopy, or told by a physician to have it. The story could have done a better job discussing the evidence for and against this common surgery. It also mostly misses emphasizing a key point in the published research that for the vast majority of patients who undergo arthroscopy when they have both degenerative disease and tears in the knee’s cushioning tissue, exercise works just as well. Given the rare but potentially serious risks of arthroscopy (infection and blood clots, for example, as noted in the article) and the lengthy recovery and rehab (around six weeks of limitation and therapy), stories like this one are important to help the public understand the serious limitations of arthroscopy, and to avoid the lure of a promised but unlikely quick surgical “fix” for pain. That lure is substantial, given that what often works better over time is serious weight loss, exercise and other lifestyle changes that most people find difficult at best.
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true
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U.S. News & World Report
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Although the article puts an overall price tag on arthroscopy nationwide, the reader will not learn what a typical arthroscopy costs, whether most or all are covered by insurance (including Medicaid and Medicare) and the comparative costs of cortisone injections, NSAIDS, life style changes and knee replacement surgery. The article is data-light with respect to numbers. The BMJ meta-analysis had a very helpful infographic that details in quantified terms what the measured benefit for arthroscopic surgery is versus conservative management. The article adequately covers the risks of arthroscopy, noting that the more serious ones are rare. Although as noted in the summary above, the thoughtful reader will “get” the “be careful what you ask for” message, the article is absent much information about how many patients and institutions the mega-analysis covered; what co-factors were involved in the success or failure of the procedures; how standardized (or not) the diagnostic criteria were; and what the flaws and weaknesses were in the new analysis. Much of this can be found very easily in the BMJ meta-analysis. No mongering here. There are several sources of quotes and information, and we did not detect any conflicts of interest. Alternatives are duly noted, and are an important part of the story. The articles makes clear, if not explicit, that arthroscopy for knee pain is widely available and overused. The article does a good job explaining that’s what novel here: The course reversal provided by the evidence. We did not find a news release for this story.
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37705
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"Oprah Winfrey condoned child abuse, and said if the abuser is ""any good"" the child will never register the abuse as abuse."
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A clip claiming that Oprah effectively “condoned” child molestation, with obvious jumps and half-sentences, was clearly taken out of context to push a specific QAnon-related agenda during a July and August 2020 spate of child trafficking rumors. In proper context, Oprah referenced her own experiences as a child subjected to sexual abuse; based on that experience, she described feeling “complicit,” and said that if an abuser is “any good,” they will make a child believe that they were “part of” the abuse. Her comments very clearly described the confusion that children feel when a trusted adult engages in secretive abuse, but elided portions demonstrate Oprah was speaking of her own experience as a child subjected to such experiences.
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false
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Disinformation, Fact Checks
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Child trafficking and abuse conspiracy theories circulated in July and August 2020 thanks to ongoing disinformation campaigns, such as the now-infamous — and entirely debunked every step of the way — QAnon conspiracy theory; among those was a TikTok video shared to Facebook, in which Oprah Winfrey appears to condone the sexual abuse of children:In the above clip, the user claims the video shows Oprah “trying to normalize pedophilia.” The claim also made it to Twitter:😧 @Oprah #ENOUGH IS E-MUTHUFUCKING-NUFF‼️…#WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT‼️… B*TCH YOU OUTTA LINE & I WOULDNT BE SURPRISED IF IT COMES OUT THAT YOU THEN TOUCHED A COUPLE KIDS YOUR DAMN SELF‼️…#INVESTIGATE HER ASS NEXT‼️💯🔥⚔️ #YOUNGPHARAOH#OPRAHWINFREY#PEDOPHILE#BLACKTWITTER pic.twitter.com/LYfCWqWYcb— Young Pharaoh™ 𓂀 (@PHARAOH_ATEN_) March 18, 2020It circulated not long before and after the popular Wayfair child trafficking conspiracy, also a QAnon related effort:Wayfair Child Trafficking Conspiracy TheoryA similar clip was shared in July 2020 by a user on iFunny.com.Oprah ‘Child Abuse’ TikTok VideoWe attempted to find the original TikTok video, watermarked with the account @kelseycortes. However, that account was unavailable on August 6 2020.We then tried to transcribe the clip, which begins and ends mid-sentence. The footage is also rendered oddly, with the clip itself in a small square in what looks like a screen recording on iPhone; in the background, a screen is visible briefly and reads “After Neverland.”In the short clip, Oprah is quoted as saying:… respect or maybe even love … and … it feels good, I mean, if you’re seven years old … [repeats] … and someone is stroking your penis, it feels good — for children … and when i first said this years ago people were like “you’re crazy,” ’cause everyone wants to believe it’s like sexual assault and you’re being thrown up against a wall and you’re being raped … and i have said for years if the abuser is any good, you won’t even know it happened, you will be in it and you won’t even know it’s happened, and if the abuser is any good, he or she is going to make y–Under the clip, the Facebook user wrote:🍕🤮🍕🤮🍕🤮🍕🤮🍕🤮🍕🤮🍕🤮🍕This is Oprah trying to normalize pedophilia just like Hollywood is trying to right now.This is their Agenda just like everything elseThey are sick people, and they will all burnPIZZA-GATE IS REAL#QAnonArmy #WWG1WGA #TheGreatAwakening🇺🇸🐸🇺🇸Oprah Winfrey Presents: After NeverlandIn March 2019, Oprah hosted Wade Robson and James Safechuck to discuss the release of the documentary Leaving Neverland, a description for which reads:Listen to a conversation hosted by Oprah Winfrey, featuring Wade Robson and James Safechuck, subjects of the two-part HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland,” alongside director Dan Reed. Taped before an audience of people whose lives have been impacted by sexual abuse, the conversation also features interviews with actor Anthony Edwards and ex-NFL linebacker Al Chesley, both survivors of sexual abuse. Dr. Howard Fradkin, author of “Joining Forces: Empowering Male Survivors to Thrive,” explains the telltale patterns often followed by sexual abusers.A very rough transcription of the podcast was made available on a third-party website. Just prior to the statement by Oprah, one of the men — Robson or Safechuck — answered a question about initially denying abuse by Jackson occurred:… that felt like a great opportunity to say well you know some of the same things have happened to me … by that time you thought of what you were doing as a bad thing or just as a thing that you all did but you had to keep it a secret. I didn’t think of it as good or bad …it was that or sort of [thinking] of if you’re caught your life will be over and so on … I’m just trying to start a life, so then to be thrown into that was like it was just too much to handle … so when I said no, I wasn’t trying to do the right thing … I was just afraid, and it was self-preservation, so this is what so many people don’t understand[, a] big part of the confusion and shame for child victims is that the attention and the seduction from the predator — who is probably going to be somebody you know.According to a CNN article, published in March 2019, both men initially denied Jackson abused them:Both Robson and Safechuck had defended Jackson in the past, with the former testifying on his behalf at Jackson’s 2005 child-molestation trial, which ended in his acquittal. In the film, they talk at length about the way Jackson seduced them and later pressured them not to speak of the sexual abuse, which, they claim, went on for years.Oprah’s response includes the portion seen in the video. However, it is also clear that portions of her comments referencing her own experience as a child victim of sexual abuse are cut from the video to paint her commentary in a misleading light:Right. In order for [child abuse] to work [and continue], it has to be somebody you know, somebody you admire, somebody you respect, or maybe even love … and it feels good.I mean, if you’re seven years old and somebody … which I was trying to say this to my friend[s with children] … you’re seven years old, and someone is stroking your penis … it feels good, even though you don’t have a name for what that is, it feels good.Reading only to that point seems to validate the claims. But immediately thereafter, Oprah references her own abuse and feelings of being complicit in it as a child:And that was such a particularly challenging part for me in beginning therapy when … one of the biggest things I kept bringing to therapy wa, you know, what does it mean that it felt good? What does that leave us? I mean, it’s so confusing for children, and when I first said this years ago people are like “you’re crazy,” because everybody wants to believe it’s like sexual assault, and you’re being thrown up against the wall, and you’re being raped.And I have said for years, if the abuser is any good it will … you won’t even know it’s happened, you will be in it and you won’t even know it’s happened … and if they abuser is any good he or she is going to make you feel like you’re a part of it … I mean in nothing is more being a part of it than what we discussed earlier, then you had you say you were married you had marriage vows and you have rings.In another portion of the segment not included in the TikTok version, Winfrey spoke about her own realization that she had been the victim of grooming and child abuse:[During a] day that I was doing a show, and I was forty two years old, actually a show with men would molested their children and stepchildren, and it wasn’t until one of the child molesters, the accused said out loud how he had practiced grooming his thirteen year old daughter that I had a light bulb moment and finally realized at forty two that it was not my fault.I think for a lot of people to see the grooming process and understand for yourself, “oh that’s what happened to me.” That’s what I’m trying to get you all to see, that you don’t need to be a big iconic star, that this is happening in families and churches and everywhere with somebody who has entrusted themselves, made themselves look, like your mother said, that he just seemed like a wonderful, loving carrying person, and knew how to groom a child in your own particular family. That’s what what what goes on.Oprah’s Contemporaneous StatementsOn March 5 2019, People magazine published a profile, “Months Before Interviewing Michael Jackson Accusers, Oprah Winfrey Opened Up About Her Own Abuse.” That reporting was a bit more focused on Oprah’s experiences, about which she was candid prior to her coverage of Leaving Neverland:While Winfrey, 65, has been open about her success and obstacles she had to overcome to get there, she stayed quiet about her own experience with sexual abuse — specifically, that she was molested by her cousin, an uncle and a family friend as a young girl.“It happened to me at 9, and then 10, and then 11, and then 12, 13, 14. You don’t have the language to begin to explain what’s happening to you,” the A Wrinkle in Time star told PEOPLE for the March 12, 2018 cover story. “That’s why you feel you’re not going to be believed. And if the abuser, the molester, is any good, they will make you feel that you are complicit, that you were part of it. That’s what keeps you from telling.”SummaryA clip claiming that Oprah effectively “condoned” child molestation, with obvious jumps and half-sentences, was clearly taken out of context to push a specific QAnon-related agenda during a July and August 2020 spate of child trafficking rumors. In proper context, Oprah referenced her own experiences as a child subjected to sexual abuse; based on that experience, she described feeling “complicit,” and said that if an abuser is “any good,” they will make a child believe that they were “part of” the abuse. Her comments very clearly described the confusion that children feel when a trusted adult engages in secretive abuse, but elided portions demonstrate Oprah was speaking of her own experience as a child subjected to such experiences.Comments
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19487
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Seven presidents before (Barack Obama) -- Republicans and Democrats -- tried to expand health care to all Americans.
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"Castro said that ""seven presidents before (Obama) -- Republicans and Democrats -- tried to expand health care to all Americans."" It’s a slam dunk getting to three or four presidents, and it’s possible to reach seven presidents, but to do that requires a looser interpretation of expanding coverage ""to all Americans.""."
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true
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National, Health Care, History, Julián Castro,
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"President Barack Obama’s health care law has been one of the most polarizing aspects of his presidency, with Republicans criticizing it at every turn. But the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, didn’t run from it. He applauded Obama for pursuing expanded health care -- and succeeding where his predecessors had failed. ""Seven presidents before him -- Republicans and Democrats -- tried to expand health care to all Americans,"" Castro said. ""President Obama got it done."" We wondered whether Castro’s history was correct. So we checked with a variety of public policy and health care historians and found that Castro’s in the ballpark -- but that a lot of caveats are in order. Let’s start with the presidents who almost certainly fit Castro’s definition of having ""tried to expand health care to all Americans."" • Harry Truman. On Nov. 19, 1945, Truman wrote a message to Congress saying that ""the health of American children, like their education, should be recognized as a definite public responsibility."" According to the Truman Library, ""the most controversial aspect of the plan was the proposed national health insurance plan."" It called for ""the creation of a national health insurance fund to be run by the federal government. This fund would be open to all Americans, but would remain optional. Participants would pay monthly fees into the plan, which would cover the cost of any and all medical expenses that arose in a time of need. The government would pay for the cost of services rendered by any doctor who chose to join the program."" The American Medical Association attacked the plan, characterizing the bill as ""socialized medicine."" Truman ultimately abandoned the effort after the outbreak of the Korean War • Richard Nixon. In 1971 and 1974, Nixon offered separate proposals to expand health insurance to all, or nearly all, Americans. Generally speaking, they involved employer mandates to provide health insurance, supplemented by subsidies for poorer Americans. ""I shall propose a sweeping new program that will assure comprehensive health-insurance protection to millions of Americans who cannot now obtain it or afford it, with vastly improved protection against catastrophic illnesses,"" he said in 1974. The 1974 effort gained some traction in Congress but faltered as Nixon became consumed by scandal. ""Had it not been for his destruction as a result of the Watergate affair, legislation might well have passed during his presidency,"" said Princeton University health care historian Paul Starr, the author of Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform. • Bill Clinton. In 1993 and 1994, Clinton -- in a process spearheaded by First Lady Hillary Clinton -- sought to pass a major overhaul of the health care system that would have aimed for universal coverage. Even though the Democrats controlled Congress at the time, the plan did not win enactment. So that’s an easy three. It isn’t much of a stretch to get a fourth: • Lyndon Johnson. Technically, Johnson never sought full universal health care. But it seems churlish to deny inclusion on this list to the man who signed Medicare and Medicaid into law. They aren’t universal care for everybody, but they are universal care for large subsets of the population. You can add a few more if you lower the bar a bit. • John F. Kennedy. Kennedy voiced strong support for legislation that would ultimately become Medicare. On May 20, 1962, he held a televised rally to push the proposal at a packed Madison Square Garden in New York City. (The American Journal of Public Health later noted that hours later, the AMA rented the empty hall to film a rebuttal by its president, without showing the empty seats.) But he died before the legislation could come to fruition.) • Gerald Ford. Ford endorsed Nixon’s second proposal, but it didn’t get far on his brief watch. • Jimmy Carter. Carter proposed ""a step-by-step plan to achieve universal coverage,"" Starr said. ""It came relatively late in his first term, and it was too weak to satisfy (Democratic Sen.) Ted Kennedy and many other Democrats."" Carter’s efforts were ""halfhearted,"" said Brown University political scientist James Morone, co-author of The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office from Roosevelt to Bush. You can actually add a couple more if you bend Castro’s definition even further. • Theodore Roosevelt. He did endorse the idea of expanding health insurance to all, but only as as a presidential candidate for the Bull Moose Party in 1912, not during his earlier term in the White House. • Franklin D. Roosevelt. In his State of the Union address in 1943, Roosevelt called for a social insurance system that would extend ""from the cradle to the grave,"" and he was preparing a program and a speech on national health insurance at the time of his death. In the midst of World War II, Roosevelt never pursued it in earnest, but Truman took up the mantle instead • Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower reacted to Democratic proposals for single-payer health care by proposing an expansion of care within the model of private-sector medicine. Eisenhower’s approach was to make permanent the tax break for employer-sponsored health coverage (which remains today) in order to encourage as many Americans as possible to get covered through their workplace. For those who were not employed, Eisenhower proposed that the government ""reinsure"" private insurance companies to encourage them to add less profitable populations to their coverage rolls. While Morone calls the Eisenhower plan relatively ""timid,"" it nonetheless sparked the AMA’s opposition, which helped kill it in Congress. The remaining Republican presidents did act to expand health coverage in certain ways, but none of our experts thought they met Castro’s definition of pushing for universal health care. • Ronald Reagan signed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which requires hospitals to serve patients in urgent need, and the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA, which allows individuals to keep paying for coverage if they lose their insurance. In addition, with almost no support from his own cabinet, Reagan added catastrophic care to Medicare toward the end of his presidency, though the provision was later repealed. • George H.W. Bush, worried about the Democrats getting traction with health care in a 1991 Senate special election, sent a plan to congress. ""Bush didn't like the issue, but he had a really good health team that put together a pretty good republican proposal,"" Morone said. • George W. Bush pushed for and signed the expansion of Medicare to include prescription drug coverage. Putting it all together, ""you could cut the number to five or raise it to eight depending on how strictly you want to interpret Castro’s words,"" Starr said. Our ruling Castro said that ""seven presidents before (Obama) -- Republicans and Democrats -- tried to expand health care to all Americans."" It’s a slam dunk getting to three or four presidents, and it’s possible to reach seven presidents, but to do that requires a looser interpretation of expanding coverage ""to all Americans.""."
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7884
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J&J, Moderna sign deals with U.S. to produce huge quantity of possible coronavirus vaccines.
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The U.S. government has cut deals with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) and Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) and said it is in talks with at least two other companies to prepare them to produce massive quantities of coronavirus vaccines even before safe and effective ones become available.
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true
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Health News
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There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines specifically for COVID-19, the respiratory disease that has killed more than 35,000 people and infected over 745,000 globally in just a few months. No vaccine is expected to be ready for use until at least 2021, as they must still be widely tested in humans before being administered to hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people to prevent infection. On Monday, J&J announced a $1 billion deal with the U.S. government to create enough manufacturing capacity to make more than 1 billion doses of a vaccine, and its shares closed up 8% at $133.01. It has chosen a candidate but will not begin testing it in people until September. Moderna, which this month began very early tests of its vaccine candidate in people, also signed a deal with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The arrangements are part of the federal government’s effort to encourage drugmakers to be able to produce massive amounts of COVID-19 vaccines even before any are proven to work. The J&J effort will be funded in part by about $420 million from BARDA. The agency told Reuters it also plans to spend an unnamed amount to ramp up manufacturing for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Moderna shares rose 1.4% to $30.48. BARDA ultimately plans to support five or six experimental vaccine candidates, with the hopes of having two or three successful ones, BARDA director Rick Bright said in a phone interview. Experts have estimated it could be 12 to 18 months before a safe and effective vaccine wins regulatory approval. “Government and industry is working in unprecedented ways,” Bright said. The hope is to work “as quickly as possible and manufacture enough of it for us and the rest of the world in a very short timeframe.” The agency plans to take over manufacturing of Moderna’s vaccine candidate to enable the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech to focus on testing it in larger trials. BARDA hopes to speed up the back end of the vaccine manufacturing process, which involves ensuring that they are made and packaged according to standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. There are dozens of coronavirus vaccines in development, according to the World Health Organization. But it is still not clear that people develop lasting immunity to this virus, or what it will take for a vaccine to be protective. “What you need to do is take an assessment of what the most likely candidates are and invest at risk in those,” said Seth Berkley, chief executive of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). The earlier you make that decision, the more likely you are to have manufacturing in place, but the less confident you are about whether the vaccine will work, Berkley said. Typically, decisions on whether to move forward with a vaccine are made after safety trials and preliminary efficacy trials have been completed. J&J said it will begin human testing in September, with an eye toward having a vaccine ready under an emergency use authorization in early 2021. J&J Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Paul Stoffels told Reuters the company had to start ramping up manufacturing capacity now, even before it has a signal that its experimental vaccine candidate works. “That is the only option for us to get it on time,” Stoffels said of the early 2021 target. J&J hopes to have data proving its vaccine works by the end of this year. J&J has a manufacturing plant in the Netherlands that can make up to 300 million doses of vaccine, Stoffels said, but that “absolutely will not be sufficient for the world.” The company is also scouting for manufacturing plants in other parts of Europe and Asia capable of making the type of vaccine the company is working on. Stoffels said J&J’s vaccine will be based on the same technology used to make its Ebola vaccine, which has been widely used in people. The company believes it will prove safe. In lab studies, it has produced strong neutralizing antibodies to the virus - the type needed to make a successful vaccine. In addition to the investments in J&J and Moderna, Bright said his agency is in talks with at least two other large vaccine makers, but declined to make them public. BARDA is interested in working with a broad range of vaccine technologies and with companies that have proven track records, Bright said. “There’s a lot of risk involved in making a new vaccine, a lot of risk in going quickly,” Bright said. “Wherever possible, we need to understand and mitigate that risk.”
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35882
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"In summer 2020, U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's campaign released a so-called ""Muslim ad"" courting Muslim voters."
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"What's true: A political ad uses genuine clips from a speech Biden delivered during the ""Million Muslim Votes Summit"" in 2020. What's false: However, this video was not created or endorsed by the Biden campaign."
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false
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Politics, 2020 election
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In September 2020, Snopes readers began asking about a video supposedly showing a “Biden Muslim ad” shared on social media and often accompanied by misleading information. For example, some social media users falsely claimed that this ad was created by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign team. Others falsely claimed that the Biden campaign was only showing this ad to Muslims and the general public was only made aware of the footage after it “leaked.” Others falsely claimed that the Biden campaign created this ad courting Muslim voters but had not done the same for Christians. Others, still, just seemed offended that a presidential candidate would appeal to Muslim voters. Here’s the video in question: This is not an official campaign ad created, endorsed, or shared by the Biden campaign. This video primarily uses footage from a speech Biden delivered at the Million Muslim Votes Summit, an online conference hosted by a Muslim American political group called Emgage Action, in July 2020. Although this video uses genuine clips from this speech — Biden quoted the Prophet Muhammad, said that he would “end the Muslim ban on day one,” and that “Muslim voices matter” — the voice-over and b-roll footage played throughout was edited together by a third party, not the Biden campaign. Here’s the original video of Biden’s speech from Emgage Action: The “Biden Muslim Ad” appears to have been created by VOA Urdu, a branch of Voice for America that caters to the Urdu-speaking population. This video was posted to VOA Urdu’s social media pages shortly after Biden’s speech in July 2020, but it was removed about a week later after red flags were raised about the tax-payer funded television network posting content that seemed to clearly support a political candidate. Politico reported at the time: Voice of America is weighing a suspension of four contractors who were involved in publishing a story and video that was deemed too favorable to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, according to two people familiar with the matter.
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