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1634 | Neurologist, author Oliver Sacks dies at age 82 . | Oliver Sacks, the neurologist who studied the intricacies of the brain and wrote eloquently about them in books such as “Awakenings” and “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” died on Sunday at the age of 82, his personal assistant said. | true | Health News | The British-born Sacks, who announced in February that he had terminal liver cancer, died at his home in New York City at 1:30 a.m. with his partner, the writer Billy Hayes, and his personal assistant, Kate Edgar, at his side, Edgar told Reuters. “He definitely wrote to the very end,” said Edgar, noting Sacks in his fi... |
10324 | Sluggish? Confused? Vitamin B12 May Be Low | This column provided a string of narratives from people with wellness issues who report personal benefit from supplementation with vitamin B12. In so doing, the story made vitamin B12 appear to be the solution to many of life’s ills without thoughtfully examining alternative sources for the problems listed, the quality... | false | Wall Street Journal | The costs of vitamin B12 supplements were not discussed and whether they are often covered by insurance was not explored. This article presented no data whatsoever. In terms of descriptive information about benefits, it had, on the one hand, the expert, Irwin Rosenberg indicating that if individuals are not vitamin B1... |
805 | Measles-stricken New Zealand girl visited Disneyland, other California destinations. | A teenage girl from New Zealand sick with measles visited Disneyland and other popular tourist stops across Southern California earlier this month, possibly infecting others, local government health officials warned. | true | Health News | The alert comes amid the worst outbreak of measles in the United States in a quarter century, with more than 1,200 cases reported across 30 states since October 2018, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is looking to identify others who a... |
1361 | UK report plans boost for life sciences as Brexit looms. | The British government has rekindled its industrial strategy, unveiled earlier this year to prepare the economy for Brexit, with plans to boost the country’s pharmaceuticals sector via fresh investments and public-private collaborations. | true | Health News | A government-commissioned sector report by immunologist and geneticist John Bell called on Wednesday for more funding of basic science, new incentives for manufacturing, and increased cooperation between drugmakers and the National Health Service (NHS). Bell also advocates creating a Health Advanced Research Programme ... |
7615 | N.H. to receive $28M in federal funding for opioid crisis. | New Hampshire will over just $28 million in federal funds to support the substance abuse crisis, according to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan. | true | New Hampshire, Opioids, Health, General News, Maggie Hassan, Jeanne Shaheen | The senators announced Friday that the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will provide State Opioid Response grants to New Hampshire in 2020, WMUR-TV reported. A new provision authored by Shaheen will allow the funds to be applied to treat patients with meth and cocaine dependency. According... |
3796 | Group with consumer-friendly vibe pushes drugmakers’ message. | As ominous music plays in the background, the narrator of a radio ad warns that a Trump administration proposal to apply international pricing to certain Medicare drugs would be a nightmare for seniors. | true | AP Top News, Politics, North America, Prescription drug costs, Business, Medicare, Prescription drugs, Donald Trump | The one-minute spot is the handiwork of the Alliance for Patient Access, a nonprofit group that gives off a consumer-friendly vibe but is bankrolled by the powerful pharmaceutical industry. It’s also closely aligned with a Washington lobbying and public relations firm, Woodberry Associates, whose president, Brian Kenne... |
3084 | Spending deal would end two-decade freeze on gun research. | A bipartisan deal on a government spending bill would for the first time in two decades provide money for federal research on gun safety. A law adopted in the 1990′s has effectively blocked such research and prohibits federal agencies from engaging in advocacy on gun-related issues. | true | Health, General News, Violence, Politics, Donald Trump, Gun politics, Gun violence, Bills, Government spending | The spending bill, set for a House vote as soon as Tuesday, would provide $25 million for gun violence research, divided evenly between the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If approved by the House and Senate and signed by President Donald Trump, the proposed funding wou... |
9730 | Combination Drug May Ease the Agitation of Alzheimer’s | This short piece in the Well blog describes positive results of a 10-week randomized clinical trial, published in JAMA last week, testing a currently marketed combination of the drugs dextromethorphan and quinidine against placebo for the treatment of agitation and aggression in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. While... | mixture | drug costs,harms,Well blog | Cost is always an important factor that should be considered in a story about a potential new use for an existing prescription drug. This is a glaring drawback of this piece, since the drug, Nuedextra, is already marketed and currently approved for “pseudo-bulbar affect” — an unrelated neuralgic condition. (Pseudo-bul... |
16975 | "From 2000 to 2008, we averaged ""about five mass shootings a year. We're now averaging 15. So that's a three-fold increase." | Thomas said that mass shootings have tripled since the 2000 to 2008 period and the country now sees about 15 episodes a year. The study that matches those figures looked at a different form of violence and included instances where no one was murdered. The study’s author told us that mass murders, as defined by the FBI,... | false | Crime, PunditFact, Guns, Pierre Thomas, | "The brutal murders May 23, 2014, near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, dominated the national news and provoked a lot of talk about what could have been done to save the lives of six young college-aged victims. The public quickly learned the basics. The killer had a history of mental illness.... |
16135 | The U.S. Constitution owes its notion of democracy to the Iroquois Tribes. | "The Facebook meme said ""the U.S. Constitution owes its notion of democracy to the Iroquois Tribes."" There’s a grain of truth here: The Iroquois system of government was known to 18th century leaders in the colonies and the new republic, and it shared some similarities with post-revolutionary attempts at governance. ... | false | National, History, Race and Ethnicity, Facebook posts, | "Shortly before Thanksgiving, a reader sent us a social media meme of the type that sends you scrambling back to your high school history textbook wondering, ""Did my teacher mention this?"" The meme features the following claim: ""The U.S. Constitution owes its notion of democracy to the Iroquois Tribes, including fre... |
4049 | US officials report a record number of tick diseases. | U.S. health officials say a record number of tick-borne diseases were reported last year. | true | Health, Ticks | The 2017 tally of more than 59,000 cases is a 22 percent increase from the previous year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the numbers Wednesday. Lyme disease accounted for nearly three-quarters of the illnesses. That’s about 43,000 cases. Traditionally about 30,000 cases of Lyme disease were rep... |
8567 | India considers narrowing lockdown to coronavirus hotspots. | India is considering plans to seal off coronavirus hotspots in Delhi, Mumbai and parts of the south while easing restrictions elsewhere as a way out of a three-week lockdown that has caused deep economic distress, officials said on Wednesday. | true | Health News | The sweeping clampdown in the country of 1.3 billion people to prevent an epidemic of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, ends on April 14 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to decide this week whether to extend it. He told a conference of political leaders on Wednesday that several state government... |
26058 | Google and Apple “put a covid tracker on every phone.” | Apple and Google have teamed up to create a system that notifies cellphone users when they’ve been exposed to a COVID-19 patient. The system aims to help public health officials slow the spread of the coronavirus by limiting the amount of time infected people who don’t have symptoms can unknowingly spread the virus. iP... | mixture | Technology, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts, | "You may have noticed there are new settings on your phone for tracking COVID-19. What’s that all about? Not an unauthorized surveillance plot, as one popular social media rumor suggests. ""Remember a few days ago when everyones phone was acting crazy?"" reads a June 24 Facebook post, which is a screenshot of a comment... |
10389 | College studies may reduce risk of dementia for older adults, research finds | Australian researchers report that a greater proportion of a group of older people who participated in university studies for at least 12 months over a four-year period performed better on measures of cognitive capacity, or cognitive reserve, which is associated with reduced risk of dementia, than a control group who d... | mixture | Alzheimer's disease,Association/Society news release,Journal news release | Costs were not mentioned in the article and we think that they should have been. Although costs for tuition in Australia are fixed, the lowest tier is approximately $5,000 US dollars annually. That is a considerable sum for elderly retirees. The authors report the proportions in each group for whom cognitive capacity, ... |
20512 | When my grandfather came to this country back in 1925, there were no government benefits. | Contrary to what Santorum said, millions of Americans in 1925 would have either qualified for benefits directly, such as payments to veterans, or have been protected by workers' compensation laws that provided benefits to those who became disabled by their jobs. And state and local governments had the longstanding role... | false | National, City Budget, County Budget, Families, Federal Budget, History, Pensions, Poverty, Retirement, State Budget, Veterans, Welfare, Workers, Rick Santorum, | "On a number of occasions, Rick Santorum has used speeches to tout the theme of self-reliance and limited government, including one claim about government programs at the time his grandfather immigrated to the United States. Here’s an excerpt from his Feb. 29, 2012, speech near Knoxville, Tenn.: ""Eight or nine months ... |
34581 | An 86-year-old woman's severely painful and curved back was cured by her practicing yoga for a month. | Without contacting her personal doctor or seeing her medical records, it’s hard to verify exactly what helped her overcome her back problem. Yoga seems to have played a positive role in her life, regardless of whether it was the cure, but doctors caution that it isn’t for everyone and urge potential yogis to seek out p... | unproven | Uncategorized, spinal inuries, yoga | An August 2016 New York Post article reporting that an elderly New York woman got complete relief from a curved and painful back by doing one month of yoga has gone viral. But a spine surgeon told us it’s unlikely yoga alone miraculously cured her. The 8 August 2016 account stated that 86-year-old Anna Pesce, the “yoga... |
10889 | High-tech help for fibroid tumors | The decision by the FDA in 2004 to approve the ExAblate system for uterine fibroids represented a new option for women who are suffering from symptomatic fibroids but who want to avoid hysterectomy or other invasive treatments. However, little is known about the long-term safety and efficacy of the procedure. Furthermo... | false | Although the story does mention that the procedure is expensive and not usually covered by insurance, this is not sufficient information on costs. And it’s not good enough to say, “Mayo Clinic officials said the cost of the procedure varies for each patient, and declined to provide any estimates. They said patients can... | |
28079 | "The state of South Carolina executed 14-year-old George Stinney in 1944, but a judge from the same court declared his ""innocence"" in 2014." | "What's true: An August 2018 Facebook post describes the major facts and minor details associated with George Stinney's case with a high degree of accuracy. What's false: A South Carolina judge did not declare Stinney ""innocent"" or exonerate him in 2014; she overturned his conviction on the basis that his trial and e... | true | Politics, criminal justice, racism | In August 2018, viral social media posts introduced many readers to the case of George Stinney, Jr., a black teenager who was convicted of murder and executed by the state of South Carolina in 1944, although his conviction was overturned 70 years after his death. Facebook user Chiadikaobi O. Atansi posted several image... |
33744 | Certain symbols displayed on the packaging of a variety of grocery items signify that their manufacturers have paid a 'secret tax' to the Jews. | The presence of certain symbols on a variety of food products does not indicate that a 'secret tax' has been paid to Jews. | false | Business | People sometimes search for proofs of their darkest imaginings everywhere, including on the shelves of grocery stores. One example of this phenomenon is that packages bearing marks whose meanings aren’t readily apparent to the average shopper have been interpreted by those always on the sniff for a Jewish conspiracy as... |
27841 | "January is the primary ""break-up"" month for couples." | Divorce attorneys have long acknowledged January and February are among their most bountiful months for acquiring new clients. | true | Love, Dating Disasters, divorce, relationships | Cold temperatures aren’t the only thing frosty about January: it’s also widely known as the “break-up” month because more couples split up during that month than at any other time of the year. Divorce attorneys have long acknowledged January and February are among their most bountiful months for acquiring new clients. ... |
10578 | Mindfulness Meditation May Cut IBS Symptoms | Among several weaknesses in the story, the biggest was a failure to evaluate the quality of the evidence – a failure to help readers understand what this study might mean and what it might not mean. As we state below in our “Evidence” criterion: “We aren’t told if the symptom improvement is clinically meaningful. After... | false | WebMD | A researcher is quoted as saying the method is “inexpensive.” We imagine that’s true – although no cost estimate was given. However, the people in the study took an eight-week course and a half-day retreat. The costs in this study – in patient time, therapist time, gas bills at $4 a gallon and room space – can’t be tr... |
41647 | 66 A&E and maternity wards have been closed. | We don’t know, as this information isn’t collected nationally. In 2014, there were reportedly plans to close or downgrade 66 in England, but while some have been, others have stayed open. | unproven | health | There are 16,481 fewer beds in hospitals since 2010. This is in the right ballpark, but it doesn’t seem to be the best comparison. It seems to compare the number of beds at different times of the year, but the number available fluctuates seasonally. Comparing July-September in 2010 and 2017, the decrease in beds availa... |
6952 | State: Delaware landfill is exceeding air emissions limits. | Operators of a Delaware landfill are fighting to expand despite being notified that it’s been releasing too much air pollution for more than a year. | true | Environment, General News, Delaware, Waste management, New Castle | The News Journal of Wilmington reports a state notice of violation sent to the Minquadale landfill gives it until Dec. 2 to install a device that lessens the emissions. The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control notice says the landfill has been exceeding hourly limits for sulfur oxide since... |
18252 | Immigrants are more fertile. | Bush said that immigrants are more fertile and the data back him up. National statistics show that birth rates among foreign-born residents are about 50 percent higher than for U.S.-born women. However, the rates are converging, they vary widely among immigrant groups and over the years, the rates change. Still, Bush’s... | true | Immigration, National, Jeb Bush, | "The aging of America draws a lot of attention as the country tries to control the rising cost of health care and sustain critical programs such as Social Security. Jeb Bush, former Republican governor of Florida and potential 2016 presidential candidate, has a partial solution -- promote immigration. Bush, speaking at... |
4183 | Ban lifted on shellfish harvesting along coastline, harbor. | New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services has lifted a ban on most shellfish harvesting along the state’s ocean coastline and Hampton-Seabrook Harbor after a drop in toxic algae bloom known as red tide. | true | New Hampshire, Environment, Algae, Harbors | The harvest closure went into effect on May 9 in response to elevated levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning detected in blue mussels. Chris Nash, the department’s shellfish program manager, said Maine and Massachusetts have been reporting similar red tide declines. He said the one exception is that surf clams along t... |
2502 | New diet craze offers five days of feasting for two days of famine. | Forget abandoning carbohydrates or detoxing. The new dieting craze sweeping Britain and taking off in the United States lets people eat whatever they like - but only five days a week. | true | Health News | “The Fast Diet”, also known as the 5:2 diet, is the brainchild of TV medical journalist Michael Mosley and journalist Mimi Spencer and allows people to eat what they want for five days but only eat 600 calories a day on the other two. Their book, “The Fast Diet”, has topped bestselling book lists in Britain and the Uni... |
29530 | Hillary Clinton successfully defended an accused child rapist and later laughed about the case. | "What's true: In 1975, young lawyer Hillary Rodham was appointed to represent a defendant charged with raping a 12-year-old girl. Clinton reluctantly took on the case, which ended with a plea bargain for the defendant, and later chuckled about some aspects of the case when discussing it years later. What's false: Hilla... | false | Politics Politicians, hillary clinton | In May 2016, the image macro shown above began circulating on Facebook, holding that back in 1975 a young Hillary Clinton (then Hillary Rodham) had “volunteered” to represent a 42-year-old man (Thomas Alfred Taylor) who was accused of raping a 12-year-old girl, that Clinton told the judge in the case that the complaina... |
3188 | AP PHOTOS: In despair, French hospital interns go on strike. | Nestled in the cinderblock complex of Marseille’s sprawling La Timone hospital stands the intern residency building, home to a community of French student doctors holding an exceptional, open-ended strike to demand a better future. | true | International News, General News, Strikes, France, Health, Business, Marseille, Europe | Protesting interns in white coats and blue hair nets wave signs made from brooms and bedsheets, tooting trumpets and banging drums. Hanging from lampposts in his scrubs, Xavier Charléty chanted slogans through a megaphone to his colleagues marching through the streets of Marseille as their strike began earlier this mo... |
7602 | Long-term care facilities linked to 61% of WA virus deaths. | More than 60% of coronavirus deaths in Washington are linked to long-term care facilities and authorities say more than 250 such locations in the state have reported at least one COVID-19 case. | true | Seattle, Health, General News, Washington, Pandemics, Nursing homes, Virus Outbreak | The state’s COVID-19 response team released information Wednesday showing there were 507 deaths tied to such facilities as of May 2, accounting for 61% of virus fatalities in the state at the time. There were 2,894 positive cases associated with care facilities, representing 19% of total cases as of last week. Nursing ... |
33106 | "President Obama has started confiscating guns ""by force." | What's true: A California law effective January 2016 allowed family members to attempt to obtain a temporary restraining order restricting gun possession for relatives experiencing a mental health crisis. What's false: President Obama is confiscating guns by force in California or elsewhere; the law in question was in ... | false | Politics Guns, barack obama, california, guns | On 27 December 2015 the web site American Column published the misleadingly named article “BREAKING: Obama Begins Confiscating Guns By Force.” The headline began with the word “BREAKING,” suggesting that whatever followed was an extremely recent development. It continued: California has just submitted to Obama in a tru... |
350 | CEO sees Bayer 'massively' affected by herbicide litigation. | Bayer’s chief executive on Thursday acknowledged the German maker of pharmaceuticals and crop chemicals was facing massive challenges from a wave of lawsuits over an alleged carcinogenic effect of its Roundup weedkiller. | true | Environment | “We have lost two cases in lower courts. That is why the company is massively affected. You see it in our share price,” CEO Werner Baumann said in a panel discussion at an academic business event in Cologne. “You see it selectively, mainly here in Germany and in France - less so in the USA - in our reputational scores,... |
39985 | The eRumor is a warning not to eat jars of Peter Pan peanut butter with the product code “2111” because of Salmonella contamination. | FDA Warning About Certain Jars of Peter Pan Peanut Butter | true | Food / Drink, Warnings | The warning is true and was issued on February 14, 2007 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. On February 26, 2007, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had confirmed the presence of Salmonella in the ConAgra peanut butter and also said that they were looking into two ... |
9086 | New delayed-release stimulant improves morning ADHD symptoms and all-day functioning | This release describes a phase 3 trial of a new formulation of an existing drug, methylphenidate, used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The use of a delayed-release form of the drug was intended to allow children to take the drug at night and then feel the positive affects when they wake and be... | false | ADHD,Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology,methylphenidate | There is no mention of the cost of methylphenidate in this release. While the price of the existing forms of this drug are readily obtainable, this research touts a new extended/delayed release form of the medicine and therefore, it is conceivable that the price will be different, and more than likely higher. As far as... |
6301 | W Virginia medical school offering free osteopathic services. | The West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine on Monday said it is looking for patients for its free annual osteopathic clinic. | true | General News, West Virginia, Medical schools | The medical school has opened registration for its Student Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Clinic, which provides free osteopathic evaluations and other treatments to people who live in Lewisburg and surrounding areas The school says procedures are performed by students under the supervision of physicians. The progra... |
27604 | Meryl Streep applauded for Roman Polanski at the Academy Awards in 2003. | A video clip showing Meryl Streep applauding for Roman Polanski at the Academy Awards in 2003 came to the forefront after the actress' controversial 2017 Golden Globes speech. | true | Politics Politicians, donald trump, meryl streep, Roman Polanski | On 9 January 2017, the day after after Meryl Streep delivered a speech critical of President-elect Donald Trump as she was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the annual Golden Globes ceremony, an image macro purportedly showing the actress cheering for director Roman Polanski — who fled the ... |
15689 | American families work hard to earn $4,250 a month. Obama is spending $18,972 a month on each illegal immigrant child. | A CVS Health Corp (CVS.N) health plan that uses an outside drug pricing group to help it decide whether to cover certain new medicines has gained little traction with customers, according to its top medical executive, and has drawn fierce criticism from patient advocacy groups. | false | Immigration, National, Federal Budget, ForAmerica, | The company has held back on marketing the pharmacy benefit plan while it talks to these groups, CVS said. The plan, launched a year ago, is based on analyses by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), a Boston-based group that assesses effectiveness of drugs to determine appropriate prices. Using ICER’s... |
41645 | The rate of extra investment in the NHS has fallen by 68% since 2010. | Chinese panda experts and Thai officials on Thursday began preparing for an autopsy of beloved giant panda Chuang Chuang, who died unexpectedly this week at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand while on loan from Beijing. | true | health | The death of 19-year-old Chuang Chuang sparked mourning among Thai fans and an outcry on Chinese social media, where a hashtag seeming to blame Thailand was viewed 250 million times. Zoo officials said there had been little sign Chuang Chuang was suffering health problems before his death on Monday. Pandas generally li... |
12790 | "Blogger Says former president Jimmy Carter said, ""Medical marijuana cured my cancer." | Bogus claim that Jimmy Carter credits marijuana for curing his cancer is all smoke | false | Fake news, PunditFact, Bloggers, | "The Internet is getting a sustained buzz from a fake news story about former President Jimmy Carter saying marijuana cured his cancer, but the years-old hoax can only burn readers. ""Jimmy Carter: ‘Medical marijuana cured my cancer,’"" reads the headline on a post dated Dec. 8, 2015, from CannaSOS.com. The site says i... |
2154 | "Love"" hormone may help autism symptoms: study." | A hormone thought to encourage bonding between mothers and their babies may foster social behavior in some adults with autism, French researchers said on Monday. | true | Science News | They found patients who inhaled the hormone oxytocin paid more attention to expressions when looking at pictures of faces and were more likely to understand social cues in a game simulation, the researchers said in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Angela Sirigu of the Center of Cognitive Neu... |
2856 | Brain injuries like Schumacher's can destroy lives: study. | People with severe head injuries like the one that left Michael Schumacher in critical condition have permanently altered brains that make the victims more likely to become mentally ill and die prematurely, scientists said on Wednesday. | true | Health News | Brain experts said most health services fail to make the link between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and long-term mental consequences, meaning patients can fall through the net into depression, behavioral problems and crime. While Schumacher, a wealthy and famous former motor-racing driver well supported by family, frie... |
14387 | Will (HB2) threaten federal funding for public schools under Title IX? No, according to a federal court which has looked at a similar issue. | Gov. Pat McCrory is correct that a federal judge said schools shouldn’t lose Title IX funding for not allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with. But McCrory failed to mention that the case is still pending on appeal, and that there are questions about the judge’s impartiality. F... | mixture | Education, Gays and Lesbians, Government Regulation, Sexuality, North Carolina, Pat McCrory, | "One of the biggest questions in the ongoing debate over North Carolina’s new statewide law invalidating local LGBT protections is the status of $4.5 billion in federal education funding via Title IX. Title IX is a 1972 law that requires educational institutions to treat men and women equally. It has been used to punis... |
10998 | New Anti-Wrinkle Treatment | This report once again puts a spotlight on a leading health scourge: wrinkles. At least, it seems that wrinkles rank above many other health issues based on how much time network morning shows devote to the subject. This time the hook is FDA approval of broader use of an injectable product that stimulates collagen prod... | mixture | "The story says treatments cost about $800 and that three sessions are typically needed, and that follow-up injections are needed after about three years. Although the story notes that the benefits are temporary the story said the effects last three years (and included only patients who claimed they still felt some ben... | |
4341 | 2 tuberculosis cases reported at Georgia elementary schools. | Officials say tuberculosis cases have been reported at two elementary schools in Georgia. | true | Health, Rome, Georgia, Tuberculosis | The Floyd County School District tells news outlets that one case of TB was confirmed at Model Elementary, and another at Johnson Elementary. Both schools in Rome remain open and are being cleaned. District Superintendent Jeff Wilson says two letters will be sent to students’ families with details and action-plans, one... |
4911 | Judge rejects Trump plan for road in Alaska wildlife refuge. | The Trump administration violated federal law with a proposed road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska, a federal judge ruled Friday, saying the project would have reversed previous policy without explanation. | true | Wildlife, Alaska, Environment, Ryan Zinke, Courts, U.S. News | U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason rejected an Interior Department land exchange that would have led to a road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, an internationally recognized habitat for migrating waterfowl. Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed a land exchange agreement for the road more than a yea... |
11248 | Acupuncture Eases Depression in Pregnancy | This story reports on a small, randomized trial evaluating acupuncture for the treatment of depression in pregnant women. This story has numerous flaws, the biggest of which was relying heavily on the press release. By relying on a news release for quotes, this story missed some of the caveats and words of caution from... | false | There was no discussion regarding the cost of acupuncture, a particularly important omission since acupuncture is not covered by all insurance companies. The story tells the us that acupuncture significantly improved symptoms compared to the other treatment groups, but then it states that there was no difference in rem... | |
20530 | In 2010 about 75 percent of child abuse and neglect reports in Oregon were made by those required to report by law. | Do most child abuse reports come from people required to report? | true | Oregon, Children, Laurie Monnes Anderson, | "While the 2012 Legislature has been hung up on some issues, lawmakers approved a law that expanded the sorts of professionals required to report child abuse and neglect. The legislation came in response to the recent scandal at Penn State University. There, former assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky was charged with more t... |
33701 | The cast of M*A*S*H did not learn of Col. Blake's death until they were actually filming the scene in which it was announced. | Did the cast of 'M*A*S*H' not learn of the death of Col. Henry Blake until they were actually filming the scene in which it was announced? | false | Entertainment, Television | Death was one of the many subjects that was rarely allowed to intrude into television series of the 1950s and 60s. Although nowadays characters who are “written out” of TV shows often shuffle off this mortal coil from disease, accident, or homicide (fates that claimed several regular characters on the hospital drama ER... |
6397 | Air pollution concentrations to reach high in seacoast towns. | New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services is expecting air pollution concentrations to reach unhealthy levels in Portsmouth and other seacoast communities. | true | New Hampshire, Portsmouth, Air pollution, Environment, Smog, Air quality, Pollution | The outlook for Tuesday is for unhealthy concentrations of ground-level ozone, the main component of smog. The unhealthy air quality comes from the persistence of high temperatures under sunny skies, which can combine with local emissions. The department is advising area residents to take precautions to protect their h... |
36856 | Hillary Clinton’s campaign used a body double after Clinton suffered a medical episode at a 9/11 ceremony in New York. | Hillary Clinton Has a Body Double | unproven | Politics | Rumors that Hillary Clinton has a body double are nothing but speculation at this point. The story unfolded when bystander video emerged of Clinton nearly fainting and stumbling from a curb before her aids loaded her into a van after a 9/11 event in New York. The situation played into conspiracy theories that Clinton h... |
41736 | “We are, by the way, the number one producer of energy in the world because of what we’ve done right now. | In launching his reelection campaign, President Donald Trump said, “Nobody’s done what we have done in two and a half years.” However, we found his speech was filled with familiar false, misleading and exaggerated statements about his record on jobs, military spending, veterans, energy and more. | mixture | border security, Clinton emails, defense spending, energy, health care, jobs, manufacturing, oil and gas, opioids, Russia investigation, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, veterans, | At a rally in Orlando on June 18, President Donald Trump officially launched his reelection campaign. Trump boasted that under his leadership, the country is “thriving, prospering and booming,” and he asked voters for four more years to “keep America great.”“Nobody’s done what we have done in two and a half years,” he ... |
8941 | Extract from soursop leaves can prevent the symptoms of fibromyalgia | This news release covers a study that tested whether a tropical plant extract improves fibromyalgia symptoms in rats. It says the study of soursop — also known as graviola or guanabana — was published, but doesn’t say where. We couldn’t find it. The release feeds rampant misinformation about this plant, falsely announc... | false | fibromyalgia,soursop leaves,University of Seville | There’s no discussion of costs. We found soursop leaves online in various forms — including a liquid extract — for less than $20. There’s no attempt to give readers a sense of the magnitude of benefit in humans — or even in the rat group that was studied. We couldn’t find the study online, and the news release doesn’t ... |
1736 | New Year’s resolutions may be more procrastination than motivation. | People seeking to get or stay fit in 2015 might do better to start today rather than rely on a New Year’s resolution to shape up tomorrow, fitness experts say. | true | Health News | Losing weight and getting fit and healthy are among the top five resolutions every year, even though most of winter’s great expectations wither by spring. “The New Year’s resolution is a kind of grand, glorified, long-term goal that people, for societal reasons, tend to begin on the first day of the calendar year,” sai... |
36463 | "Brooke Shields was photographed for ""Playboy"" when she was ten years old." | Was Brooke Shields Photographed for ‘Playboy’ at Age 10? | true | Fact Checks, Viral Content | In March 2019, the following meme appeared (archived here), containing a claim that Brooke Shields had been photographed suggestively for Playboy magazine when she was just ten years old:The image featured a heavily made-up small girl who looked quite a lot like Shields and an inserted image of Playboy founder Hugh Hef... |
9658 | Love of physical activity may start in the womb | This is a quick story about the findings from a small study of pregnant mice. The study showed that mice given the opportunity to exercise during pregnancy (by running on a wheel) had offspring that were more physically active than the offspring of pregnant mice who were not permitted to exercise. This story was concer... | false | fitness,mice studies,Pregnancy | The intervention here is the act of running—in the case of these furry participants, running in an exercise wheel. If the assumption is that the human equivalent is also running (and not weight lifting as the story’s image indicates), the primary cost to people would be one of time. The story explains that levels of ph... |
33613 | Statement reproduces President Obama's response regarding opposition to his veterans' health insurance plan. | A statement purportedly reproducing President Obama's response regarding opposition to his veterans' health insurance plan was a satirical creation. | false | Politics Politicians, barack obama, health insurance, veterans | President Barack Obama did not utter any of the statements reproduced above; the quoted example is a bit of fictional dialogue excerpted from a satirical piece by conservative humorist John Semmens which was published on his site on 21 March 2009. The basis of Mr. Semmens’ satire was that, in conjunction with meeting w... |
33542 | "The song ""The Twelve Days of Christmas"" was created as a coded reference to important articles of the Christian faith." | Nonetheless, plenty of writers continue to expound upon “the beauty and truly biblical and spiritual meanings locked away in this wonderful song that puts Christ into Christmas where he doesn’t appear to be.” Perhaps those who consider this tale to be “beautiful” and “inspirational” (despite its obviously dubious truth... | false | Holidays, christmas carols, christmas urban legends, twelve days of christmas | Two common forms of modern folklore are claims that familiar old bits of rhyme and song (such as the nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosie“) encode “hidden” meanings which have been passed along for centuries, and claims that common objects of secular origin — particularly objects associated with Christmas (such as the ... |
10780 | Tailored medicine could prevent more heart attacks | The story addressed most of our criteria, but we felt it could have been improved a bit by even brief mention of the cost impact of implementing such a system, and a little more context on the Archimedes system and related research. Overall, though, good job. Finding more cost effective and more efficient means of trea... | true | heart disease,Reuters Health | Couldn’t Dr. Eddy have commented on the projected cost of implementing his idea? And certainly the projected cost saving impact of his Archimedes system has been the focus of past news coverage. So even a line about cost impact would have been appreciated. Mixed bag here, but we’ll give the story the benefit of the dou... |
1332 | Stephen Hawking, who unlocked the secrets of space and time, dies at 76. | Stephen Hawking, who sought to explain the origins of the universe, the mysteries of black holes and the nature of time itself, died on Wednesday aged 76. | true | Science News | Hawking’s formidable mind probed the very limits of human understanding both in the vastness of space and in the bizarre sub-molecular world of quantum theory, which he said could predict what happens at the beginning and end of time. Ravaged by the wasting motor neurone disease he developed at 21, Hawking was confined... |
1896 | To optimize exercise, heed your heart rate training zone. | Whether you’re interested in running a marathon or staving off the chronic diseases of ageing, to reap the rewards of your efforts getting into the zone is essential. | true | Health News | A woman jogs before the arrival of Hurricane Irene at downtown Manhattan in New York August 27, 2011. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz Experts say knowing and staying within your heart rate training zone is an easy way to pace the intensity of your workout. “Exercisers need to get to at least a moderate level of physical activity... |
10631 | Pill That Hits A Cause Of Cystic Fibrosis Beats Expectations | Noteworthy is how the short piece still included: better cost projections than some competitors offered caveat that “all we know about the latest data is from press releases” important disclosure following CF Foundation president’s quote brief explanation of what 10 percentage points improvement really means in patien... | true | NPR | More explicitly than some other stories we saw, this blog included an estimate that the drug “would command a very high price, perhaps $250,000 a year.” Good enough. We appreciate at least the attempt to explain that the 10 percentage points improvement in lung function “is a big deal for CF patients.” The story quotes... |
11952 | "Joe Manchin Says West Virginia is ""down to around 50 percent of the adult workers who are actually working now because of addiction or conviction." | "Manchin said the reason for the decline of working adults in West Virginia to ""around 50 percent"" of adults is due to the state’s opioid epidemic. His estimate of workforce participation is correct, and recent research at the national level suggests opioids have hurt workers and employers looking for healthy employe... | mixture | National, Drugs, Economy, Labor, Joe Manchin, | "The Democratic senator from West Virginia — where the opioid overdose death rate ranked highest in the nation in 2015 — connected the state’s opioid use with its battered workforce. Sen. Joe Manchin told MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt that the opioid crisis is destroying families and wrecking the state’s economic future. ""I've g... |
11422 | New HPV vaccine offers greater protection against cervical cancer than current vaccine | This news release has several strengths. It carefully describes an important study comparing two forms of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and provides the reader with information on the potential impact of HPV infections. However, it doesn’t deliver fully on several of our other criteria including costs, quantificat... | true | Academic medical center news release,Cancer | The release is from the UK and likely written for a UK audience, which would expect the cost of the vaccine to be covered under the NHS vaccination program. (The release mentions that the current vaccine is covered by NHS.) However, the release does not provide any detail on what the vaccine costs per person or what th... |
35306 | Elisa Granato died shortly after being administered a trial vaccine for COVID-19. | Oxford University also posted an update on its page dedicated to the COVID-19 vaccine trial, explaining that “false reports about the progress of the trial” had been circulating on social media. The university cautioned readers this likely would not be the last time a false rumor would circulate about the vaccine trial... | false | Medical | On April 23, 2020, Elisa Granato became one of the first people to take part in a trial for a potential COVID-19 vaccine at Oxford University. The following day, false reports started to circulate on social media that claimed she had died from the vaccination. One such article published to a website called News NT clai... |
2668 | Air bags, poor economy save road lives. | Air bags and the economic recession have contributed to the biggest drop in road deaths in the United States since World War II, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. | true | Health News | Changes in driving patterns and safety features both contributed to a 22 percent decline in road deaths between 2005 and 2009, Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the University of Michigan said in a report that studied federal data looking for the causes associated with fatal crashes. “From 2005 to 2009, U.S. road ... |
2845 | U.S. shortage of Tamiflu for children resolved: Roche. | A temporary shortage in the United States of one of the leading flu medicines used to treat children with the sometimes deadly virus has been resolved, Roche, the maker of Tamiflu, said on Thursday. | true | Health News | Due to high demand and packaging delays, Roche had experienced a shortage of supplies of the liquid version of the medicine, known a Tamiflu Oral Suspension, used to treat children under the age of 13 and adults unable to swallow pills. “We now anticipate having sufficient supply of both the liquid and capsule forms of... |
26643 | “I've always known this is a real, this is a pandemic. I've felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.” | In January, Trump said there were no worries about a pandemic. In late February, he said the virus was “very much under control.” Trump did activate federal measures to contain the spread in late January. | false | National, Public Health, Coronavirus, Donald Trump, | "In the early days of the coronavirus crisis, President Donald Trump aimed to reassure the public. Now, he has called for a 15-day push to shut down transmission. ""By making shared sacrifices and temporary changes, we can protect the health of our people and we can protect our economy,"" Trump said in a March 17 press... |
6793 | Wisconsin lawmakers introduce medical marijuana bill. | A group of lawmakers launched another push Friday to legalize medical marijuana in Wisconsin, introducing a bill that would allow patients to use the drug if they register with the state and create a licensing system for growers. | true | Wisconsin, Medical marijuana, Health, General News, Marijuana, Jon Erpenbach, Scott Walker, Bills | Thirty-three states, including neighboring Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois, have legalized marijuana for medical purposes and 11, including Illinois, have legalized it for recreational purposes. The Wisconsin bill’s authors, Sens. Jon Erpenbach and Patrick Testin and Rep. Chris Taylor, said in a joint statement that t... |
3586 | Kansas officials issue toxic algae alert for Lake Afton. | Kansas authorities have issued a public health advisory urging people and pets to stay out of the water at Lake Afton near Wichita because of elevated toxins. | true | Health, Kansas, Wichita, Lakes, Environment, Pets, Algae | The Wichita Eagle reports that the 258-acre lake west of Wichita is among more than a dozen to receive a blue-green algae warning. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says people should not swim, wade, ski, boat, fish or use personal watercraft on the lake while the alert is active. People should also clean... |
31587 | Rep. Trey Gowdy ordered the exhumation of the body of Clinton associate Vince Foster. | Reports that the South Carolina Congressman ordered the disinterment of Vince Foster (a Clinton associate who died in 1993) are fake news. | false | Junk News, clinton body count, last line of defense, the last line of defense | On 21 March 2017, the web site The Last Line of Defense published a story that appeared to report that U.S. Representative Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) arranged for the body of Vince Foster to be exhumed as part of an investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: For the first time in history, a US Congressman ... |
4514 | Court: Pot patients in Arizona protected from arrest on hash. | The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that medical marijuana cardholders are protected from arrest for possessing hashish and other cannabis extracts as long as they don’t have more of the drug than allowed. | true | Arizona, Medical marijuana, Marijuana, Arrests, Court decisions, Arizona Supreme Court | In making the ruling, the court concluded the state’s medical pot law covers products made with resin extracted from pot plants. The unanimous ruling Tuesday reversed a lower-court decision that found patients faced arrest for hashish possession because the drug isn’t mentioned or included by name in the law. The state... |
428 | Coal-fired plants around New Delhi running despite missing emissions deadline. | Coal-fired utilities around New Delhi were still operating on Wednesday despite threats from the Indian authorities to close them down if they had not installed equipment to cut emissions of sulfur oxides by the end of the year. | true | Environment | Three senior executives at companies operating power plants around New Delhi and facing an end-2019 deadline said they had not received direction on whether they could continue to run the plants having not installed the kit. Only one out of the 11 utilities in the national capital region had installed the equipment. In... |
6432 | Diplomat joins athletes in pledging brain for research. | A U.S. diplomat who said he suffered headaches and memory loss under mysterious circumstances while stationed in China pledged Friday to donate his brain to head injury researchers. | true | Cuba, Boston, Guangzhou, Boston University, North America, China, Science, Trauma, Headaches | Mark Lenzi, 44, is an unusual addition to the several thousand others, including many former NFL players who suffered concussions during their careers, who previously signed agreements to have their brains studied after they die by the CTE Center at Boston University. A security engineer for the U.S. State Department, ... |
7545 | Pandemic upends life on isolated, idyllic Galapagos Islands. | Before the coronavirus, sudden life-threatening ailments among tourists, fishermen and others on the Galapagos Islands were considered so rare that hospitals didn’t have a single intensive care unit bed. | true | Financial markets, Wildlife, AP Top News, Understanding the Outbreak, Health, General News, Charles Darwin, Galapagos Islands, Latin America, Caribbean, Pandemics, Travel, Virus Outbreak, Lifestyle, Ecuador, Science | Now, officials are racing to equip medical teams on the remote islands with breathing machines while also trying to stanch an economic crisis that has left many of the 30,000 residents jobless. The island chain’s famous isolation is now heightening its hardship. For seven weeks now, not a single tourist has arrived at ... |
8704 | Almost a third of Northern Ireland COVID-19 deaths outside hospitals. | Forty-eight people died in Northern Irish care homes and private residences on top of the 109 COVID-19 hospital deaths reported a week ago, the region’s statistics office said on Friday, adding to evidence that the UK toll is higher than so far reported. | true | Health News | There were 13,729 hospital deaths from COVID-19 across the United Kingdom as of 1600 GMT on April 15, the fifth highest official death toll in the world. Broader data show the true death toll far exceeds that due to deaths in care homes and the wider community, but exact numbers are slower to emerge. The Northern Irel... |
35508 | Supermarket retailer Kroger sent letters to employees informing them they must repay overpaid emergency pay provided amid the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic. | What's true: Kroger sent letters to some employees stating that they had been overpaid emergency pay during the pandemic and must pay it back. What's false: According to a company spokesperson, Kroger is no longer requiring employees to repay the money. What's undetermined: It's unclear why the letters went out in the ... | mixture | Politics Business, COVID-19 | In late May 2020, Snopes readers submitted screenshots of a letter purportedly sent from Kroger grocery stores to an employee amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The letter claimed that the worker had been “overpaid your Emergency Pay in the gross amount of $461.60.” Readers asked whether the letter was authentic. ... |
40296 | It is a warning that a TV news report said that at “dollar stores,” including Dollar Tree and Greenbacks, name-brand toothpastes were not “the same as from Wal-mart, grocery stores, etc,” They were manufactured for other countries, which have different standards than in the U.S. | Foreign toothpaste at U.S. discount stores | true | Household, Warnings | When one TV station does an innovative investigative report, it often results in numerous stations across the country doing the same thing. In 2004 there were numerous local investigations by TV stations of discount stores across the country. An example is in May of 2004, NBC 5, which serves Dallas and Ft. Worth, Texas... |
4261 | Ex-government health chief joins warnings about EPA proposal. | A former top government environmental health official joined health experts on Wednesday in expressing alarm as the Trump administration moves forward with a proposal that scientists say would upend how the U.S. regulates threats to public health. | true | Health, Politics, Environment, Business, Environmental health, Public health, Science | “It will practically lead to the elimination of science from decision-making,” said Linda Birnbaum, who retired last month as director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences after serving under both Republican and Democratic administrations. In an appearance before the House Committee on Science, Sp... |
23031 | "Rick Perry Says the federal government restricts ""how much salt we can put on our food." | Gov. Rick Perry says the federal government regulates how much salt we can put on our food | false | Food Safety, Texas, Rick Perry, | "Shortly after Texas voters decided Gov. Rick Perry was worth his salt by re-electing him, Perry launched a national tour this week to sling his new book. In the first chapter of ""Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington,"" which was first available at Perry's election-night party, Perry writes: ""We are fed ... |
28185 | A court ruling means priests in Louisiana don't have to report sexual abuse. | What's true: The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled Catholic priests are not mandatory reporters when hearing information in confidence during the sacrament of confession. What's false: Priests remain mandatory reporters at all other times. | true | Politics | On 28 October 2016, the Louisiana Supreme Court issued a ruling that Catholic priests are not mandatory reporters while performing the sacrament of confession. The decision was the result of a 2009 lawsuit brought by the parents of Rebecca Mayeux, who was 14 years old when she told a priest, Fr. Jeffery Bayhi, that a m... |
28292 | Muslim militants killed 120 Christians in Nigeria during a three-week period in February and March 2019. | What's true: Although not entirely reliable, various local news reports corroborated the incidents and deaths described in reports by Breitbart and the Christian Post website. What's false: Religious affiliation is a secondary issue in the ongoing Nigerian herder-farmer conflict, which impartial experts consistently de... | mixture | Politics | In the aftermath of the March 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand, massacre in which a white supremacist gunman fatally shot 50 people at two mosques, some right-leaning observers quickly turned their attention to atrocities allegedly perpetrated by Muslims against Christians in recent weeks. On 16 March, Breitbart reported... |
33853 | An attempted abduction of a child from a mall or amusement park was thwarted because the kidnappers forgot to change the child's shoes. | Urban legend holds that an attempted abduction of a child from a mall or amusement park was thwarted because the kidnappers neglected to change the child's shoes. | false | Horrors, Parental Nightmares | One of the most effective types of scarelore is the “barely escaped from the clutches of evil” variety, as nothing drives home a warning better than a vivid first-person account of a narrowly-averted tragedy. The explicit warning presented in a common child abduction legend is obvious: You must never, ever let your chi... |
39858 | Viral posts on Facebook that allege that President Obama ordered a flag at half mast for singer/actress Whitney Houston but two years later, when U.S. Ambassador Shirley Temple Black died, the President ignored her death. Other versions compare Whitney Houston and U.S. Navy sniper Chris Kyle, who was murdered on Feb... | Obama Ordered Half Staff Flag for Whitney Houston but not for Shirley Temple | false | Celebrities, Crime / Police | There was no national order to lower the flags by President Obama for singer Whitney Houston. An order to lower the flags in the state of New Jersey was issued by Governor Chris Christie. This according to a February 14, 2012 article by NJ.Com, a news site based in New Jersey, that said, Governor “Chris Christie plans... |
1440 | Recreational marijuana becomes legal in Illinois on New Year's Day. | Many pot-smoking adults in Illinois will ring in the new year on a high note when recreational marijuana use becomes legal in the state on Jan. 1. | true | Health News | Starting New Year’s Day, people 21 and older will be able to legally buy up to 30 grams of marijuana flower, 5 grams of marijuana concentrate, or 500 grams of THC-infused products such as edibles at licensed commercial dealers throughout the state. Cannabis consumers are expected to flock to the handful of licensed sho... |
2024 | Can money motivate weight loss? Perhaps at first. | Obese people may be more likely to slim down if they have money riding on their success through financial incentives — but the weight might creep back once the monetary carrot is gone, according to a U.S. study. | true | Health News | A program in which people stood to lose cash if they failed to lose weight appeared to motivate them, but the motivation didn’t last, the study — published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine — found. All participants received weight loss counseling, but some also signed a “deposit contract,” where the funds th... |
31010 | A woman died at a movie theater while watching the movie It in September 2017. | These articles are not accurate. As of this writing, we’ve yet to see any credible reports about someone suffering a heart attack and dying during the new Stephen King movie. | false | Junk News, fake news, it, it deaths | Did a woman die during a screening of the movie It in Syracuse, New York? Or was it Monroe, Louisiana? Maybe Paducah, Kentucky? Well, that depends on which fake news article from the web site SundayPost.org you happened to read. They all went a little something like this: A 41-year-old woman died in a Syracuse cinema a... |
2782 | Cigarettes kicked out of school in China. | China has banned smoking in schools, state media reported on Wednesday, the latest step in a government drive to kick the country’s pervasive tobacco habit. | true | Health News | Despite years of campaigning by health activists, China is the world’s largest consumer of cigarettes and smokers can be spotted everywhere, even in schools and hospitals. But with a huge public health burden looming ever larger, China has recently intensified efforts to stamp out smoking. The State Council, or cabinet... |
4332 | Guam’s Christmas trees dosed with chemical to kill pests. | Christmas trees arriving by ship to the U.S. territory of Guam are getting decked out with a special decoration: Doses of methyl bromide gas to prevent them from becoming nesting grounds for invasive species. | true | Guam, Trees, Science, General News, Invasive species, Hagatna, Christmas | Guam’s Customs and Quarantine’s BioSecurity Task Force is filling containers of imported Christmas trees with odorless and colorless methyl bromide gas to kill potentially invasive species, The Pacific Daily News reports. Customs agents have treated six containers of more than 2,500 imported trees, wreaths and garlands... |
36626 | A viral photograph showing a woman pulling two girls away from teargas shot over the U.S.-Mexico border by American forces was faked. | Were Photographs Showing the United States Firing Teargas at a Crowd in Mexico ‘Staged’? | false | Disinformation, Fact Checks | On November 25th, 2018, at the tail end of the long Thanksgiving weekend in the United States, the United States government closed down the San Ysidro port of entry — one of the busiest land crossings in the world — into and out of Mexico. When a group of people ran to the border crossing, officials from the American s... |
5845 | Report finds cases of STDs reach all-time high in California. | The number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases in California reached a record high last year and officials are particularly concerned by a spike in stillbirths due to congenital syphilis, state health authorities said Monday. | true | Sexually transmitted diseases, Los Angeles, Chlamydia, Health, North America, California, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Public health | More than 300,000 cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were reported in 2017, a 45 percent increase from five years ago, according to data released by the California Department of Public Health. Chlamydia and gonorrhea are most common among people under 30, the report said. Rates of chlamydia are highest among yo... |
2514 | New fitness centers cater to aging baby boomers. | Baby boomers, the generation that vowed to stay forever young, are getting older, designing senior-friendly gyms and becoming their own personal trainers. | true | Health News | In exercise havens for the over-50 set, the cardio machines are typically low impact, the resistance training is mainly air-powered and some group fitness classes are taken sitting down. At Welcyon gyms, founded by husband-and-wife boomers Suzy and Tom Boerboom, the average age of members is 62. “The environment is rea... |
10783 | Screening Guidelines Miss Many Kids With High Cholesterol | "Although the lead of this story about cholesterol screening of children sticks to the test results without stating that the testing will lead to actual health benefits for children, the body of the story (like the story from TIME that we also reviewed) fails to grapple with the important distinction between screening ... | mixture | The story says that the cost of universal cholesterol screening of children is a concern, but it does not tell readers what the costs of either screening or treatment might be. Cost is clearly relevant to the story. The researchers blame the lack of health care insurance for the high proportion of parents and grandpare... | |
36231 | "Before Joseph Stalin entered the history books, he was a young, ""hip"" atheist and a democratic socialist." | Was Dictator Joseph Stalin Once a Hip, Young Democratic Socialist? | mixture | Disinformation, Fact Checks | A meme claiming that Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was once a hip, young atheist and a Democratic Socialist appeared on Facebook (archived here) in August 2019. Beneath a black-and-white photograph of an arguably handsome young man, text read:Josef Stalin was once a hip, intellectual, atheist, and Democrat Socialist, t... |
18142 | "Food stamp spending ""doubled under President Bush, doubled again under President Obama." | "Cole said food stamp spending ""doubled under President Bush, doubled again under President Obama."" Agriculture Department numbers back his claim. Whether that’s evidence the program requires reform depends on your perspective on government assistance. Even with no change in the law, spending will fall as the economy... | true | National, Children, Deficit, Families, Federal Budget, Poverty, Welfare, Tom Cole, | "Food stamp spending doubled under President Barack Obama — after doubling under his Republican predecessor, says Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. That’s one reason he’s disappointed that House lawmakers missed a chance to push for more than $20 billion in savings over 10 years when they stripped nutrition programs from the farm... |
35332 | The Obama administration left behind no playbook for dealing with pandemics for the next administration. | An NSC official confirmed the existence of the playbook but dismissed its value. “We are aware of the document, although it’s quite dated and has been superseded by strategic and operational biodefense policies published since,” the official said. “The plan we are executing now is a better fit, more detailed, and appli... | false | Politics, COVID-19 | On May 9, 2020, Yahoo! News reported that it had obtained a tape of former U.S. President Barack Obama talking privately with ex-members of his administration. On the tape, Obama reportedly characterized the Trump administration’s handling of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic as “an absolute chaotic disaster.” ... |
9058 | Kerastem Reports Successful US Phase II Hair Growth Clinical Trial Results | This release reports on a small phase 2 clinical trial that tested a new surgical approach to treating hair loss. It involves liposuction to remove specific fat cells, treating them and then re-injecting them into the scalp to foster hair growth. The trial itself is early, and small, with each experimental arm using le... | false | hair growth,Kerastem | The only mention of money in this news release is the reference to the “global hair loss treatment market” which it says amounts to about $7 billion annually. There is no information on what the proposed new treatment might cost, or even what current typical hair loss treatments might run, so readers are at a loss to b... |
7746 | Chinese scientist who gene-edited babies fired by university. | A Chinese scientist who created what he said were the world’s first “gene-edited” babies evaded oversight and broke ethical boundaries in a quest for fame and fortune, state media said on Monday, as his former university said he had been fired. | true | Science News | He Jiankui said in November that he used a gene-editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 to alter the embryonic genes of twin girls born that month, sparking an international outcry about the ethics and safety of such research. Hundreds of Chinese and international scientists condemned He and said any application of gen... |
17165 | Jerry Patterson Says he was the only statewide elected official to speak in favor of a federal guest worker plan at the 2012 Republican Party of Texas convention. | Patterson said he was unique among statewide elected officials in speaking for the guest-worker section that became part of the Republican Party of Texas platform in 2012. True. TRUE – The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing. | true | Immigration, Economy, Workers, Texas, Jerry Patterson, | "Jerry Patterson, an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor this year, subsequently said that he somewhat uniquely spoke out for a federal guest-worker program a few years ago. According to a March 30, 2014, news story in the San Antonio Express-News, Republicans including state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston, who... |
24570 | Medicare has at least $80 billion worth of fraud a year. That's a full 20 percent of every dollar that's spent on Medicare goes to fraud. | Coburn says 20 percent of every Medicare dollar goes to fraud | mixture | National, Health Care, Medicare, Tom Coburn, | "On the Aug. 24 edition of Fox News Channel's On the Record With Greta Van Susteren , Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. — an ob-gyn who has taken a leading position against Democratic health care reform efforts — took aim at Medicare fraud. The senator said, ""If you look at Medicare and Medicaid, both vital programs today, t... |
37875 | A meme likening the purpose of coronavirus masks to protecting from a random wild urinaters accurately describes the purpose of coronavirus mask recommendations. | : Coronavirus, Face Masks, and the Peeing on People AnalogyAn r/funny post titled “Wear Your Mask: The Urine Test” employed an analogy to illustrate the most then-recent understanding of the value of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its analogy was in line with then-current understanding of how masks might miti... | true | Fact Checks, Viral Content | On April 29 2020, a post titled “Wear Your Mask: The Urine Test” appeared on r/funny (and soon r/all), aiming to explain the purpose of masks during the coronavirus pandemic to pants in the presence of a person uncontrollably urinating everywhere:Wear Your Mask: The Urine Test from funnyThe above meme was not the first... |
9526 | Pets Help People Manage The Pain Of Serious Mental Illness | The story focuses on a recent study published in BMC Psychiatry that reports some patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder consider their pets as part of their social network. The finding highlights the importance that some patients with mental illness place on pet ownership, and how some of those patients draw ... | mixture | mental illness | Costs aren’t addressed. There is the hint that it might be out of reach for some people with this quote in the story: “He feels this study is important because, although there’s a lot of work looking at the benefits of trained therapy animals, they can be expensive and out of the reach of many patients.” The story does... |
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