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2952 | Patient doing well with French company's artificial heart: report. | A 75-year-old Frenchman was feeding himself and chatting to his family, more than a week after becoming the first person to be fitted with an artificial heart made by French biomedical company Carmat, one of his surgeons said. | true | Health News | “He is awake, feeding himself and talking with his family. We are thinking of getting him up on his feet soon, probably as early as this weekend,” Professor Daniel Duveau, who saw the patient on Thursday, told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper. A more detailed account of the patient’s health would be made public on Mond... |
8701 | Britain launches coronavirus vaccine taskforce. | Britain launched a new coronavirus taskforce on Friday to support efforts to make a vaccine available to the public as quickly as possible. | true | Health News | The government said 21 new research projects would get funding from a 14 million pound investment pool “to rapidly progress treatments and vaccines”. The taskforce will include AstraZeneca and research charity the Wellcome Trust. A million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by British scientists at O... |
6893 | Mumps outbreak strikes Marshallese population in Arkansas. | An outbreak of mumps has hit a community of Marshall Islanders in northwest Arkansas particularly hard, according to health officials. | true | Health, Marshall Islands, Arkansas, Little Rock, Mumps | Marshallese people accounted for about 60 percent of the state’s 2,220 reported cases as of Friday. The outbreak started in August, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (http://bit.ly/2hVVQYf ) reported. The contagious disease causes swelling in the salivary glands and cheeks, and is often transmitted when an infected person ... |
24244 | Mayor White has major stake in Barnett Shale production company. | Shami says White has major stake in Barnett Shale drilling company | false | Environment, Economy, Energy, Transparency, Texas, Farouk Shami, | "Gubernatorial hopeful Bill White doesn’t shy away from energy issues — after all, he was mayor of Houston, a city that many oil and gas companies call home, and was deputy energy secretary for about two years during the Clinton administration. More unusual by Houston — and Texas — standards, White touts initiatives un... |
2871 | FDA staff cautious about J&J's latest Xarelto application. | The U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears skeptical that data submitted by Johnson & Johnson proves its anticoagulant Xarelto is effective in reducing the risk of further heart problems in patients who have recently suffered a heart attack. | true | Health News | The agency questioned the way in which J&J analyzed clinical trial data, and said there was no convincing proof the drug confers significant benefit or fills an unmet medical need, given that there are other therapies on the market. The review was posted on the FDA’s website on Tuesday, two days ahead of a meeting of o... |
10717 | Study From Duke University: Favored heart-bypass method found harmful | This was a story reporting on the result of a recently published study examining long term consequences of the method used to harvest leg veins for use in coronary bypass surgery. It contained a clinician quote that helped to provide some balance for comparing the two methods. While it may be true that the less invasiv... | mixture | There was no discussion of cost differential for the two methods of harvesting veins; further there was no discussion about how the shortened hospital stay associated with the small incision method affected the cost. The story compared the relative risks of long term problems; this does not provide readers with any sen... | |
25071 | Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump? O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! | Sure, and blame Obama for bad tomatoes, too | false | National, Energy, John McCain, | "A new television ad by Sen. John McCain's campaign seeks to exploit anger over gas prices by directing it toward his opponent. ""Gas prices: four dollars, five dollars, no end in sight,"" says the narrator in the advertisement , which the McCain campaign released July 21, 2008. ""Because some in Washington are still... |
25785 | Say Joe Biden is a pedophile. | There is no credible evidence that supports this claim. In Joe Biden’s more than 40 years of public life, we could find no news reports, formal accusations, complaints, arrests or investigations that implicate him in any sort of sex crimes involving kids. | false | Facebook Fact-checks, Facebook posts, | "It’s no secret that political candidates running for office face a barrage of personal attacks on the campaign trail — the 2020 presidential election is no different. One of the most egregious examples we have come across is illustrated by a flood of social media posts that claim Joe Biden, the former vice president a... |
37485 | "Some Americans need to log into IRS.gov to receive their stimulus payment via the IRS ""Get My Payment"" tool." | Where is My Stimulus? How to Get Your Missing IRS Coronavirus Check | true | Fact Checks, Viral Content | "In mid-April 2020, a number of social media users reported receiving a coronavirus stimulus payment to their bank accounts — but many others were dismayed the long-awaited $1,200 (or more) payment had not yet reached their bank accounts.In one post we viewed, someone reported their IRS coronavirus stimulus check had n... |
30176 | A man high on bath salts cut off his genitals and microwaved them. | None of this was true. This report — a derivative of a previous fake news story — originated solely with TVT News, a junk news site with a history of copying and republishing other fabricated stories, such as one about a strip club’s being shut down by an outbreak of diarrhea and man’s discovering that the prostitute h... | false | Junk News, tvt news | On 6 September 2018, the TVT News web site published an article about a Texas man who supposedly cut off his genitals and microwaved them while high on bath salts: A 43-year old man from Killeen, Texas is tonight in intensive care after he was seriously injured during what has been described by investigators as a ‘two... |
5690 | US judge in Washington state blocks new Trump abortion rule. | A U.S. judge in Washington state Thursday blocked new Trump administration rules that would provide additional hurdles for women seeking abortions, including by banning taxpayer-funded clinics from making abortion referrals. | true | Health, Abortion, Yakima, Washington, Bob Ferguson, U.S. News | Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima granted the preliminary injunction in cases brought by the state and abortion rights groups, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said. The new rules were due to take effect May 3. “Today’s ruling ensures that clinics across the nation can remain open and continue to provide quality,... |
3285 | SpaceX debuts new crew capsule in crucial test flight. | SpaceX closes in on human spaceflight with this weekend’s debut of a new capsule designed for astronauts. | true | AP Top News, Florida, Science, SpaceX, U.S. News | The six-day test flight will be real in every regard, beginning with a Florida liftoff Saturday and a docking the next day with the International Space Station. But the Dragon capsule won’t carry humans, rather a test dummy — named Ripley after the tough heroine in the “Alien” films — in the same white SpaceX spacesuit... |
30098 | "A man in Ireland earned the nickname ""Shawshank Husband"" after he dug a tunnel from his bedroom to a local pub over the span of 15 years." | I completely made the story up — that’s what my website does … short local fictional stories. I’ve written 1000s now since 2012 but that was by far the most successful. I just thought about it driving home from work and wrote it up on my kitchen table in about 20-30 mins in Sept 2014. Within days it took off. I think t... | false | Junk News, ireland | Internet legend has it that an Irish plumber spent 15 years digging a tunnel from his house to a local pub so that he could enjoy a drink at his leisure without his wife’s permission. This story has appeared on several web sites over the years, and despite its rather ludicrous premise it has repeatedly taken in some gu... |
5984 | Chinese leaders order probe over vaccine scandal. | Chinese leaders are scrambling to shore up public confidence and oversight of the pharmaceutical industry after a rabies vaccine maker was found faking records, the latest in a slew of public health and safety scandals that have outraged Chinese parents. | true | Li Keqiang, Rabies, Health, Xi Jinping, Changchun, Business, China, Media, Public health | Premier Li Keqiang said in a statement Sunday that Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Ltd., which is accused of fabricating production and inspection records, “violated a moral bottom line.” He pledged an immediate investigation of the company and to “resolutely crack down” on violations that endanger public safety. Pr... |
9632 | Cancer Drug Keytruda Keeps Some Patients Alive For 3 Years | Former president Jimmy Carter announced in August 2015 that he had melanoma skin cancer that spread to his liver and brain. Months later, he shocked the world again by releasing a statement teasing he was in remission. He said a bit more before a videotaped Sunday school class he led, noting an immunotherapy drug calle... | true | cancer treatments,immunotherapy,jimmy carter,Keytruda,melanoma,monoclonal antibody drugs | The video claims the cost is about $150,000 a year and is “covered by insurance.” The text story notes how pricey it is and states “Keytruda costs about $12,500 a month, or $150,000 a year.” We’re given the total study population of 655 people with advanced melanoma, and how the average patient lived 2 years. The story... |
28302 | Cellphone bluetooth sensors can detect the presence of credit card skimmers in gas pumps. | What's true: The Bluetooth sensor in a mobile phone is a potentially useful way to detect and lower the risk of exposure to some common kinds of credit card skimmers. What's false: A mobile phone's Bluetooth sensor won't detect all kinds of credit card skimmers and is prone to false negatives and false positives. | mixture | Fraud & Scams | Social media users are never slow to tip each other off to new or ongoing scams and frauds, as we have examined many times over the years, and they’re likewise keen to share novel ways to counteract those scams and frauds. In February 2019, a viral Facebook post offered readers advice on how to detect gas station credi... |
11062 | Study: One dose of radiation during breast cancer surgery is effective | This story reports on a large, randomized trial comparing conventional radiation therapy for breast cancer administered over several weeks to a one-time dose given at the time of breast conserving surgery. The study found that both treatments resulted in similar rates of breast cancer recurrence. The story does a nice ... | mixture | There was no discussion of costs, nor of the cost ramifications of the results. The story indicated that the local breast cancer recurrence rate was the same for those who received conventional, external radiation and those who received intraoperative radiation; however, no data were provided. While it was good that th... | |
28176 | Keanu Reeves overcame a series of tragic events in his life, before and after becoming a wealthy movie star. | “It’s a cliché that money doesn’t buy you happiness. But it does buy you the freedom to live your life the way you want.” — Keanu Reeves in 2008. | true | Glurge Gallery, glurge, keanu reeves | Keanu Reeves achieved superstardom as an actor in the ’80s and ’90s via iconic movie roles such as Ted in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) and Neo in the science fiction classic The Matrix (1999), but, like many people irrespective of wealth and status, endured profound hardships along the way. Unlike many peopl... |
26681 | Viral image Says you can monitor yourself for COVID-19 with a breath test. | Holding your breath for 10 seconds isn’t a way to test that you don’t have COVID-19. | false | Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Viral image, | "Coronavirus test kits may be in short supply, but advice being shared on social media — including by actress Debra Messing — wrongly claims we can check ourselves for COVID-19. ""How can one know if a person is infected?"" an image with the advice asks. ""By the time he has a fever and/or a cough and goes to the lung ... |
35874 | The abortion rate in the U.S. has declined more under Democratic administrations than Republican ones due to a difference in approach. | What's true: The abortion rate has steadily declined since the 1980s throughout both Democratic and Republican administrations, with a greater rate of decline during the former. What's false: The reasons behind differing rates of decline in the abortion rate cannot be definitively tied to actions undertaken by the admi... | mixture | Politics, 2020 election | In September 2020, social media users began circulating a text meme charting the decrease in abortion rates in the U.S. during previous presidential administrations, attributing the greater drop in those rates during Democratic administrations to a difference in approach (i.e., making it illegal vs. making it unnecessa... |
21108 | More than half of the people on food stamps today are children. | Rep. Marcia Fudge says more than half of food stamp recipients are children | true | Ohio, Federal Budget, Poverty, Marcia Fudge, | "There’s not much variety in a food stamp diet. Just ask Rep. Marcia Fudge. She began Nov. 7, 2011, dining on less than $5 a day, a self-imposed restriction to raise awareness about poverty in America. The congresswoman took what’s known as the Food Stamp Challenge. Her budget for one week’s worth of food came to $31.5... |
29440 | 30,000 scientists have signed a petition arguing that there is no convincing scientific evidence for anthropogenic climate change. | What's true: A petition that has been in circulation since 1998 claims to bear the name of more than 30,000 signatures from scientists who reject the concept of anthropogenic global warming. What's false: The petition was created by individuals and groups with political motivations, was distributed using misleading tac... | false | Politics, climate change, global warming | Over 30,000 Scientists Declare Climate Change a Hoax? A claim has been floating around since 1998 that thousands of scientists have rejected the concept of climate change, ever since since a self-described research group by the name of the “Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine” solicited signatures for a petition (... |
34857 | Union leader Jeffrey David Cox played a key role in an alleged Clinton-orchestrated conspiracy to kill Jeffrey Epstein in prison. | Cox appears to have been chosen as the focus of the conspiracy theory not due to any part in an actual conspiracy, but because of his extremely tenuous, aforementioned link to the guards in charge of Epstein’s cell (they were federal employees and he is the national president of a federal employees union) and because h... | false | Junk News | In late 2019, we received multiple inquiries about a conspiracy theory that tied Jeffrey David Cox, a union leader, to the death of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. On Nov. 22, for example, a Facebook user posted a photograph of Cox, who is president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), shakin... |
11102 | Review Sees No Advantage in 12-Step Programs | The story does a good job discussing contributing factors to alcoholism and putting the results of a recent Cochrane review in perspective. There is a lack of literature explicitly supporting Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) and demonstrating its effectiveness, yet it remains a heavily-relied-upon mode of management of alco... | true | The cost of treatment is not provided. It would be important to note that A.A. might be a preferred option for relapse prevention because it is free, meetings widely-available, and it is not time-limited, like many forms of psychotherapy. The story provides no quantification of benefit of A.A. and 12-step groups as tre... | |
10429 | Peanuts, Anyone? Researchers Expose Kids to Risky Foods In Order to Cure Them | "Nice job on a story about desensitization for milk and peanut allergies. Strengths: Included absolute risk reduction data Emphasized that the work was being done in small numbers of children, that there’s ""a long way to go,"" and that researchers ""caution that much more research is needed to prove and perfect th... | true | "The story didn’t mention any potential costs, but it did make clear that these were small, early studies. So it’s understandable that costs aren’t yet known. Nonetheless, we wish the story would just say that – and make the safe prediction that since this treatment will involve multiple visits over a protracted period... | |
9521 | Laser therapy with deep-sea drug kills prostate cancer in trial | This story is a rehash of a misleading University College London news release that reported results of a phase 3 trial of a cancer treatment called vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy (VTP), which involves injecting a light-sensitive drug into the bloodstream and then activating it with a laser to attack tumor tissu... | false | prostate cancer | The story does not discuss the potential costs of this therapy. The story states: Results of a trial in 413 patients showed that the drug, which is activated with a laser to destroy tumor tissue in the prostate, was so effective that half the patients went into remission, compared with 13.5 percent in a control group. ... |
8760 | Gene may hold key to neutralizing HIV: U.S. study. | The AIDS virus is especially hard to fight because few people develop antibodies to neutralize it, but U.S. researchers said on Thursday they have found an immunity gene that may offer a new way to fight back. | true | Science News | They said the gene Apobec3 helps mice develop antibodies against an HIV-like virus, and they think the same gene in humans could lead to a potent vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV. “This gene is central to HIV biology,” Dr. Warner Greene of the Gladstone Institutes at the University of Califor... |
9713 | Better Diets May Be Extending Americans' Lives | This news story ably describes a Harvard research team’s effort to evaluate the quality of American diets over time using a composite index of food choices that reflect adherence — or lack thereof — to diets predicted to lower the population risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. The story does a pretty good job o... | true | diabetes,heart disease,limits of observational studies,obesity,weight loss | We are content to declare this Not Applicable, but it wouldn’t have hurt to note the financial burden and potential financial savings accrued from fewer chronic diseases and deaths and bends in the rates of disease burden. A sentence or two would have strengthened the story. The major claim in the story is that better ... |
11126 | Diabetes Drug Metformin Linked to Lower Lung Cancer Rate in Mice | "It doesn’t take much to please us sometimes – but putting ""mice"" in the headline goes a long way most days. If you’re going to report this stuff, you better be up front about the level of research. And this story went on to include other caveats, including an ending quote that was an apt conclusion – ""interesting a... | true | "The story explains that ""Metformin (originally marketed as Glucophage, though it is now available as an inexpensive generic) has been in use for more than two decades and is currently prescribed to 40 million Americans."" Good enough to get a satisfactory score. Like the Reuters story, HealthDay gave only relative ri... | |
10376 | Creatine supplements may benefit women with knee osteoarthritis | There were only 13 people in the active arm of the trial. Is this really newsworthy? If so, shouldn’t it be wrapped into the context of past claims for supplements for osteoarthritis? Yet this story didn’t give any sense of the scope of the benefits found in the study. Did everyone taking creatine supplements improve i... | false | Los Angeles Times,Supplements,women's health | The story doesn’t give any estimate of the cost of creatine supplements. The story didn’t give any sense of the scope of the benefits found in the study. Did everyone taking creatine supplements improve in comparison with controls? If so, how much did they improve? The story discusses improvement in stiffness and “sign... |
9786 | Experimental treatment may help food allergies | Strong point: Weaker points: The headline, “Experimental treatment may help food allergies,” promises more than what the story delivers. | false | allergies | There wasn’t any estimate given of the cost of oral immunotherapy, nor of the drug mentioned at the end of the article that is being studied for use against food allergies. The story reported benefits in this way: The results suggested that children who went through a year of sublingual therapy followed by one to two y... |
3638 | Monkey birth a step to saving fertility of boys with cancer. | Scientists are closing in on a way to help young boys undergoing cancer treatment preserve their future fertility — and the proof is the first monkey born from the experimental technology. | true | AP Top News, Cancer, Health, Science, University of Pittsburgh, Childhood cancer, Monkeys, U.S. News | More and more people are surviving childhood cancer, but nearly 1 in 3 will be left infertile from the chemotherapy or radiation that helped save their life. When young adults are diagnosed with cancer, they can freeze sperm, eggs or embryos ahead of treatment. But children diagnosed before puberty can’t do that becaus... |
24037 | By the end of Governor Rick Perry's term, he will have drained Texas taxpayers ... of more than $360,000 to pay for the rental mansion he has been living in while the historic Governor's Mansion is repaired. | Researchers in Germany have created transparent human organs using a new technology that could pave the way to print three-dimensional body parts such as kidneys for transplants. | true | Elections, State Budget, Texas, Bill White, | Scientists led by Ali Erturk at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich have developed a technique that uses a solvent to make organs such as the brain and kidneys transparent. The organ is then scanned by lasers in a microscope that allows researchers to capture the entire structure, including the blood vessels and ev... |
6039 | Maryland continues funding for protective crop plantings. | About $5 million the state of Maryland has set aside for farmers to plant protective crops has gone wanting in recent years. | true | Environment, Chesapeake Bay, General News, Water quality, Maryland, Pollution | For the second year in a row, the state has spent less than it set aside on a program that Maryland uses in its favor when tallying efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. In 2010, under the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency set the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load — called a “pollution diet” ... |
4465 | Doctor of incapacitated woman who gave birth cedes license. | The longtime doctor of an incapacitated woman who was raped and later gave birth at a Phoenix care facility is surrendering his medical license, according to state medical board records. | true | Arizona, Phoenix, Health, General News, U.S. News, Legal proceedings | Dr. Phillip Gear agreed to a consent order to voluntarily give up his license and not contest the matter in court. “I decided to retire rather than to go through several rounds of legal proceedings, in view of my own age,” Gear, 67, said in a statement to The Arizona Republic. Gear asserted, however, that he always off... |
38111 | A former CIA said in a deathbed confession that he killed Bob Marley by infecting him with cancer. | CIA Agent Confesses to Murdering Bob Marley on Deathbed | false | Celebrities, Government | A website known for passing off fabricated reports for factual news is behind false reports that a CIA agent confessed to murdering Bob Marley. Your News Wire published the false report in question on November 30, 2017. It appears under the headline, “CIA Agent Confesses On Deathbed: ‘I Killed Bob Marley.’” Within days... |
1263 | Midwifery students use augmented technology to improve clinical skills. | Midwifery students in London are learning to bring new life into the world in a radically new way with the help of augmented reality (AR) technology. | true | Health News | Using AR headsets and lifelike models of full-term mothers, trainee midwives at Middlesex University can take part in fully simulated births, which the university’s clinical staff hope will both hone their clinical skills and leave them better prepared to face challenges rarely seen in day-to-day practice. AR technolog... |
27301 | "The animated film ""Incredibles 2"" contains scenes that prompted an epilepsy warning at movie theaters." | You can find details here and here about the specific elements in the film that have caused most concern. | true | Entertainment, epilepsy, health warnings, incredibles 2 | On 15 June 2018, Incredibles 2 — the sequel to the hugely successful 2004 animated movie Incredibles — was released to good reviews. Not long after that, the reviews were augmented by concerns in widely shared blog posts and social media warnings that certain scenes might trigger epileptic seizures. On 16 June, the non... |
37632 | "Facebook user ""Angelika Greg-Delany"" shared a stirring and authentic account of her experience living in socialist Ukraine." | Angelika Greg-Delany #WalkAway Campaign: ‘I Came From the Soviet Socialist Part of the Ukraine, I Barely Survived’ | mixture | Disinformation, Fact Checks | Late on February 6 or early February 7 2020, Facebook user “Angelika Greg-Delany” shared a purportedly true account to the group #WalkAway Campaign — purportedly first about her encounter with a Russia-bashing “Bernie Sanders supporter,” and her response about the evils of socialism during her time in Ukraine.A first f... |
14030 | On his support for Donald Trump. | Dating back to August 2015, when he himself was a candidate for president, Walker said he would support the Republican presidential nominee. And several times over the next 10 months, Walker repeated that pledge -- including as it was becoming clear that Trump would be the presumptive nominee. But on two consecutive da... | mixture | Elections, Wisconsin, Scott Walker, | "On the same day chatter surfaced about how Scott Walker could still become the Republican presidential nominee, the Wisconsin governor made comments that raised questions about his support of the party’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump. Walker’s comments on June 8, 2016 prompted headlines such as these: Politico: ""... |
7928 | "EU Green Deal ""not over"" despite coronavirus, industry commissioner says." | The European Union’s “Green Deal” plan to fully decarburize its economy by 2050 will go ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic, the bloc’s industry chief said on Wednesday, as governments shift their attention to combating the disease. | true | Environment | Some campaigners fear governments will shy away from long-term efforts to curb emissions or lift the carbon costs they impose on polluting sectors in a bid to relieve firms hit hardest by the outbreak. “The Green Deal is not over ... We should deliver and we should work on greener solutions,” Thierry Breton, the Europe... |
1996 | McDonald's grimaces at Happy Meal lawsuit. | A lawsuit seeking to stop McDonald’s Corp from offering toys with Happy Meals must be dismissed because parents can always choose not to buy the meals for their children, the hamburger giant said in a court filing late on Monday. | true | Health News | "Two McDonald's Happy Meal with toy watches fashioned after the characters Donkey and Puss in Boots from the movie ""Shrek Forever After"" are pictured in Los Angeles June 22, 2010. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni The lawsuit accuses McDonald’s of unfairly using toys to lure children into its restaurants. The plaintiff, Monet Pa... |
35122 | A vaccine meant for cattle can be used to fight COVID-19. | Ming Tan, a faculty member of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, told PolitiFact that: | false | Medical, COVID-19 | In March 2020, a rumor started to circulate on social media claiming that the world has been using a vaccine for coronavirus on cattle for years, and that the current panic about a growing COVID-19 pandemic was being overblown by the media: However, as of this writing, no vaccine currently exists for the novel coronav... |
26083 | “Six months before the COVID ‘plandemic,’ Bill Gates had negotiated a $100 billion contact tracing deal with (the) Democratic congressman sponsor of bill.” | There’s no evidence Gates worked with U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush on a $100 billion COVID-19 contact tracing bill months before the COVID-19 outbreak occurred. The bill proposed by Rush would give money not to Gates or his foundation but to organizations that provide COVID-19 testing, contact tracing or other services. | false | Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts, | "An article shared widely on Facebook claims a COVID-19 conspiracy with this headline: ""Six Months Before The Covid Plandemic, Bill Gates Had Negotiated A $100 Billion Contact Tracing Deal With Democratic Congressman Sponsor Of Bill."" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformati... |
27755 | Baby drop off boxes have been installed in Indiana firehouses for parents to anonymously and legally surrender newborns. | Indiana’s baby drop off boxes are real. The apparatuses are part of long-running efforts to curb baby abandonment deaths as part of what are known as “safe-haven laws.” And while the programs were adopted as early as 1999 in some states, the number of questions we’ve received about baby drop off boxes indicates how lit... | true | Politics Legal, baby drop off box, baby moses laws, fire stations | On 2 May 2016, a news article about the installation of several baby drop off boxes at Indiana firehouses began circulating on Facebook: The Associated Press reported that all 50 states (including Indiana) long ago since adopted some form of “safe-haven” laws, which allow parents to legally and anonymously surrender an... |
36979 | Dr. Ben Carson has had his medical license revoked in all 50 states after making “brainless comments” on the campaign trail in his pursuit of the GOP presidential nomination. | Dr. Ben Carson Loses Medical License Because of “Brainless Comments” | false | Humorous, Politics | False reports that Dr. Ben Carson had lost his medical license because of comments that he made on the campaign trail have been fueled by a satirical story published by the Huffington Post. The story appeared under the headline, “Ben Carson Loses Brain Surgeon License After Making Numerous Brainless Comments,” had been... |
6066 | DC psychiatric hospital to go another week without water. | Officials say a public psychiatric hospital in the nation’s capital may go another week without drinking water. | true | Health, General News, Legionnaires disease | The district’s deputy mayor for health and human services, Wayne Turnage, tells The Washington Post that St. Elizabeths Hospital’s water service may not be restored until late next week. Repairs were expected to finish this Friday. The bacteria that can cause Legionnaires’ disease was found in the system during a routi... |
11099 | Video games improve brain connections in multiple sclerosis patients | This release describes a comparative study in a very small number of patients with MS who either used a video game program or not. The research study reports that the control group received no comparative treatment during the 8-week study period. The study reports changes in brain imaging and test scores that suggest b... | mixture | Association/Society news release,Multiple Sclerosis | The release makes no mention of the cost of this video game/training program although that would be a key immediate question in the minds of both MS patients and their families. Moreover, this cost may not be covered by health insurance whereas other forms of cognitive training, for example performed by occupational th... |
1090 | Brazil's Bolsonaro shocked by high number of penis amputations. | Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday expressed horror over the 1,000 penis amputations that occur each year in the country including those due to a lack of basic hygiene, a figure he called “ridiculous and sad.” | true | Health News | Speaking with reporters in Brasilia after visiting the Education Ministry, the former army captain despaired at the number and said his government must work with vulnerable men to make them more aware of the dangers of unhygienic behavior. “In Brazil, we have 1,000 penis amputations a year due to a lack of water and so... |
2676 | Ancient brew may reduce gut damage after chemotherapy. | An ancient Chinese brew may help reduce the intestinal damage caused by chemotherapy given to colon and rectal cancer patients, researchers said on Thursday. | true | Health News | To meet growing consumer demands, researchers in the field of traditional medicine are trying to prove the efficacy of ancient drugs using Western-style animal tests and human clinical trials. In a paper published in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers said they fed cancerous mice the Chinese brew after the... |
21476 | (U.S. Reps.) Paul Ryan, Sean Duffy and Reid Ribble are … shutting down town hall meetings, or making their constituents pay to attend them. | Wisconsin Democratic Party says Republican Representatives Paul Ryan, Sean Duffy and Reid Ribble are making people pay for access to them | false | Medicare, Wisconsin, Democratic Party of Wisconsin, | "For members of Congress, the ""town hall"" meeting with constituents has taken on a new dynamic. The once-routine chats with the folks back home have, at times, become highly charged sessions with large crowds. They’ve become a barometer of sorts of public sentiment -- or the ability of opponents to organize. Democrat... |
9638 | What Teen Girls Should Eat to Reduce Breast Cancer Risk | This story focuses primarily on a May 11 paper published in the BMJ, which reported that eating more fruit (particularly during adolescence) was associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer for women. A healthy diet and breast cancer risk reduction are worthy topics, but the story doesn’t touch on some important p... | mixture | breast cancer,fruit and breast cancer risk,limits of observational studies,nutrition | Cost was not discussed, and because this is about fruit, we’ll rate this N/A. However, it is worth pointing out that fresh fruit isn’t something that all consumers can take for granted, since it can be expensive and hard to find in areas known as “food deserts.” The story tells readers that women “who reported eating n... |
10599 | Marrow cells don’t seem to help heart | This is a well-written and accurate story about an experimental study to give the drug Neupogen to heart attack patients to cause bone marrow stem cells to rush into the bloodstream in an attempt to regenerate the heart. The story makes clear that the experiment showed no positive effect. Context is provided so that re... | true | The treatment isn’t available to the general population specifically for this use, so it seems fine that the cost of the drug isn’t noted. No estimate was provided, but differences in outcomes were not significant. It seems appropriate to not quantify these results. The story cites several researchers saying the experi... | |
33260 | Human trafficking rings are using job interviews to lure college students. | Although a single account involving human trafficking was reported in Humble, Texas, in 2013, that incident appeared to have involved migrant workers and not college kids recruited for sales jobs. | false | Crime, human trafficking | Warnings about a new ambient threat targeting unwitting victims in day-to-day settings emerged in June 2015, one popular version of which was published to Twitter by the account @TweetLikeAGirl. This warning held that summer job interview ads for receptionists were actually a front for a human trafficking abduction sch... |
7976 | British PM Johnson has coronavirus, self-isolates in Downing Street. | British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for the coronavirus and is self-isolating at his Downing Street residence but said he would still lead the government’s response to the accelerating outbreak. | true | Health News | Johnson, 55, experienced mild symptoms on Thursday, a day after he answered questions at a weekly question-and-answer session in parliament’s House of Commons chamber. He received the positive test result at around midnight. “I’ve taken a test. That has come out positive,” Johnson said on Friday in a video statement br... |
37317 | Reports have swept the Web that two Ebola victims in Liberia awoke from the dead as flesh-eating Ebola zombies and that FEMA is preparing for the Ebola zombie apocalypse. Rampant reports have also alleged that FEMA is quietly setting up Ebola quarantine camps across the U.S. | FEMA Prepares for Ebola Zombie Apocalypse – Fiction! | false | Military, Politics | The Ebola pandemic in West Africa has quickly grown into a global crisis, but an Ebola zombie apocalypse is not imminent. Internet users in China coined the term “zombie disease” in August 2014, and rumors spread about the virus’ ability to reanimate its victims as flesh-eating zombies. But China’s state-run Zinhua N... |
6980 | Pirates put Nova on DL with sprained finger, recall Kingham. | The Pittsburgh Pirates have placed starting pitcher Ivan Nova on the 10-day disabled list with a sprained ring finger on his right hand. | true | Baseball, Sports medicine, Nick Kingham, MLB baseball, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Pirates, Sports | Nova has struggled in May following a solid start. He is 0-4 with a 7.61 ERA this month. The Pirates diagnosed the injury after Nova gave up five runs, four earned, in a loss to Cincinnati last Thursday. Director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk says he expects 10 days being enough time for Nova to recover. The Pirates ... |
3708 | Symposium on opioid crisis set this week in West Virginia. | West Virginia University’s School of Public Health is working with partners across the state on a symposium on the opioid epidemic. | true | Epidemics, General News, West Virginia, Public health, Opioids | Assistant Professor Lindsay Allen says the rate of drug overdose deaths involving opioids doubled between 2010 and 2017. Allen says extra effort is needed to find ways to address the problem. The symposium on Tuesday and Wednesday is planned to bring together policy administrators, state legislators and researchers. Th... |
28392 | In September 2018, Pope Francis said, in effect, that exposing pedophile priests is Satan's work. | "What's true: In September 2018, Pope Francis said in a homily that ""the Great Accuser"" (a Biblical name for Satan) was working to ""attack bishops"" and ""uncover their sins"" so as to ""scandalize the people."" Francis delivered the homily at a time when the Vatican hierarchy (including he himself) is facing multip... | mixture | Politics, pope francis, your news wire | In September 2018, Your News Wire — a website known for distorting and sensationalizing news stories, as well as publishing conspiracy theories — claimed that Pope Francis had described efforts to uncover child sexual abuse within the Catholic church as “Satan’s work.” Under the headline “Pope Francis: Exposing Pedophi... |
23228 | "Said state insurance commissioner candidate Ralph Hudgens ""fights hard"" to strip women of life-saving coverage such as mammograms." | Candidate for insurance commissioner says rival fought against mammogram coverage | mixture | Georgia, Health Care, Women, Mary Squires, | "If you believe Democrats, state Sen. Ralph Hudgens, the Republican candidate for insurance commissioner, is trying to get between women and their mammograms. Hudgens' opposition, former state Sen. Mary Squires, lobbed this attack in news releases and statements to the media commemorating the beginning of National Brea... |
39073 | This email says that air conditioners in 1985 to 1998 cars are dangerously toxic and are spewing a gas that is the leading cause of Alzheimer’s disease and lung cancer. | Dangerous gas in car air conditioners is causing lung cancer and Alzheimer's disease | false | Household, Medical, Warnings | This story is filled with fiction and inaccuracies from top to bottom. The writer claims to be a researcher for “The American Motor Vehicle Safety Organization.” TruthOrFiction.com cannot find any such group. It claims that all air conditioners for all cars were ordered from a corporation called Akson Technologies Ini... |
9267 | Vaping may lead to fewer respiratory infections for ex-smokers | This news release describes results of an online survey showing that most smokers who switched to e-cigarettes, or vaping, for at least two months reported a drop in respiratory infections. The news release cautions readers about limitations of the survey, which was published in the Journal of Addiction Research & Ther... | mixture | e-cigarettes,Queen Mary University of London,vaping | Vaping is a lot cheaper than smoking, but it still isn’t cheap, running into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year. The cost of vaping isn’t mentioned. Nor is the cost of other smoking cessation methods. The health costs of e-cigarettes are still unknown. The news release says of 941 respondents, 66 percen... |
10940 | Out cold: Some cardiac arrest patients revived after cooling procedure | This is a story about hypothermia treatment following resuscitation from cardiac arrest. But the story neglects to clearly define the specific condition in which the treatment might be valuable, whether sudden cardiac arrest of myocardial infarction, which are different entities with different causes, outcomes, and inc... | false | "The story does not include any information about the expense of this treatment; it also does not indicate whether hospitals need to purchase special equipment in order to provide this treatment. The story estimates that this treatment could save ""tens of thousands"" of lives, though this estimate is several orders of... | |
2925 | Gilead says head of commercial operations to retire. | Gilead Sciences Inc said on Monday that its head of commercial operations for the past decade, Kevin Young, who oversaw tremendous sales growth at the U.S. biotechnology company, will retire next month. | true | Health News | Young, who plans to step down on February 4, has held the top commercial post for the world’s leading maker of HIV/AIDS medicines since 2004. During his tenure Gilead’s annual sales grew from $1.24 billion in 2004 to about $11 billion in 2013. “Over the past nine years, he has greatly expanded and strengthened our comm... |
25976 | “New Zealand let health experts” rather than politicians make decisions about how to deal with COVID-19, “and as of today they have zero COVID cases.” | New Zealand has no current cases among people in the country. There were 22 cases as of the date of the Facebook post — all from people who tested positive upon entering the country. Health experts get some credit for New Zealand’s success, but the prime minister, following the advice of scientists, has been widely pra... | true | Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts, | "Do the Kiwis have something exceptional to show the world on how to fight COVID-19? A Facebook account called ""God"" with more than 3.94 million followers shared an image of a tweet that made this claim: ""today i learned that new zealand let health experts make the decisions about how to deal w the pandemic rather t... |
36212 | 10,874 people killed by drunk drivers in 2017, and 403 by rifles. Walmart stops selling rifles. Still sells alcohol... | ‘10,874 People Killed by Drunk Drivers in 2017, 403 by Rifles but Walmart Stops Selling Rifles’ Meme | mixture | Fact Checks, Viral Content | On September 3 2019, the Facebook page “Life’s Short Live Free” shared the following meme commentary (archived here), discussing Walmart discontinuing the sale of some firearms:Black text against a purple background contrasted purported statistics for the total number of deaths by drunk driving with the number of Ameri... |
27766 | A white strawberry that tastes like pineapple is available in certain markets. | Pineberries’ growing season is about five weeks long, which further limits their commercial viability. However, if you feel a real need for a pineberry but aren’t anywhere near a market that carries them, you can order them online or grow your own. | true | Uncategorized, not a hoax, strawberries, waitrose | Stories about “pineberries” seem to circulate periodically every year, along with a photo of white strawberries with red seeds and claims that they don’t taste like strawberries, but like pineapples: These Little Guys May Look Like Strawberries — But They Taste Like Something Else Entirely : https://t.co/oriCjAwVIy — C... |
34701 | Account by Kitty Werthmann describes the German takeover of Austria. | “After America , There is No Place to Go” | unproven | History, ASP Article | Example: [Collected via e-mail, December 2012] America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don’t Let Freedom Slip AwayBy: Kitty Werthmann What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or will ever read in history books. I believe that I am an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you tha... |
7014 | First lady to take part in ‘town hall’ on opioids. | Liberty University has announced that first lady Melania Trump will participate in a “town hall” discussion at Liberty University next week about the opioid epidemic. | true | Kirstjen Nielsen, Eric Bolling, Epidemics, Entertainment, Politics, North America, Health, Demi Lovato | Also participating in the Nov. 28 event will be Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Dianna Hart, whose daughter Demi Lovato was hospitalized over the summer after a reported drug overdose. The discussion also will include former Fox News host Eric Bolling, who... |
26318 | Chris Murphy Says President Donald Trump implemented “a travel ban that just didn't work, 400,000 people got in from those countries that were subject to the restrictions.” | The number of people that flew directly in from China after Trump’s travel restrictions went into effect was reported in April to be around 40,000, not 400,000. Those travelers were American citizens and other authorized travelers who were exempted from the restrictions. That number is now higher, according to new U.S.... | false | Immigration, China, Public Health, Coronavirus, Chris Murphy, | "President Donald Trump often credits restrictions he imposed on travel from China with saving American lives. But Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said the ""ban"" didn’t stop everyone. ""We have had just an absolute abysmal failure of leadership from the White House since the very beginning,"" Murphy told MSNBC’s Nicolle ... |
34659 | "A ""female physician in Munich"" penned an alarming warning letter about refugees." | Variations: The name of Dr. Barbara Sziraki has since become attached to this message, but she appears to be a Los Angeles psychologist who simply forwarded the letter via e-mail and not a Czech physician working in Germany. | unproven | Politics Immigration, Dr. Barbara Sziraki, syrian refugees | On 8 October 2015, the web site The Right Scoop published the above-reproduced missive as an article headlined “MUST WATCH: Whistleblower Doctor Explains HORRIFIC Reality Dealing with Muslim Invaders in Germany” — not long afterwards, verbatim versions of the same commentary began circulating in an e-mail frequently ti... |
10846 | Want a Better Memory? Try Eating a Mediterranean Diet | A review of a small number of studies examining impacts of the Mediterranean Diet finds that the diet is associated with both cognitive improvements and slower cognitive decline. The study is laudable in that it seeks to capture a bit of the “big picture” by examining the results of many studies, and focusing on 18 stu... | false | Journal news release | Although the text clearly identifies the components of the Mediterranean diet, it does not attempt to “cost” them out for the typical American. The costs of adhering to a Mediterranean diet could be prohibitive, especially for older adults living on fixed incomes. While it would be some work to estimate the annual cost... |
7100 | $40M mental health hospital planned for suburban Detroit. | Beaumont Health and Universal Health Services are planning a new $40 million mental health hospital in suburban Detroit that’s designed to improve care in Michigan. | true | Mental health, Health, Michigan, Detroit, Joint ventures | The project was announced Monday as part of a joint venture between the health care system and Pennsylvania-based Universal Health Services that will double Beaumont’s current capacity for inpatient mental health care. Plans also include enhanced and expanded day programs and outpatient care. Universal Health Services ... |
33040 | A photograph shows Bernie Sanders at a 1965 civil rights march with Martin Luther King, Jr. | A photograph doesn't show Bernie Sanders marching from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 with Martin Luther King, Jr. | false | Politics Politicians, bernie sanders, martin luther king | On 20 January 2016, the web site Democratic Underground posted a photograph purportedly showing Bernie Sanders participating in a 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery (Alabama) with Martin Luther King, Jr. The web site identified the man standing “behind Coretta King, just right of Old Glory in the glasses,... |
11152 | Study: Crestor Not As Effective As Hoped | This news story reports on research that was presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology and published simultaneously in the Journal of the American Medical Association (http://jama.ama-assn.org). It might have served its readers better if it provided a little more analysis on this important t... | mixture | The article fails to mention the cost of treatment with Crestor, either for its approved indication (lowering LDL cholesterol) or for its unapproved use at high doses to reduce carotid artery wall thickness in patients at low risk of heart attack or stroke. The story also did not describe the cost of screening a low-ri... | |
1831 | Study paves way for simple blood test to predict Alzheimer's. | British scientists have identified a set of 10 proteins in the blood that can predict the onset of Alzheimer’s and call this an important step towards developing a test for the incurable brain-wasting disease. | true | Science News | Such a test could initially be used to select patients for clinical trials of experimental treatments being developed to try to halt progression of Alzheimer’s, the researchers said, and may one day move into routine use in doctors’ clinics. “Alzheimer’s begins to affect the brain many years before patients are diagnos... |
9971 | Low-Dose Omega-3 Fatty Acids Don’t Protect Heart Patients | "We were frankly a bit surprised at the number of stories on this study – this one even being filed well before the paper was even presented at the Curopean Society of Cardiology Congress in Stockholm. Was it that earth-shattering? However, at least this story did seek independent perspectives as part of their story – ... | true | "Not applicable. The margarines used in the study are not commercially available, so we can understand why cost of these formulations wasn’t given (even if the story didn’t disclose that the these were special non-commercially-available products). It would have been interesting to learn how the costs of omega-3 fatty a... | |
13659 | Because there's no local option to allow communities to ban, limit or restrict the location of pot shops, if Amendment 2 passes you can expect the seedy elements of the pot industry to move in right next door to your neighborhood, your church, your business and even your child's school. | "Vote No On 2 said, ""Because there's no local option to allow communities to ban, limit or restrict the location of pot shops, if Amendment 2 passes you can expect the seedy elements of the pot industry to move in right next door to your neighborhood, your church, your business and even your child's school."" While th... | false | Government Regulation, Public Health, Florida, Marijuana, Vote No On 2, | "Local governments will be powerless to prevent medical marijuana dispensaries from sprouting up anywhere and everywhere should Amendment 2 pass this fall, opponents of the measure say. A pamphlet from Vote No On 2 mailed to voters in July warns that the constitutional amendment prevents any kinds of restrictions on th... |
37636 | "Screenshot of the ""pro-life wife"" is a ""real-life post by an anti-abortion activist,"" complaining about the inconvenience of caring for a baby she cannot afford and for which she did not plan." | ‘This is a Real-Life Post by an Anti-Abortion Activist, You Can’t Make This S*** Up’ | true | Fact Checks, Viral Content | On February 3 2020, Twitter user @HayleeFarless shared the following purported screenshot of a woman named Jamie Jeffries to a closed Facebook group called, “Are You Even Pro-Life?” with a comment claiming that it was “a real-life post by an anti-abortion activist,” and adding that “you can’t make this shit up”:This is... |
2473 | Pet pig Nemo's lymphoma treatment makes research history. | When George Goldner went to feed his six pet pigs earlier this year, his 730-pound (331-kg) companion Nemo was acting strangely. Nemo had suddenly stopped eating and laid in the mud. | true | Health News | So Goldner loaded Nemo into a trailer and drove more than two hours to Cornell University Hospital for Animals (CUHA) in Ithaca, New York. There he learned his four-year-old Hampshire pig had what doctors believed was the blood cancer B-cell lymphoma. The hospital’s researchers told Goldner they had never seen a pig tr... |
37031 | An email that tells the story of the Women’s Suffrage Movement that fought for the right for women to vote and the Home Box Office movie called “Iron Jawed Angels” that aired on television. It tells of the “Night of Terror” in 1917 when women were arrested for protesting at the White House, beaten and tortured and sa... | "Why Women Should Vote and The ""Iron Jawed Angels"" " | true | Miscellaneous, Politics | This email covers only part of the story. Women’s rights had been an issue throughout the early history of the United States along with the abolition of slavery. There is a complete timeline posted on the Library of Congress web site in a section dedicated to The National American Woman’s Suffrage Association collectio... |
2379 | Fitness websites aim to stream togetherness as well as workouts. | Fitness websites are proliferating, offering a wide range of workout options from group classes to virtual personal training, and experts call the online venues especially inviting for the young, the time-pressed and the gym-averse. | true | Health News | And despite the lack of hands-on contact, the most popular sites manage to maintain the human touch, even if it is faceless and far away. “I do think online fitness formats that have social community are successful,” said exercise physiologist Jessica Matthews. “We know that social support is a long-term adherent to so... |
6318 | To boost workforce, medical schools try to sell rural life. | On a field trip to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, Ashish Bibireddy put on headphones and scrolled through a jukebox of music from an influential 1927 recording session. | true | Health, General News, AP Top News, Medical schools, Tennessee, Bristol, U.S. News | Bibireddy and nine other medical students had already been biking and rafting on their visit to rural Appalachia organized by a nearby medical college. But it wasn’t just casual sightseeing; the tour was part of a concerted effort to attract a new generation of doctors to rural areas struggling with health care shortag... |
28760 | Canada has legalized heroin for general use. | What's true: Canada has enacted new regulations enabling doctors to prescribe heroin to opioid addicts due to an ongoing drug crisis. What's false: Canada has not legalized heroin for general or recreational use. | mixture | Medical, addiction, canada, decriminalization | In September 2016 a number of social media posts left readers with the impression that Canada had quietly legalized the general use of heroin, a seemingly shocking claim given the substance’s reputation as one of the hardest and most lethal street drugs. There was some truth behind the rumor, but the refrain that “Cana... |
7397 | Gene tests can provide health clues -- and needless worry. | Last year, Katie Burns got a phone call that shows what can happen in medicine when information runs ahead of knowledge. | true | AP Top News, Health, Genetic Frontiers, North America, Science, U.S. News | Burns learned that a genetic test of her fetus had turned up an abnormality. It appeared in a gene that, when it fails to work properly, causes heart defects, mental disability and other problems. But nobody knew whether the specific abnormality detected by the test would cause trouble. “I was pretty distraught,” says ... |
11247 | Type 2 Diabetes Treatment Victoza Helps Type 1, Too | This story reports on a small case series showing that a drug intended for type 2 diabetes (which typically affects adults and doesn’t require insulin injections) seems to benefit individuals with the type 1 form of the disease (which usually presents in childhood and requires insulin replacement therapy). The findings... | mixture | WebMD | The story does not discuss costs. Adding Victoza to a diabetic’s treatment regimen would cost an additional $350 per month, according to coverage of the study by MedPageToday. This is not a trivial sum. The story attached numbers to some of the benefits reported on. We learn that patients taking the drug had less need ... |
35507 | Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York recently received a little-publicized $71,000 pay raise that made him the highest paid governor in the U.S. | What's true: Cuomo of New York is scheduled to receive an aggregate $71,000 pay raise that would currently make him the highest-paid governor in the U.S. What's false: Cuomo was only one of several high-level state officials who received pay increases phased in over three years, which would put them well over $200K in... | mixture | Politics | During the coronavirus pandemic of spring 2020, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York remained at the top of the news cycle for two reasons: His state saw by far the largest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, and his daily press briefings were a staple of television news coverage of the crisis. The New York governor was also... |
27749 | An image shows the inside of a leatherback turtle's mouth. | Additional photographs showing the insides of a leatherback sea turtles mouth have been taken by several other scientific organizations: | true | Fauxtography, animals, leatherback sea turtle | A photograph purportedly showing the insides of a leatherback turtle’s mouth that is frequently shared online is often viewed with a heavy dose of skepticism due to its gruesome and alien-like appearance: However, the image is indeed real. The esophagus of a leatherback sea turtle is lined with papillae, sharp, kerati... |
3399 | 3 years in, no sign of Trump’s replacement for Obamacare. | As a candidate for the White House, Donald Trump repeatedly promised that he would “immediately” replace President Barack Obama’s health care law with a plan of his own that would provide “insurance for everybody.” | true | AP Top News, Health, General News, Politics, Election 2020, Donald Trump, Barack Obama | Back then, Trump made it sound that his plan — “much less expensive and much better” than the Affordable Care Act — was imminent. And he put drug companies on notice that their pricing power no longer would be “politically protected.” Nearly three years after taking office, Americans still are waiting for Trump’s big h... |
17388 | "The ""U.S. has the highest unintended pregnancy rate of any Western industrialized country." | "Richards said the U.S. ""has the highest unintended pregnancy rate of any Western industrialized country."" She did not offer nor did we find a breakdown of unintended pregnancy rates for individual Western industrialized nations, evidently because none exist. This gap leaves us with the Guttmacher institute’s conclus... | true | Abortion, Sexuality, Texas, Cecile Richards, | "Asked about differences among Americans on abortion rights, Cecile Richards suggested this country leads in a dubious way. Texas Monthly editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein asked Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America whose mother, Ann, served as governor of Texas: ""It’s often said that ... |
35912 | Joe Biden 'botched' his recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance during a September 2020 campaign speech. | Other states with a high number of deaths include Texas, a red state, and Florida, a battleground … [R]ed states and battlegrounds, such as Louisiana, Mississippi, Arizona and Michigan were also in the top ten. | false | Politics, 2020 election | "On Sept. 21, 2020, a short video clip of U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was circulated via Twitter, with claims that depicted the candidate as he “completely botches the Pledge of Allegiance.” In this clip, Biden can be heard saying, “I pledge allegiance to the United States of America, one nation, ind... |
37706 | The senior class at Etowah High School in Georgia was photographed together without wearing face coverings in August 2020. | Was a Georgia High School’s Senior Class Photographed Together Without Masks? | true | Fact Checks, Viral Content | Online criticism concerning safety measures in schools trying to reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic circulated around a second Georgia school in August 2020 as a photo spread online showing an entire senior class gathered together without face coverings.Etowah High School gained attention after the Twitter account “Ever... |
4922 | Utah moves to scrap state-run pot dispensary system. | Utah legislators were moving Thursday to scrap a planned state-run medical marijuana dispensary system after county attorneys said it would put public employees at risk of being prosecuted under federal drug laws. | true | Medical marijuana, Health, General News, Utah, Marijuana | Under the revised plan being written by Republican Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, medical cannabis would instead be distributed through as many as 12 private dispensaries. The changes to Utah’s medical marijuana law would have to be approved in a special session. Some cannabis advocates applauded the proposed cha... |
8656 | Italy's coronavirus deaths could be underestimated in data: official. | The number of deaths from coronavirus in Italy could be underestimated in the official figures, the head of national health institute ISS said on Tuesday. | true | Health News | “It is plausible that deaths are underestimated. We report deaths that are signaled with a positive swab. Many other deaths are not tested with a swab,” Silvio Brusaferro told reporters. He confirmed that official coronavirus data did not include deaths of people who died at home, in nursing homes and all those who may... |
9367 | Deep brain stimulation may offer treatment for type 2 diabetes, study suggests | This Los Angeles Times story reports on a study with some tantalizing new information about connections between the brain and the body’s metabolism. The research is novel, very preliminary, and more about introducing a new avenue of study for researchers rather than a new therapy for people with type 2 diabetes. The st... | true | deep brain stimulation,diabetes | Even though deep brain stimulation (DBS) is not close to being recommended for diabetes, it is a current therapy for Parkinson’s disease and other movement and psychiatric disorders. Thus, cost information could have been included — we found estimates ranging from $35,000 – $50,000. Of course, the costs associated with... |
32687 | Files released by the FBI prove that Adolf Hitler escaped Germany for Argentina. | Although there is nothing to be found in the AnonHQ article or the FBI files that comes close to contradicting the standard understanding that Hitler died by his own hand in his Berlin bunker in the closing days of World War II, these documents do highlight the fact that the types of people who forward patently fake e-... | false | History, adolf hitler, anonhq, yournewswire | In May 2016, a web site called AnonHQ published a shocking story about Adolf Hitler: apparently the FBI had finally admitted, at long last, that the Nazi leader had not only fled to South America at the end of World War II, but that he had lived out his last years there in peace before finally dying of old age: The FBI... |
33925 | A psychiatrist said U.S. President Donald Trump may be responsible for millions more deaths than Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. | Frances, who is author of the book “Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump,” was otherwise critical of what he called “medicalizing politics” and said attributing Trump’s erratic behavior to mental illness stigmatizes the mentally ill and fails to adequately address his policies. | true | Politics | A statement by a psychiatrist made on the CNN program “Reliable Sources” comparing the deadliness of policies enacted by U.S. President Donald Trump with murderous authoritarian regimes of the 20th century grabbed headlines in late August 2019. But the expert in question, Dr. Allen Frances, said he was referring to the... |
1987 | Scientists find genetic link to depression. | Scientists say they have discovered the first solid evidence that variations in some peoples’ genes may cause depression — one of the world’s most common and costly mental illnesses. | true | Science News | And in a rare occurrence in genetic research, a British-led international team’s finding of a DNA region linked to depression has been replicated by another team from the United States who were studying an entirely separate group of people. “What’s remarkable is that both groups found exactly the same region in two sep... |
3629 | Health officials: Rabid bat found outside Illinois home. | Health officials say a rabid bat has been found outside a home in Woodstock in northeastern Illinois. | true | Rabies, Health, General News, Illinois, Crystal Lake, Bats | The (Crystal Lake) Northwest Herald reports Friday that several dogs playing with the bat may have been exposed to the disease. The McHenry County health department says the dogs were up to date on rabies vaccinations and were being monitored. No human exposure has been reported. The Illinois Department of Public Healt... |
20571 | "Chain email Says Gov. Scott Walker is ""openly"" backing a move to abolish the state retirement system and convert it to a 401(k)-style plan that will reduce pensions ""by at least a third"" for current and retired public employees" | Chain email says Gov. Scott Walker supports a move to abolish the state retirement system and reduce pensions | false | Pensions, State Budget, Wisconsin, Chain email, | "Wisconsin public employees, already feeling bruised from past battles, now fear Gov. Scott Walker is planning to strip away their guaranteed pension benefits. A chain email that has rapidly been making the rounds among Democrats and public employees claims Walker is ""openly"" backing a move to abolish the Wisconsin R... |
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