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11027
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Hysterectomy, a better way
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"This story reports on the tendency for women to still get abdominal hysterectomy in spite of the fact that there are less invasive alternatives available. This story does a good job of highlighting this problem, however this story is limited in its focus only on the laparoscopic versus abdominal hysterectomy decision. In doing so, the story ignores the larger context for this issue which is why so many women are getting hysterectomies for benign uterine conditions when there are many effective treatments that don’t involve surgery. Fibroids and abnormal bleeding are the two most common reasons why women undergo elective hysterectomy. The story makes it seem as though the only option is between abdominal and laparoscopic hysterectomy, when in reality a woman has a choice among lots of options, such as vaginal hysterectomy, myomectomy, ablation, uterine artery embolization, and medical management. The lack of discussion about the strength of the evidence to support laparoscopic hysterectomy, the harms of the procedure, or the available alternatives make this story appear like a sales pitch for the procedure. The ""experts"" quoted in the story also raise this concern. Although the story does quote more than one expert, it is not clear that these are actual independent experts. Dr Cahill is the Executive Director of the National Women’s Health Resource Center, whose campaign ""What’s going on down there?"" was supported by Ethicon, Inc, a manifacturer of surgical equipment. And it is not clear what Dr Warren’s credentials are. Although the story theorizes that the cost of laparoscopic surgery would be less than abdominal hysterectomy because of the reduced hospital stay, no further information is provided. This is not adequate information on costs. Furthermore, there are even cheaper non-surgical alternatives such as medication, IUD, and ablation."
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false
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"Although the story theorizes that the cost of laparoscopic surgery would be less than abdominal hysterectomy because of the reduced hospital stay, no further information is provided. This is not adequate information on costs. Furthermore, there are even cheaper non-surgical alternatives such as medication, IUD, and ablation. The story does quantify the main benefit of laparoscopic surgery – reduced recovery time – relative to abdominal hysterectomy. The story does not mention the harms of surgery. The story does not comment on the strength of the available evidence to support the use of laparoscopic surgery. The story does not engage in disease mongering. Although the story does quote more than one expert, it is not clear that these are actual independent experts. Dr Cahill is the Executive Director of the National Women’s Health Resource Center, whose campaign ""What’s going on down there?"" was supported by Ethicon, Inc, a manufacturer of surgical equipment. And it is not clear what Dr Warren’s credentials are. The story does not mention any of the highly effective treatment alternatives to hysterectomy. Fibroids and abnormal bleeding are the two most common reasons why women undergo elective hysterectomy. The story makes it seem as though the only option is between abdominal and laparoscopic hysterectomy, when in reality a woman has a choice among lots of options, such as vaginal hysterectomy, myomectomy, ablation, uterine artery embolization, and medical management. The story does comment on the fact that the availability of laparoscopic hysterectomy is somewhat limited. However, the story does not address the reasons why laparoscopic hysterectomy is limited, including the fact that it doesn’t provide many advantages compared to vaginal hysterectomy. In fact, according to a Cochrane review, laparoscopic hysterectomy is associated with increased operating time and blood loss relative to vaginal hysterectomy. The story adequately represents the novelty of laparoscopic surgery. Although the story makes it seem like the procedure is ""new"" it does mention that laparoscopic surgery has been around for 15 years. There is no way to know if the story relied on a press release as the sole source of information. However, we have some suspicions. Does funding of the National Women’s Health Resource Center report by Ethicon, inc. (a manufacturer of surgical equipment), released at the Congress of Minimally Invasive GYnecologists, have anything to do with this focus? If the concern is too many abdominal hysterectomies, the focus should be on all the alternatives to it — medication, progestin IUD, and especially vaginal hysterectomy."
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8871
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US Drug Sales Grew at Slowest Rate Since 1961-IMS.
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Sales of prescription drugs in the United States grew by just 3.8 percent in 2007, marking the lowest growth rate since 1961, according to data compiled by IMS Health RX.N.
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true
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Health News
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Total U.S. prescription drug sales reached $286.5 billion last year with slowing growth blamed on factors including patent expirations of lucrative medicines that opened the door to cheaper generic versions. Other reasons cited by IMS in its annual U.S. Pharmaceutical Market Performance Review were fewer new product approvals, safety concerns, and the leveling of year-over-year growth from the Medicare Part D program. The 3.8 percent growth rate compares to 8 percent growth seen in 2006. “The moderating growth trend that began in 2001 resumed last year following the one-time impact on market growth in 2006 from the implementation of Medicare Part D,” Murray Aitken, IMS’s senior vice president for healthcare insight, said in a statement. Cholesterol drugs, such as Pfizer Inc’s (PFE.N) Lipitor, once again led all therapy groups with prescription sales of $18.4 billion in 2007 despite a 15.4 percent decline in sales, primarily due to the availability of cheaper generics. Acid reflux medicines known as proton pump inhibitors, including AstraZeneca’s (AZN.L) Nexium, ranked second with prescription sales of $14.1 billion and 2.8 percent growth. Antipsychotics, such as Eli Lilly and Co’s (LLY.N) Zyprexa, overtook antidepressants as the third largest therapeutic class with $13.1 billion in sales and a 12.1 percent growth rate, according to IMS, which provides industry data on drug prescriptions and sales. Brand name drugs with some $17 billion in sales lost patent protection in 2007, helping drive prescription volume growth of 10 percent for generic medicines. Generic drugs claimed 67.3 percent of U.S. prescriptions dispensed in 2007, IMS found. IMS is forecasting compound annual U.S. pharmaceutical sales growth of 3 percent to 6 percent through 2012, noting that new biotech medicines and vaccines as well as the expected launch of a handful of drugs with at least $1 billion a year potential will partially offset major patent expirations. Some $13 billion in branded products are likely to start facing generic competition this year, IMS said. “The U.S. pharmaceutical market has entered a new era — one characterized by more modest growth due to the continuing impact of new generics products, fewer and more narrowly indicated novel medications and closer scrutiny of safety issues,” Aitken said.
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33831
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Pull tabs from aluminum cans have special redemption value for time on dialysis machines.
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Next time someone asks you to donate a few pull-tabs for a good cause, donate a few facts instead. You’ll be doing everyone a favor.
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false
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Business, Redemption Rumors
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A legend this good-hearted should be true. But it’s not. And a lot of really nice people end up sadly disappointed when they eventually discover all their hard work pretty much went for naught. Pull tabs have no special value that makes them redeemable for time on dialysis machines, or indeed which make them worth far in excess of their ordinary scrap metal recycle value. While a handful of charitable concerns (including McDonald’s Ronald McDonald House and Shriners Hospitals for Children) accept donations of can tabs, said tabs fetch such groups no more than the items’ ordinary recycle value (more on that later in this article). The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) says this of the dialysis rumor that has been dogging them for quite a while: A false rumor that has plagued the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and the aluminum industry for decades has recently resurfaced, perhaps fueled by the Internet. Individuals and groups believe they can donate the pull tabs on aluminum cans in exchange for time on a kidney dialysis machine. Such a program has never existed through the NKF, nor have there ever been programs through the foundation allowing people to exchange any type of item (box tops, product points, etc.) for time on dialysis. I don’t think anyone is ever going to figure out where what have come to be called “redemption rumors” first came from. The notion of something of little value (pull-tabs, empty cigarette packs) being collected by good-hearted people and then turned over to a public-spirited company who would redeem them for an item that would help the less fortunate (time on a dialysis machine, a wheelchair, a seeing eye dog) goes back a long way — ours is far from the first generation to fall for this canard. A 2002 article described a common experience with the rumor: Back when 15-year-old Elizabeth Bohli was in the third grade, she had a friend who had a friend who had leukemia. Word was that the sick girl’s doctor told her about a program in which the Coca-Cola Co. would pay for one chemotherapy session for every 1,000 aluminum pop-tops collected. Elizabeth remembered that program when her 12-year-old sister, Jenny, was diagnosed with melanoma in September, and a massive collection drive began at Pelham High School. For two months, students, teachers and parents brought in thousands of the tiny aluminum objects. Soon, other schools were calling, asking how they could donate their pop-tops. Word spread to churches, which eagerly jumped in to help. And one friend told another, and another and another. Since then, the pop-tops campaign has gone, well, a little over the top. As of this week, more than 276,000 had been collected. And they’re still pouring in. But none of that metal will translate into free treatments for Jenny. “It was just an old myth,” she said this week. Jenny’s mother, Jo, called Coca-Cola recently, feeling as though she held a winning lottery ticket in her hands. Then she asked how she could cash in the pop-tops for money to pay for her daughter’s immunotherapy treatments. At first, there was laughter. Then the voice on the other end told her there’s no such program. “She actually laughed because she couldn’t believe that the kids had collected so many,” Bohli said. “To me, it was just so outstanding that these kids made such a fantastic effort to help Jenny.” Walker Jones, community relations director for Coca-Cola in Birmingham, said that while the company works with some cancer-related charities, it does not redeem pop-tops for medical treatments. Jones doesn’t know who perpetuates the pop-tops rumor, but it has been fizzing around for some time. “I think the myth has been going on for over 20 years,” she said.1 There’s nothing special about pull tabs which makes them exchangeable for time on a dialysis machine. These bits of metal are worth nothing more than the ordinary recycle value of the aluminum they contain. Though rumor claims pull tabs are especially valuable because they’re made of “pure aluminum,” they’re actually formed from an aluminum alloy, just like the rest of the can (albeit of a slightly different type). A million pull tabs have a recycle value of about $366 U.S. And that’s before you factor in what it costs to collect, store, and transport them to a recycling center which will pay cash for them. When you consider the time and effort it takes to collect a million of anything, it’s a wonder anyone would go to all that trouble for a mere $366. Far better to ask everyone you know for a penny in place of each pull tab they would have given you — at least then when you were done collecting your million, you’d have $10,000 to donate to your charity. To put this in even clearer perspective, 100 pull tabs have a scrap metal value of about 3½¢. That old “something for nothing” dream gets people every time. Spring 1997 produced a poignant example of this madness in the form of a news story about a crippled child in a remote Canadian community and that community’s good-hearted belief that if only they could save up eight million pull tabs, they could get her a much-needed wheelchair. The local community health center made a project of collecting these little bits of metal, and it was only after they’d gathered more than a million that they realized not only didn’t they have a buyer for them, they also hadn’t figured out how they were going to transport them from their town (roughly 2500 miles north of Montreal) to any place with a recycling plant: “We just thought we needed eight million tabs,” said Linda Tucktoo, who helped organize the drive and assumed there was a program to trade tabs for wheelchairs. “I didn’t know it was so much trouble.” Charity groups and the aluminum industry say they have been fighting misconceptions about collecting pop can tabs for years. “Unfortunately, it’s one of those urban myths,” said Denise Bekkema, executive director of Storefront for Volunteer Agencies in Yellowknife. “We actually get calls, probably about two a year, from people who have collected oodles and oodles of tabs from pop cans and then wanting to donate them to make wheelchairs. But there’s actually no such program.” This tale had a happy ending in that the Royal Canadian Legion arranged and paid for the transportation costs of getting all those pull tabs to a recycling centre, someone else donated a used wheelchair, Air Canada shipped the chair for free to the little girl, and a Canadian wheelchair manufacturer also offered to make a brand-new chair for her. Others whose hearts were in the right place haven’t been as fortunate. The experience of Dave and Beryl Hodge of Houston is typical. They saved pull tabs for two years, enlisting the help of friends, neighbors and relatives in their project. A local service club (who had themselves been taken in by this rumor) had led them to believe these tabs could be redeemed for dialysis treatment for a kidney patient: “It’s folklore. It’s something that people want to believe, and people are just heartsick when they find out no one will redeem these things.” Mrs. Hodge, 64, said she was indeed heartsick when she recently learned her time, energy and tabs were devoted to a non-existent cause. “We had so many people saving these for us that it reached the point where every time we’d see a friend or neighbor, they’d hand over some tabs to us,” she said. “We had family back in Connecticut mailing them to us. We were turning cans without the tabs over to the senior citizens at the YWCA, and they in turn were giving us their tabs.” Rumor not only dashes the hopes of those trying to do a good deed; it also causes endless headaches for those in the recycling business: “We don’t even take tabs and we’ve never advertised that we do,” says Phil McEvers of Houston’s American Reclaiming Corp. “But it’s not unusual for us to get 30 or 40 calls a day from people who say they’ve heard these things.” While some Houston recycling companies do buy tabs, dealers say the prices range from about 10 cents to 28 cents per pound — much less than prices purported for gallon quantities. “People will come up here and just swear to you that these tabs can get an hour for somebody on a (dialysis) machine, and nothing you tell them will convince them that it’s not so,” says O’Neil Short, president of Houston’s Micon Recycling. “Some of them come with the gallon containers wanting $75 a gallon, and when we explain it’s not worth $75, they pull out of the driveway mad.” “They just flat think we’re lying to them.” Micon no longer will buy the tabs at all, said Short. One of the many companies victimized by this rumor is Reynolds Aluminum. They’ve come up with an effective reply to the pull-tabs question: a redirection of these lovingly-collected tabs into their normal recycling program, for which they pay standard scrap metal rates. (Obviously, collecting whole cans would be far more effective, but facts have never slowed down anyone running with a good rumor firmly between his teeth.) As one of their 1993 brochures read: Keep Tabs On Your Cans This Program Might Have A Familiar Ring False rumors have plagued the aluminum industry and the National Kidney Foundation for years concerning beverage can pull tabs and kidney dialysis. Across the nation, at various times, word has spread that aluminum can pull tabs could be recycled in exchange for time on a kidney dialysis machine for someone with kidney disease. Many well intentioned yet misinformed groups and individuals collected pull tabs only to find that there was no pull tab/kidney dialysis donation program. It never existed. Anywhere. In some cases it was even very difficult to collect the tabs because of the fact that many cans now have a device called Stay-On-Tab ™, a design improvement to all-aluminum cans which keep the tab attached to the can after opening. Yet even then people would remove the tabs and bring them to a Reynolds Aluminum recycling center, only to find the sum of their efforts much less than they had hoped . . . no dialysis and much less money than if they had brought the cans that were originally attached to the tab. There was nothing they could do, and nothing we could do . . . . . . Until Now Reynolds Aluminum Recycling Company (RARCO) and the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) affiliates and chapters have initiated this “Keep Tabs on Your Cans” turnaround drive. RARCO and NKF are seeking groups and individuals who will recycle aluminum through Reynolds, donating the proceeds to the National Kidney Foundation local chapters and affiliates. It’s Simple The group or individual collects recyclable used aluminum beverage cans, aluminum pie plates, foil, frozen food and dinner trays, as well as many other forms of recyclable aluminum, then brings it to a Reynolds recycling center. The recycler then requests that the money earned from the recycling transaction be donated directly to the National Kidney Foundation. Reynolds provides the recycler/contributor with an itemized receipt for record keeping and tax purposes. Periodically, the donations are totaled, and Reynolds sends a donation to the nearest chapter or affiliate of the National Kidney Foundation. How Will This Donation Help? Diseases of the kidney and urinary tract are a major cause of illness and death in the United States. The National Kidney Foundation and its 50 affiliates and 200 chapters comprise the primary health organization in the U.S. which fights this disease. Your donation will finance research, treatment, diagnosis, detection, and cure of kidney and urinary tract diseases. From Hoax To Help Bring your aluminum cans and other household aluminum to any Reynolds Aluminum Recycling center and ask to have the proceeds sent to the National Kidney Foundation. For the location and schedule of the (Reynolds Aluminum) recycling center nearest you, simply call (toll-free) [out-of-service number removed], or for more information write the National Kidney Foundation, Inc., 30 East 33rd Street, New York, New York, 10016. (Reynolds has since sold off its recycling operation to Wise Metals.) Seeing as how folks were bound and determined to collect pull-tabs for charity, in 1987 McDonald’s found it a good idea to get into the act. Their Pop Tab Collection program is a response to pull tab mania, and it at least provides folks with a place to dump the tabs they’ve been hoarding over the years in the belief they could use them to purchase dialysis time for an ailing child. Tabs dropped off at various McDonald’s are taken to a local recycling company, and the money made from selling them for their scrap value is given to the local Ronald McDonald House to help defray operating costs. (Ronald McDonald houses are inexpensive family lodgings located near hospitals. Families of sick children stay there so as to be close to their hospitalized child. Typically, it costs the house $40 a night a room to operate and families are asked to make a donation of $10 a night when they stay. The shortfall is made up through various charitable endeavors, of which the pull-tab collection and recycling program is but one.) It needs be stressed yet again that pull tabs are far from “found money” — even the Shriners Hospitals for Children, another organization that uses money received from the recycling of aluminum tabs for a good cause, noted in April 2007 that the recycling price for aluminum tabs is $0.50 to $0.70 per pound, which means that even at the upper end of that price range, they’re only getting about $427 per million tabs collected. Prospective donors could still do far more good by organizing a local soda can recycling program and donating the proceeds to the Ronald McDonald House (or any other charity). The Bottom Line: No charitable organization will pay out a premium (in cash, goods, or services) for pull tabs from aluminum cans. Some of them will indeed accept donations of pull tabs, but all they pay (or receive) in exchange for those tabs is their marginal value as scrap aluminum. Anyone gathering pull tabs for charity would do far better to collect whole cans; accumulating nothing but pull tabs is like eschewing quarters in order to collect pennies. (From time to time, various companies will run programs under which they offer to donate money to charities in exchange for consumers’ collecting and returning some item of product packaging [e.g., pull tabs, boxtops, wrappers], but such companies only accept packaging from their own products, and their object in operating these programs is to promote and advertise their brands.)
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25903
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The United Nations’ “new world order” agenda will create one world government with one world military and the end of national sovereignty.
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A spokesperson at the U.N. confirmed the photo in the Facebook post was fake. The document depicted in the photo references two action plans from the U.N., but distorts the substance of those plans.
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false
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Environment, Climate Change, Economy, Viral image,
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"A May 9 Facebook post is claiming that the United Nations is planning to create ""one world government"" by 2030. Under the vision, the post says, private property is banned and family units are destroyed. The post shares a photo of what looks like a document titled ""New World Order UN Agenda 21/2030."" It includes a purported list of 25 goals that the United Nations aims to achieve by 2030. ""This is not a conspiracy theory,"" the caption says. It suggests the document can easily be found on the internet. ""If you don’t believe it, a simple google search will take you to the UN website where you can access the document and read it for yourself. It is amazing (not) how well the Covid-19 plandemic ties in with Agenda 21/2030."" Among the agenda items listed on the document depicted in the post is the end to all national sovereignty, private property and single-family homes; government control of businesses, schools and child-rearing; and ""the end of the family unit."" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) It has racked up thousands of shares on Facebook and Twitter A United Nations spokesperson told PolitiFact that the document and the agenda it outlined is . ""This is not an authentic U.N. document,"" the spokesperson said in an email. (AFP and BuzzFeed have previously fact checked this photo and deemed it .) The post refers to two numbers — 21 and 2030 — that are connected to actual U.N. documents. ""Agenda 21"" is a non-binding plan of action that was created at the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. It examines the connection between environmental, social and economic issues affecting communities world-wide, and proposes solutions for sustainable development and combating poverty, with private-sector involvement. It calls for strengthening the role of women, local leaders, workers, farmers, entrepreneurs and even private business and industry in promoting sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by each country in the U.N. in 2015. The agenda includes 17 sustainable-development goals that are to be achieved over 15 years, including ending poverty and hunger, achieving gender equality, combating climate change, and ensuring access to clean water and affordable energy. There are some common threads between the goals in the 2030 U.N. plan and what’s listed in the Facebook post, but in each case, the post exaggerates or distorts them. For example, the U.N.’s 2030 agenda proposes a goal of reducing the rates of child and maternal mortality in every country. This goal supports research and development of vaccines and medicines for diseases primarily affecting developing countries, according to the U.N. But it doesn’t call for ""mandatory multiple vaccines"" or ""the ban of natural non synthetic drugs and naturopathic medicine"" as the Facebook post claims. Similarly, the U.N. agenda advocates for free, suitable and quality primary and secondary education and lifelong learning opportunities. But it says nothing about ""government owned and controlled schools."" The U.N. agenda includes ensuring universal access to ""affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy,"" not the end of private transportation or fossil fuels, as the Facebook post says. The caption on the post invokes the term ""plandemic"" to suggest that the COVID-19 crisis is aligned with the purported U.N. agenda. ""Plandemic"" is the title of a 26-minute video airing various conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 crisis. PolitiFact fact-checked eight of the most misleading claims in the video, which Facebook and YouTube removed. We also fact-checked another doctored United Nations document in 2013 that claimed a civilian gun confiscation plan was in the works in the United States, and was created through Agenda 21. We rated it . A photo posted to Facebook claims the United Nations is creating a ""new world order"" that would initiate a one world government, one world military and the end of national sovereignty, among a list of agenda items. The list alludes to a real action plan, Agenda 21, that was created in 1992, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which introduced 17 goals. Those action plans were created to end poverty and inequality, not to create a totalitarian government. They are also nonbinding. Some of the post’s listed goals seem to link to the 17 goals introduced by the U.N., but they exaggerate or manipulate the meaning and proposed outcomes of the action plans."
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37613
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If you make $50,000/year, $36 of your taxes goes to food stamps. $4,000 goes to corporate subsidies.
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‘If You Make $50,000/Year, $36 of Your Taxes Goes to Food Stamps, $4,000 Goes to Corporate Subsidies’
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false
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Fact Checks, Viral Content
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A February 14 2020 tweet about “socialism” and a putative $50,000 wage earner paying $36 in tax towards food stamps and $4,000 towards corporate subsidies went wildly viral, appearing in screenshots on Facebook and discussion forums in the following days:So, you hate socialism, ya say?If you make $50,000/year, $36 of your taxes goes to food stamps. $4,000 goes to corporate subsidies.If the $36 upsets you more than the $4,000, then you just hate poor people – not socialism.— Sergio Siano (@SergioJSiano) February 15, 2020Attempting to make the point Americans believed they “hated socialism” while unknowingly already tolerating it, it read:So, you hate socialism, ya say?If you make $50,000/year, $36 of your taxes goes to food stamps. $4,000 goes to corporate subsidies.If the $36 upsets you more than the $4,000, then you just hate poor people – not socialism.Twitter doesn’t make the inclusion of citations easy due to its character limits, and the tweet had none. In its replies, different version of similar or identical ck appeared:pic.twitter.com/I8WTMYoClU— IM14U2NV (@Im14N) February 15, 2020Another long-circulating version had more detail, but like the tweet and response, contained the same two figures: $36 in taxes paid for food stamps, and $4,000 paid for corporate subsidies:Right off the bat, some clear contextual information was absent from the breakdown of figures was markedly implausible. A $50,000 wage earner with a spouse and children, for instance, carried a far different tax burden than the same $50,000 wage earner who was unmarried and without children — and those figures again varied wildly between states. If accurate, the figures could have been averaged or otherwise weighted, but without a clear source, they could just have easily been plucked from the ether.Moreover, the third example included citations from 2012 and 2013, before tax brackets changed in 2017. As of 2020, the distribution of tax burden shifted, so figures from 2012 and 2013 wouldn’t necessarily be accurate in 2020.In the third example above, two “sources” were cited — a 2013 post on the progressive site Common Dreams, and “https://www.whitehouse.gov/2012-taxreceipt.” The second of the two links led to a “page not found” error,” but the link was archived.Unfortunately, it appeared the archived page was at one time a calculator, now offline and largely not functional. Remaining on the page were percentages broken down for all tax revenue collected and spent on government functions.Those categories were as followed in percentage of total income tax collected:Obviously, none of the categories on the 2012 Tax Receipt calculator were labeled “corporate subsidies,” but one was labeled “Food and nutrition assistance,” likely the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, or “food stamps.” Its percentage was 3.89, but without a ballpark estimate of total tax paid on $50,000, it was difficult to validate the $36 figure outright.As for the Common Dreams item in question, it was published in September 2013, titled “Add It Up: The Average American Family Pays $6,000 a Year in Subsidies to Big Business.” The claim here was that the average American subsidized “big business” to the tune of $6,000, not $4,000.Although Common Dreams is a progressive website, its basis for the piece was information published in 2012 by libertarian-leaning think tank the Cato Institute (founded in part by Charles Koch), and the article began:$6,000.That’s over and above our payments to the big companies for energy and food and housing and health care and all our tech devices. It’s $6,000 that no family would have to pay if we truly lived in a competitive but well-regulated free-market economy.The $6,000 figure is an average, which means that low-income families are paying less. But it also means that families (households) making over $72,000 are paying more than $6,000 to the corporations.One of the two sources — the Common Dreams piece from 2013 — included some very fluid estimates, by their own admission:The Cato Institute estimates that the U.S. federal government spends $100 billion a year on corporate welfare. That’s an average of $870 for each one of America’s 115 million families. Cato notes that this includes “cash payments to farmers and research funds to high-tech companies, as well as indirect subsidies, such as funding for overseas promotion of specific U.S. products and industries…It does not include tax preferences or trade restrictions.”It does include payments to 374 individuals on the plush Upper East Side of New York City, and others who own farms, including Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, and Ted Turner. Wealthy heir Mark Rockefeller received $342,000 to NOT farm, to allow his Idaho land to return to its natural state.It also includes fossil fuel subsidies, which could be anywhere from $10 billion to $41 billion per year for research and development. Yet this may be substantially underestimated. The IMF reports U.S. fossil fuel subsidies of $502 billion, which would be almost $4,400 per U.S. family by taking into account “the effects of energy consumption on global warming [and] on public health through the adverse effects on local pollution.” According to Grist, even this is an underestimate.As the information in the article transitioned to meme format, it’s possible the “would be almost $4,400 per U.S. family” line evolved into “each individual American taxpayer contributes $4,000 of $50,000 to corporate subsidies,” even though that particular line was speculation stacked upon speculation.So how much in tax does a $50,000 wage earner pay? Is there some sort of average? A 2017 Motley Fool article (“How Much Income Tax Will I Pay if I Make $50,000?”) about different tax scenarios notes that a number of factors made it near impossible to tack a tax rate to an average salary, but outlays two different taxation scenarios to make some estimates:Two factors arguably play the largest role in what your tax liability will be: your filing status and the number of family members you have in your household. In general, the smaller your household is, the more tax you’ll pay for a given income figure.As an example, take a single person making $50,000 per year. We’ll assume that this person has no children or other dependents and has insufficient itemized deductions to justify not taking the standard deduction. To keep things simple, we’ll also assume that all of this person’s income comes from a regular job with an employer.In this case, gross income of $50,000 will be reduced by a standard deduction of $6,350 and a single personal exemption of $4,050. That makes taxable income equal to $39,600. That’s just barely enough to push the taxpayer into the 25% tax bracket, and the tax will be $5,638.50. Notice that even though the marginal tax rate is 25%, the effective tax rate over the entire $50,000 in income is just over 11%.To see just how different a tax situation can be, take a similar example but with a much different family structure. Instead of a single person, say that you have a married couple with two children with total household income of $50,000. In order to make comparisons simpler, we’ll keep the rest of the assumptions the same: taking the standard deduction with all income coming from regular job pay.In this situation, you start with the same $50,000 in gross income, but the standard deduction is twice as much at $12,700. Two spouses and two children add up to four personal exemptions, which at $4,050 each reduces your taxable income by $16,200. That yields just $21,100 in taxable income. Under the married joint filer rate structure, that puts you barely into the 15% bracket, and the initial tax calculation yields just $2,232.50 in taxes.Yet that’s just the start. Assuming that the two children qualify for the child tax credit, this family can reduce their tax burden by another $2,000. That brings the total tax bill down to just $232.50, and the effective tax rate on their $50,000 income is less than 0.5%.In the first scenario of an unmarried person with no children earning $50,000, an estimated 11 percent tax rate yielded around $5,638.50 in total taxes. In the second, a married couple with two children (and tax credits), an initial $2,232.50 calculation was lowered to $232.50 and a .5 percent tax rate on their $50,000 income.It goes without saying that the second wage earner was not paying $4,000 in tax to corporate subsidies, since they paid only $232.50 when credits applied for their two children. And even if we look at the $5,638.50 estimate applied to the first unmarried $50,000 wage earner, $4,000 was 70 percent of the total tax they’d pay in that scenario.Going back to the 2012 Tax Receipt calculator breakdowns, 24.64 percent of income went to “National Defense,” 22.45 percent went to “Health care,” and 17.26 percent went to “Job and Family Security.” Together, those categories accounted for 64.35 percent of tax paid in 2012 per the calculator, or $3,628.47 of the $5,638.50 of the taxpayer’s total tax paid.We also could measure those two tax figures — $232.50 and $5,638.50 — against the 3.89 percent of tax paid for SNAP and related services. Of $232.50, 3.89 percent was $9. Of $5,638.50, 3.89 percent was $219.34. If any person paid $900 in total taxes per year, the 3.86 percent would roughly equal $36 — the figure in the meme. But a key element in doing the math was that there’s a number of scenarios where a $50,000 wage earner wouldn’t even pay $4,000 in tax — much less $4,000 in tax for corporate welfare.Ultimately, we tried to tack the tweet and meme’s claims “if you make $50,000/year, $36 of your taxes goes to food stamps[and] $4,000 goes to corporate subsidies” to any sort of known breakdown of taxes paid and spent on services, but neither figure seemed rooted in reality. We were unable to specifically validate the $4,000 in corporate subsidies claim, because none of the categories on the source of a tax receipt were explicitly labeled “corporate subsidies.” It was true that the overall share of tax paid to fund SNAP or food stamps was a relatively low 3.89 percent, per the source, but that only worked out to $36 if a person paid $900 in total tax. Because so much has changed since the original articles appeared, and because the original articles relied on fuzzy math by their own admission.
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10456
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Ibuprofen may be better than prescription for kids with breaks
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This story about a study on pain relief for kids with broken arms is essentially accurate, yet it fails to convey key clinical implications. The study and story both conclude that ibuprofen is about as effective a pain reliever as a more powerful narcotic combination drug, acetaminophen/codeine, while producing fewer undesirable side effects. Both state that the simple over the counter medication should be used as a first-line treatment. Yet the story seizes on the structure of the trial to imply the treatments are used by two warring camps of doctors and that this study settles the dispute. But this is not the case. Over-the-counter pain relievers are usually the first line treatment, and the combo drug is usually provided as a fallback in case the first one doesn’t provide sufficient relief. The findings confirm rather than challenge clinical practice. Along the way, the report suffers from a few omissions: It fails to state high in the story that the two treatments provided similar pain relief–and to report anywhere that both left between 20 and 30 percent of patients seeking a second-line treatment. We are told that ibuprofen was found to be superior to acetaminophen plus codeine. We do not know if this was simply a numerical difference, a clinically significant difference or a statistically significant difference. The story does provide numbers on the differences in side effects, but again does not provide the context. Was the difference statistically significant or simply a numeric difference. The story also assumes that all side effects are created equal. The reader is not provided with any information about the severity of the side effects seen in each study group. Without that information, the numeric difference may not be clinically important. That said, the reporter gets extra points for pointing out the study’s limitations–that it speaks only to the narrow question of pain relief for kids with broken arms, that it does not make a broader Advil-vs.-Tylenol comparison, and that it has no bearing on a recent controversy over the dangers of taking too much acetaminophen. Which is to say: The story does a good job of telling us what the study doesn’t say. It could have done better telling us what it does.
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true
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"Ibuprofen costs about a dime per pill, the acetaminophen/codeine combo around a dollar [both vary with dose, quantity and source]. The story makes a brief reference to the price difference, saying the ""cheap, over-the-counter"" drug was safer and as effective. The story therefore earns a satisfactory rating, but just barely. At a time of intense interest in health care costs, reporters should routinely and explicitly report the price of treatments and medications–especially when their effectiveness is being compared. Oddly, the story fails to deliver the results of the primary finding–that the kids in both treatment groups experienced about the same pain relief–until the 10th paragraph in a 16-paragraph story. Twice in the first three sentences it is said the kids taking ibuprofen ""did better,"" which implies they got more pain relief. Not until paragraph 11 do we learn that kids ""did better"" by experiencing fewer side effects–30 percent of patients in the ibuprofen group vs. 50 percent in the combo drug group. This is too little quantification too late. Especially given how we’ve seen that subscribers of the AP service often chop off the bottom of the original stories. The story, like the study itself, focuses on the side effects of both medications. The report states that the combination drug causes sleepiness and nausea, and that the kids experienced this as problems with eating, sleeping and playing. It says ibuprofen caused similar side effects, but they were not as frequent or troublesome. Still, there is not enough detail on the negative side effects, given the fact that the difference is the key finding. For instance, one day after discharge, 25 percent of children in the ibuprofen group had problems eating, compared to 45 percent taking the combo drug. The higher satisfaction ratings mostly reflects kids’ preference for the taste of the ibuprofen solution. The story is based on a peer-reviewed double-blinded clinical trial. The story provides enough detail to allow readers to appreciate the high quality of evidence. The story flags two key limitations of the evidence–that it does not apply to any pain other than broken arms during the first three days of treatment, and that it should not be taken to mean ibuprofen is superior to acetaminophen alone. And finally, the reporter gets extra points for mentioning that this evidence has no bearing on a recent FDA committee recommendation about the side effects of acetaminophen. The story does nothing to exaggerate the prevalence or severity of kids’ broken bones. Indeed, it does a good job specifying that up to 1 in 5 kids breaks a bone before 10. The reporter quotes two physicians, the study leader and a pain researcher. While the second doctor is presented as an independent authority, in fact he is the study’s supervising editor. This should have been disclosed–or, better, a truly independent source should have been consulted. Nonetheless, we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. The two treatments compared are by far those most commonly used in clincial practice, so it’s not necessary to include other treatment options. It would have been worth mentioning that a typical post-discharge treatment for pain relief is to use either ibuprofen or acetaminophen alone, with the acetaminophen/codeine offered as a fallback if the first treatment doesn’t provide sufficient relief. This would have put the two treatment options in proper context. The story states that ibuprofen is available over the counter, and that acetaminophen/codeine is available by prescription. The two treatments tested are very common; their novelty is not in question. There is no evidence that the story draws excessively on the press release."
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8547
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Turkey's fight against coronavirus fails to heal divisions, opponents say.
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President Tayyip Erdogan has evoked Turkey’s war of independence in calls for unity against the coronavirus, but opposition parties say their exclusion from fund-raising efforts and the detention of government critics is instead fuelling division.
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true
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Health News
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The government’s initial response to the outbreak appeared to have public support. A survey by pollster Metropoll on Wednesday showed a strong rise in Erdogan’s approval rating to 55.8% in March, when the first cases emerged in Turkey. But more than 200 people have been arrested for social media posts on the pandemic and Erdogan, who obtained sweeping new powers in a 2018 switch to a presidential system, has blocked opposition aid campaigns, saying only the state can raise funds. “The lack of a presidency that embraces all its citizens and unites them is felt more than ever today,” Faik Oztrak, a spokesman for the main opposition CHP, told reporters this week. Erdogan’s AK Party, in power since 2002, was putting its own interests first “even during an extraordinary pandemic”, he said, and failing to provide sufficient financial support for millions impacted by the outbreak. The AK Party has strongly dismissed such criticism, saying it aims to belittle the country’s achievements. “A result where everybody wins, where Turkey comes out of crises successfully, is always a nightmare scenario for this sick mentality,” AKP spokesman Omer Celik said on Tuesday. The government’s measures, he said, were aimed at building national solidarity. Ankara initially announced a $15 billion economic package and the government has offered to pay 60% of the wages of those whose work has been hit by the crisis. It also plans legislation temporarily banning layoffs to curb an expected jump in unemployment, two senior officials told Reuters on Thursday. The government has raised 1.4 billion lira ($207 million) for those facing hardship through a “National Solidarity Campaign”. Around 50 million has been raised in small donations via SMS while state bodies and banks made the largest contributions, with the central bank donating 100 million lira. But the CHP has criticised Erdogan for only involving mayors from the AKP in fund-raising efforts despite his calls for solidarity. A money-raising campaign launched by Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a CHP member, was declared illegal. Former Erdogan ally and prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who formed his own Future Party in December, said the fundraising campaign was a waste of time. “There can be nothing more senseless than state institutions taking part in an aid campaign. You’re just taking money out of one pocket and putting it in the other,” he said. Teachers union Egitim-Sen said it had received information that teachers were pressed to contribute. The spread of COVID-19 in Turkey has accelerated in recent days, with more than 4,000 new cases confirmed on Wednesday and the death toll rising to 812. Criticism of Ankara’s response to the pandemic has faced scrutiny. The Interior Ministry says it has investigated nearly 4,000 social media accounts for “provocative” coronavirus posts, identifying 616 suspects and detaining 229 of them. Among those facing investigation is a prominent TV anchor who questioned on Twitter whether the government would raid depositors’ bank accounts after Erdogan referred to a war-time tax imposed 100 years ago. The tax law, which requisitioned vehicles, goods and weapons during the country’s war of independence in 1921, was cited by Erdogan as an example of the sacrifice and solidarity that the nation had shown in the past. Erdogan’s lawyer called for prosecutors to investigate the presenter for insulting the president. The Interior Ministry said the social media criticism was driven by Kurdish militants and people linked to a network the government says was behind a 2016 coup attempt. Mithat Sancar, co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said the government needed to involve all sections of society to win people over. “The government in Turkey thinks it can manage this outbreak with fines, detentions and donation campaigns,” Sancar told the T24 news website. “They know these methods won’t work.”
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10070
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M.D. Cheats Death, Stands Up To Own Cancer
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Few people could argue that adopting a healthy lifestyle by eating a diet full of fruits and vegetables, getting enough exercise and reducing stress, are all positive things that one can do to improve our overall wellbeing. Undoubtedly these things will make us feel better, but will they protect us from getting cancer? Will they keep us from dying of a cancer we have or prevent a cancer we have already treated from coming back? These are difficult questions that are hard to answer. It is one thing to say lifestyle changes are good for you but another to make big claims about what they can or cannot do for cancer. This story falls into these familiar traps. That lifestyle changes have little to no risk does not excuse the fact that there is paltry evidence to back up the claims. There is little in the way of helpful information for consumers in this story. What does adopting lifestyle changes involve? Does one need to do all of the changes mentioned in the story? How much of a benefit could one expect? Furthermore, because the story does not include any quotes from any experts in this research area, it lacks any real balance or specific information.
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mixture
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"It is not necessary for the story to discuss the costs of such common items, however it would have been nice if the story had mentioned that eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables could be more expensive than the traditional Western diet. The story does not attempt to quantify the benefits of a healthy diet in terms of cancers prevented or improved survivorship. The story rightly points out that there are few drawbacks to adopting a healthy lifestyle. The story does not adequately describe the strength of the available evidence. The story makes such sweeping and varied claims that it is difficult to discern exactly what are the treatments or outcomes that are being discussed. What lifestyle changes are necessary? Diet, exercise, and stress are all mentioned but it is not clear what exactly these mean. Furthermore, the story appears to alternate between claims that lifestyle changes can treat existing cancer, prevent a cancer from recurring, or prevent cancer from occuring in the first place. These are all very different claims that need to be explained and backed up with evidence. The story does not exaggerate the seriousness or prevalence of cancer and thereby avoids disease mongering. However, it would have been nice if the story had been more clear about different types of cancer in which there may be more or less evidence of an effect of diet. To lump them all together is a gross oversimplification. The story only quotes one physician, who is also a patient. The story could have been greatly improved by quoting an expert or researcher in this field who is not so emotionally involved. The story mentions a grab-bag of ""lifestyle changes"" but does not do anything to describe what they involve (do you have to do them all?) or the pros and cons of the different options. Clearly fruits and vegetables, spices and green tea, and physical activity – mentioned in the story – are all widely available. A healthy diet is clearly not a new idea. There is no way to know if the story relied on a press release as the sole source of information. We do know that it relies on only one source – who’s promoting his book – and on a network that is cross-promoting its involvement in a cancer telethon."
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3005
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Arizona governor to close prison, calls for veteran tax cut.
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Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Monday said he is renaming the state Department of Corrections to highlight a new focus on rehabilitation and closing the oldest state prison in a move that will save nearly $275 million over three years.
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true
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Arizona, Prisons, Health, General News, Doug Ducey
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The Republican governor highlighted the moves in his State of the State address before a joint session of the state House and Senate. The prison system will now be called the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry and corrections officers will get another raise, following up on a 10% increase they got last year, if lawmakers agree. Closing the Florence prison, which is more than 100 years old and houses about 3,800 male inmates, will also help boost staffing at nine other male state prisons, notably the nearby Eyman prison. Corrections has about a 20% corrections officer vacancy rate systemwide. The prisoners in Florence would be sent to other facilities, including some to private prisons that contract with the state, and low-level offenders could be sent to county jails. Ducey said focusing on rehabilitation and re-entry programs will pay off, noting that 3,900 inmates have completed second chance programs and more than 2,400 had jobs on their release. “We know these programs work,” Ducey said. “This year we are doubling down on this successful model, to give more individuals their opportunity at a better choice and a better life.” The governor didn’t mention sentencing reform, but some Republican lawmakers and all Democrats are pushing a revamp in state law to cut sentences for non-violent offenders. The governor also said he plans to boost funding for K-12 schools, including more money to fund school counselors and campus police officers. Last year, the budget provided $20 million in new counselor and officer cash, but schools applied for more than $90 million in funding. Career and technical education will get a boost, and the governor said he will restore all $371 million in cash that districts use for books, curriculum, buses and some large capital outlays that was cut after the Great Recession two years ahead of schedule. That 5-year plan was announced in 2018. “In total, we’ve pumped $4.5 billion in new investments into Arizona schools,” Ducey said. “With our latest budget, that figure will rise to $6.6 billion. And we’ve done all that without raising taxes.” The governor also touted infrastructure projects he wants to fund, including $78 million for a new Interstate 10 bridge over the Gila River along the highway between Tucson and Phoenix. The widened bridge will help accelerate the complete widening of the route to three lanes. The governor spent a good deal of his speech touting Arizona’s economy, its growing population and his push to cut regulations and government in general. “In Arizona, we believe in maximizing freedom and limiting government,” he said. “We believe government should do fewer things, but do the things it does well.” “Let’s continue hacking away at the permanent bureaucracy and the ‘mother may I’ state.” As part of that push, he announced a new executive order that any new regulation must repeal three others, and he wiped out 18 boards and commissions he considered unneeded. He also vowed to sign legislation requiring boards that oversee professions to have a majority of public members instead of insiders. Any licensing board that has a major budget surplus would be required to suspend its fees. Veterans would benefit too: The governor wants to exempt military pensions from the state’s income tax, a move that would cost $45 million but save an average military retiree about $900 a year. “Our vets have already earned their benefits. Put their lives on the line,” Ducey said. “The government shouldn’t be taxing their service to the country.” Ducey pledged to oppose any tax increases, drawing rousing applause in the Republican-led Legislature hours after education interests proposed an income-tax hike for people making more than $250,000. The governor called on insurance companies to improve coverage for mental health as the state faces a growing number of suicides among young people. Today’s children face a variety of pressures foreign to adults, including social media, loneliness and vaping, he said. “Insurance companies should be covering mental health just like they cover an annual physical,” Ducey said. Arizona has seen a 50% increase in suicides by people younger than 18 in the past two years, according to the Arizona Public Health Association. The governor said he’s on the verge of finishing negotiations with Arizona’s Native American tribes on “a modern, updated agreement” governing tribal gaming, but he did not offer specifics. He called for lawmakers to approve a 2020 ballot measure asking voters to amend the state constitution to ban “sanctuary cities,” which restrict cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. Tucson voters in November rejected a sanctuary city initiative that would have further restricted the city’s already limited cooperation on immigration enforcement. Democrats said they liked some things in the speech while others left a sour taste. “I think that was the most Republican State of the State he’s given in a few years,” said Rep. Randall Friese, assistant minority leader. “He started out by bashing taxes and coming down on Tucson. “Certainly there were good things,” Friese added, including restoring school funding, raises for child safety workers, and access to mental health care. “So we might have a budget where we’ll have some overlap and actually have some coalition building,” he said. “I’m hopeful.” Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper contributed to this report.
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10327
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Lap Band Surgery Benefits Very Obese Adolescents
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This news release summarizes an Australian study of the effect of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding surgery (placing an adjustable silicone band around the top part of the stomach) on 21 severely obese adolescents. The release states that two-thirds of the teens lost significant amounts of weight for up to five years and further describes the procedure as “a first option” to manage obesity during adolescence. Researchers quoted in the text repeatedly and appropriately cautioned that the procedure “is not for everyone” and requires careful management, but the release remained determinedly cheery about the outcome. Importantly, it also failed to acknowledge the small sample size in this study and the lack of a control group, as well as the health complications that stymied a few of the participants. Also ignored was that one-third of the 21 participants either failed to lose weight or began to regain it over the course of the study. Lap band surgery for severely obese teens is clearly no panacea. Obesity is a major health problem the world over, with nearly 14% of American teens identified as obese (2015 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System). Obesity brings with it significant physical and psychological problems, with teenagers extremely susceptible to the latter and looking for solutions that do not require behavior change. Any text advising a surgical solution for a non-surgical problem in adolescents must be grounded in sufficient data and, with even that caveat fulfilled, must be cautiously worded to make it clear that most overweight teens would be inappropriate candidates for the procedure. This release fails the first test and does not seem sufficiently worried about the second.
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mixture
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University news release
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The cost of this surgical procedure is missing in action in this release. This is a problem, because costs in the US, as of 2015, average more than $14,000. We give this a tepid “satisfactory.” The release specifies the range of BMI loss for individuals in the study but never gets around to explaining what BMI is or how a reader should interpret the numbers. As discussed in more detail in the Evidence section below, the release doesn’t share that a third of patient volunteers had the laparoscopic bands removed due to no change in weight loss or regained weight. Although the study on which this release was based did reference “minor complications” and symptoms that required removal of the bands among some participants, the release ignores this information. The release misleads readers a bit here. It identifies a sample size of 21 teenagers in the study. That is an accurate count of individuals at the very beginning of the study. But the research report then notes that the all-important follow up data, on which the analysis was based, were ultimately available for only 16 of those individuals. And it also specifies that, in seven cases, the laparoscopic bands were removed at some point in the follow up period because individuals either failed to lose weight or began to regain weight. This suggests that the procedure did not work for at least a third of that already small group of 21. The release also mentions that adolescents with depression were excluded from the study but we’re not told how often those exclusions occurred. The text makes clear that this strategy would be relevant only for severely obese teenagers and then goes on to define that term. But the definition (body mass index over 40/kg/m2 or over 35 kg/m2) will be difficult for the average reader to understand. Funders are not mentioned in the release although that information is provided in the text of the journal article. The study coauthors all claim no conflicts of interest, but that information is not provided either. The release states through a quote from the lead author of the study that the lap band procedure “is a good result when compared to BMI reduction using the few medications available or lifestyle measures,” but offers no actual comparisons with any non-surgical approaches to weight loss. It is clear that lap bands are now in use. The question posed here is whether they would be appropriate for seriously obese teenagers. The release makes it clear that this study’s novel contribution is its effort to gather date from “lap-banded” patients over longer periods of time than did previous studies. The researchers use terms such as “safe” and “effective” to describe the outcome of the banding process. This was apparently not true for at least a third of the sample. Sources in the release do emphasize the use of lap bands as a temporary option for teens, an important point.
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28450
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Louisiana will evict elderly people from nursing homes because Medicaid funds ran out.
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What's true: The state threatened nursing home residents with eviction in the midst of a budget crisis. What's false: Nursing home residents will get to stay in their homes — but other budget cuts will be made.
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mixture
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Politics, budget, louisiana, nursing homes
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In early May 2018, news stories began cropping up reporting that thousands of nursing home residents in Louisiana could soon be evicted. The stories were accompanied by distressing images of frail elderly people packing up and preparing to leave their care facilities, and their alarming nature prompted some readers to ask if the reports were true. Nursing home residents in Louisiana had been sent notices that they would soon be evicted if state funding for Medicaid that pays for their care ran out, against a backdrop of an ongoing budget stalemate. However, since the initial reports came out, state legislators have adjusted the current budget to allow patients to remain in their homes while making drastic cuts in other areas of government. On 9 May 2018, for example, CBS News reported: Eviction notices are going out Thursday to thousands in nursing homes and group homes. Betty Waller, 89, is a polio survivor and lives in a nursing home in Baton Rouge. Her life savings pays for part of her care, but Medicaid is needed for the rest. “I won’t be living under a bridge somewhere, but still it’s a really scary thing,” she said. On July 1, she could be one of about 37,000 people in the state who will lose their Medicaid eligibility if the state doesn’t balance its budget. State lawmakers have since sent an operating budget that shields nursing home residents from eviction to the governor’s desk. According to the Associated Press on 15 May 2018, the budget still includes deep cuts, but avoids evictions: The budget sent back to the House with a 27-10 Senate vote would shield nursing home residents from evictions and keep Louisiana’s safety-net hospitals from closure. But to keep things in balance, senators had to slash spending elsewhere. The proposal would steeply cut state financing to public colleges, eliminate the food stamp program, close the veterans cemetery program, shutter parks and museums, shrink spending on the child welfare agency and scale back public safety programs. The TOPS program would cover only 70 percent of college tuition costs. According to reports, state lawmakers are struggling to close a $648 million budget shortfall that will manifest on 1 July 2018 with the new fiscal year. As of 17 May 2018, they have approved a $28 billion budget and sent it to Governor John Bel Edwards to be signed. Democrat and Republican lawmakers are currently in a stalemate over passing taxes to replace lost revenue that will result when “temporary” taxes approved in previous budget years to fill budget holes expire on 1 July 2018. Per the Times-Picayune: In its current form, the budget fully funds the Louisiana Department of Health, which includes Medicaid money for nursing home residents and the disabled. The first version of the bill to emerge from the House appropriated no money for those programs. To find it, the Senate made a 24.2 percent cut to every other state agency. The reductions include a $96 million cut for higher education and an $80 million cut to the TOPS college scholarship program, which would be 70 percent funded under the bill the House approved Thursday. District attorneys, law enforcement and several other state services also saw their budgets trimmed by nearly a quarter from fiscal year 2017-18 levels. State Republicans accused Edwards of employing an “unnecessary political scare tactic” to force the hand of lawmakers by issuing eviction warnings to nursing home residents. Louisiana lawmakers will convene for a two-week special session starting 22 May 2018, in which they hope to hammer out ways to close the budget hole. We sent a list of detailed questions about the budget to the Louisiana governor’s office, but have not yet received a response.
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7323
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Premier infuriated by Trump, says Canada helped US amid 9/11.
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The premier of a Canadian province that sheltered thousands of stranded American airline passengers after the 9/11 attacks questioned the humanity of U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday after Trump banned the export of N95 protective masks to Canada.
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true
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Health, General News, Donald Trump, Virus Outbreak, Canada, United States
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The conservative leader of another province compared it to one family member feasting while letting another one starve. And yet another premier said it reminded him of 1939 and 1940, when Canada was part of the fight against global fascism while the United States sat out the first years. Canadians across the country expressed hurt and disappointment that their neighbor and longstanding ally is blocking shipments of the masks from the United States to ensure they are available in the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic. Canadian health care workers — like those in the U.S. — are in dire need of the masks that provide more protection against the virus that causes COVID-19. Newfoundland Premier Dwight Ball said one of the great lessons in humanity is that in times of crisis you don’t stop being human. “To say that I’m infuriated by the recent actions of President Trump of the United States is an understatement,” Ball said. “I cannot believe for a second that in a time of crisis that President Trump would even think about banning key medical supplies to Canada.” Ball noted that in 2001, more than 6,600 passengers descended on Gander, Newfoundland, a town of 10,000 without warning as more than 200 flights were diverted to Canada following the attacks on the United States. Flight crews filled Gander’s hotels, so passengers were taken to schools, fire stations, church halls. The Canadian military flew in 5,000 cots. Stores donated blankets, coffee machines, barbecue grills. Locals gave passengers food, clothes, showers, toys and banks of phones to call home free of charge. “Newfoundland and Labrador will never give up on humanity . We will not hesitate for one second if we had to repeat what we did on 9-11. We would do it again,” Ball said. “This is a time when we need to work together to continue to protect our residents and keep them safe from COVID-19 no mater where they live or what passport they hold.” Former Gander Mayor Claude Elliott also said he’s disappointed. “I understand the United States is going through a very dramatic time, especially in New York, and they need a lot of supplies, but we’re fighting an enemy that is just not one state, it’s the whole world,″ Elliott said. “And when we come to those times of tragedy in our life, we need everybody helping each other.″ Trump used his authority under the 1950 Defense Production Act to direct the government to acquire the “appropriate” number of N95 respirators from Minnesota-based 3M and its subsidiaries. He also asked it to stop( exporting such masks, also known as respirators, though 3M issued a statement saying that could have “significant humanitarian implications” for healthcare workers in Canada and Latin America. The company said possible retaliation by other nations could actually lead to fewer of the masks being available in the U.S. Ontario’s conservative Premier Doug Ford also expressed disappointment. “It’s like one of your family members (says), ‘OK, you go starve and we’ll go feast on the rest of the meal.’ I’m just so disappointed right now,” Ford said Saturday. `“We have a great relationship with the U.S. and they pull these shenanigans? Unacceptable.” Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, also a conservative, recalled resentments from the start of World War II: “The United States sat out the first two or three years and actually initially refused to even provide supplies to Canada and the United Kingdom that was leading the fight at the time,” he said. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a more diplomatic approach, saying Sunday he’s confident Canada will still be able to import N95 masks from the U.S. despite the export ban and said he will talk to Trump in the coming days. Trudeau noted Canada supplies the U.S. with many supplies, including pulp for surgical-grade N95 masks, test kits and gloves. Canadian nurses also work in the U.S. Trudeau earlier said Canada won’t bring retaliatory or punitive measures against the United States. “I’m confident we are going to be able to solve this and I look forward to speaking with the president in the coming days,” Trudeau said.
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10623
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The furor over antidepressants
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"This story reports on an FDA panel's recommendation to extend the black-box warning on suicide risk for anti-depressants to young adults ages 18 to 24. The current warning only applies to children and adolescents under the age of 18. This story does a good job of explaining why the panel is recommending this warning and also describing some of the controversy around the decision. Although the story does mention that antidepressants were associated with four extra ""suicidal events"" per 1,000 people treated with antidepressants, the story should have provided more context for these numbers. For example, what is the suicide risk in depressives who are not treated with antidepressants? The story describes the suicide risk from antidepressants at length. The story should have mentioned other side effects of antidepressants such as nausea, sleep disturbance or interactions with other medications. Because the story quotes multiple independent sources, the reader can assume the story did not rely on a press release as the sole source of information. Although the story mentions psychotherapy as an alternative, the story should have provided more content on the pluses and minuses of therapy relative to medication."
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true
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"Because this story reports on harms of antidepressants, a discussion of costs is not necessarily applicable. Although the story does mention that antidepressants were associated with four extra ""suicidal events"" per 1,000 people treated with antidepressants, the story should have provided more context for these numbers. For example, what is the suicide risk in depressives who are not treated with antidepressants? Anecdotes about benefits are given, but not enough data. The story describes the suicide risk from antidepressants at length. The story should have mentioned other side effects of antidepressants such as nausea, sleep disturbance or interactions with other medications. The story adequately describes the analysis the FDA did in issuing the warning. The story also quotes a lawyer who criticizes the analysis. The story does not exaggerate the seriousness or prevalence of depression. The story quotes multiple independent sources who have differing opinions and perspectives. Although the story mentions psychotherapy as an alternative, the story should have provided more content on the advantages and disadvantages of therapy relative to medication. Availability not specifically addressed in article – but widely available in U.S. and didn't need to be addressed. Clearly antidepressants are not new. Because the story quotes multiple independent sources, the reader can assume the story did not rely on a press release as the sole source of information."
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10272
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ArginMax says its studies supports its effect on libido
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"This story was about a product that is sold as a means for improving libido. It included content about many of the criteria that are important in a story making health related claims. Although it didn’t give any details about the other options available to treat ""sagging libido,"" it did provide a balanced report about the featured product. One shortfall is that it failed to mention the potential harms associated with the use of product. This is an important consideration for consumers to factor in when thinking about using any medication or nutraceutical. Overall, though, this was a well-written and researched story."
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true
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"The story included the costs for a one-month supply of this product; it did not, however, mention how long an individual would need to consume this product before experiencing benefit. The story was a little vague in the way it quantified the benefits of treatment, mentioning the proportion of people using the product that experienced ""increased satisfaction"" or ""reporting at least some improvement"". It then included comments from an independent source that explained the inadequacy of such measures. It would seem that the story reported the information available and then provided context for a reader to use when interpreting these results. The story did not contain any mention of harms that might be associated with the use of this product. It did not point out that as a non-regulated product, there is not guarantee about the quality and the quantity of its contents. The story should have mentioned that those with kidney or liver disease might be especially sensitive to changes to electrolyte balance that may occur with this L-arginine. In addition, since L-arginine can affect bleeding, those on anticoagulant or antiplatelet medications should consult with a knowledgeable medical professional. The story provides some of the evidence available on the effectiveness of this product; it also included comments from an independent expert that served to educate readers about the inadequacy of the studies that have been conducted. This story did not engage in disease mongering; to its credit, it did not attempt to provide statistics for the proportion of the population estimated to benefit from this type of product. The story included comments from a company spokesperson (whose conflict of interest was mentioned in the story) as well as an expert in the field who commented about his own published work which was also described in the story. These are not adequate as independent sources of information. However, the story did include comments from a source with expertise germane to the product featured in the story. The story briefly mentioned other options for treatment of ""sagging libido"" – supplements, herbs and tonics. It then pointed out the different approach of the ArginMax supplement – ""The company website provides links to actual scientific studies published in real medical journals, a rarity in the world of libido remedies."" While we didn’t get much detail about the other options, at least they were recognized. The story was explicit about the availability of these product; it mentioned that it is available over-the-counter and can be purchased on-line or at a brick-and-mortar chain that it named. It’s clear from the story that this is not a new product. Does not appear to rely on press release."
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26744
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“The State of Florida has announced measures that all workplaces with 10 employees or more are to have paid mandatory leave to avoid the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus starting on March 6, 2020. All schools are to close for 2 weeks also from March 6th.”
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Florida is not shutting down schools and businesses for two weeks. Anyone who has traveled to countries including China, Iran, Italy or South Korea in the past 14 days needs to “self-isolate for 14 days,” according to the Florida Department of Health.
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false
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Education, Florida, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
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"In Florida, as of March 5, two residents and one non-resident have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Five more people infected abroad were brought back to the state. Nearly 250 others are being monitored, according to the Florida Department of Health. However, that doesn’t mean that all schools and offices with at least 10 workers are being forced to close for two weeks, as a recent Facebook post claims. ""The State of Florida has announced measures that all workplaces with 10 employees or more are to have paid mandatory leave to avoid the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus starting on March 6, 2020,"" the post says. ""All schools are to close for 2 weeks also from March 6th."" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) However, on its website, there is no such directive. Rather, it says anyone who has been to China, Iran, Italy or South Korea in the past 14 days needs to ""self-isolate for 14 days."" It also advises people to ""stay home when you are sick."" Gov. Ron DeSantis did hold a statewide call with school officials on March 4, during which they discussed coronavirus concerns at Florida schools. One recommendation: faculty, staff, students and their family should be encouraged to stay home if they’re feeling sick and self-isolate if they’ve visited any of the aforementioned countries. If the government of a state with more than 20 million people decided to shutter schools and many, many businesses for two weeks — forcing business owners to give their employees paid leave during that time — it would draw wide media attention. There is none. And Florida isn't the only state allegedly forcing schools and businesses to close down. Facebook users are sharing reoprts that Alabama, Alaska and others are taking the same action, but that's not true, either."
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8502
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U.S. sailor from coronavirus-hit aircraft carrier dies after contracting virus.
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A U.S. Navy sailor died on Monday after contracting the coronavirus aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, whose captain was fired after warning his crew would die unnecessarily unless strong action was taken.
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true
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Health News
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The sailor, the first active-duty U.S. servicemember to die from coronavirus complications, was admitted to intensive care on April 9 after being found unresponsive in his quarters. The sailor had tested positive exactly two weeks ago on March 30, the Navy said. “I am keenly aware of the dedication and commitment of our Sailors and Marines in service to our Nation – in war, peace, and this unfamiliar time of COVID-19,” acting Navy Secretary James McPherson said in a statement, adding that he would support their efforts and safety. So far, about 12% of the Theodore Roosevelt’s crew of 4,800 have tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus - in one of the most visible demonstrations of how the pandemic is affecting the U.S. military. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said four additional sailors from the nuclear-powered carrier had been taken to the hospital to be monitored and were in stable condition. The official said that of the 585 personnel on the carrier who had been tested, 428 were asymptomatic while the remainder had shown symptoms. Late last month the aircraft carrier’s commander, Captain Brett Crozier, called on Navy leadership to evacuate the vast majority of the crew and to clean the ship in a letter that leaked to the public - embarrassing the Navy. “We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset - our sailors,” Crozier wrote. That letter by Crozier, which was obtained by a number of news outlets, set in motion a series of events that led to Crozier’s firing and the resignation last week of acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly. Modly’s resignation followed mounting backlash for his firing and ridiculing Crozier. The Navy this week is expected to release the results of an investigation into the events surrounding the letter, and officials have not ruled out reinstating Crozier, who is seen as a hero by the ship’s crew, as captain of the carrier. The Navy has carried out much of what Crozier had been calling for. About 4,000 sailors have been moved from the carrier to facilities in Guam, where the ship has been docked after the number of cases started increasing. Modly’s resignation highlighted the U.S. military’s struggle to meet increasingly competing priorities: maintaining readiness for conflict and safeguarding service members as the virus spreads globally. The episode deepened upheaval in Navy leadership. The Navy’s last secretary was fired in November over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL convicted of battlefield misconduct. The Navy SEAL had won the support of President Donald Trump. In a sign of the impact the virus was having on the Navy, it announced on Monday that another aircraft carrier strike group, the Harry S. Truman, would remain at sea, after completing a deployment in the Middle East, rather than coming into port to protect sailors from getting coronavirus. “In the face of COVID-19, we need to protect our most valuable asset, our people, by keeping the ship out to sea,” Vice Admiral Andrew Lewis, commander U.S. Second Fleet, said in a statement. An update would be provided to the crew and their families in about three weeks. Sailors assigned to four carriers, including the Roosevelt, have now tested positive for the coronavirus.
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37525
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Disinformation purveyors and those who follow them are adopting the perspective that it is better to kill off millions of Americans than sacrifice the economy.
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The ‘Fundamental Problem’ of the ‘2.5% of the Population Which is Generally Expensive to Maintain and Not Productive’ Tweet Controversy
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true
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Fact Checks, Viral Content
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"Viral comments and debates in mid-March 2020 included direct arguments in favor of leveraging COVID-19 deaths as an economic bulwark, often punctuated by screenshots of a purported tweet by San Diego, California lawyer Scott McMillan in which he proposed a secondary “benefit” to increased mortality in at-risk groups due to coronavirus:The fundamental problem is whether we are going to tank the entire economy to save 2.5% of the population which is (1) generally expensive to maintain, and (2) not productive.Images of that comment spread virally on Facebook and Twitter, attributed to McMillan (@scott4670) on March 23 2020. The comment attributed to McMillan was not an outlier; we noted on our general strike page that Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) came under fire for similar remarks during a Fox News appearance that same day.Patrick effectively brought up a question that no one was asking: Whether older Americans were “willing to take a chance on [their] survival in exchange” for bypassing COVID-19 mitigation strategies to minimize a risk of short-term economic damage. Advocating for prioritizing economic gains over public health strategies to reduce transmission, Patrick spoke indirectly but clearly about what he described as a binary choice:“No one reached out to me and said, as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren? And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in … I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me — I have six grandchildren — that what we all care about and what we love more than anything are those children, and I want to live smart and see through this, but I don’t want the whole country to be sacrificed. And that’s what I see.“So, my message is that, let’s get back to work, let’s get back to living, let’s be smart about it, and those of us who are 70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves but don’t sacrifice the country.”(Patrick is not yet 70 as of March 24 2020. )Tucker Carlson, the Fox News talk show host conducting the interview, asked Patrick if he feared economic damage more than excess mortality; Patrick reiterated his stance when Carlson asked if there was something “worse than dying”:Carlson then asked the Texas Republican, “You’re basically saying that this disease could take your life but that’s not the scariest thing to you. There’s something that would be worse than dying.”“If I get sick, I’ll go and try to get better, but if I don’t, I don’t, and I’m not trying to think of any kind of morbid way, Tucker, I’m just saying that we’ve got a choice here and we’re going to be in a total collapse, recession, depression, collapse in our society if this goes on another several months, there won’t be any jobs to come back to for many people … I’m going to be smart, I think all of my fellow grandparents out there are going to be smart. We all wanna live, we wanna live with our grandchildren for as long as we can … But the point is, our biggest gift we give to our country and our children and our grandchildren is the legacy of our country.”Director of United States National Economic Council Larry Kudlow spoke in a similar fashion but was slightly more oblique, alluding to “difficult trade-offs” in COVID-19 mitigation strategy:KUDLOW teases that Trump will try to send people back to work next week: ""We can't shut in the economy… POTUS is right: The cure can't be worse than the disease, & we're gonna have to make some difficult trade-offs… I spoke w/ POTUS about this very subject late last evening."" pic.twitter.com/OV02aLFGxh— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 23, 2020Patrick’s interview prompted significant backlash, and existed in video form (as did Kudlow’s remarks). By contrast, exposure to McMillan’s tweet seemed to primarily occur via circulating screenshots — often (and unsurprisingly) evoking comparisons to the policies of Nazi Germany:In other response tweets, McMillan asked if the term “passive genocide” was a Twitter neologism in response to accusations he advocated for it:What exactly is ""passive genocide""? Is that term defined somewhere or did someone on Twitter just coin it?— Scott A McMillan (@scott4670) March 24, 2020Weighing the economy against avoidable deaths of “not productive” Americans was probably best described as “passive eugenics,” not “passive genocide.” The phrase has existed for more than a century, but “passive eugenics” as describes a strategy was coined no later than 1975, by white nationalist and “population control” activist John Tanton in his paper “The Case for Passive Eugenics.”(Tanton rebranded his population control concerns and eugenicist aims as anti-immigrant some years later over concerns of “Euro-Americans” being “replaced” by immigrants from Latin America; the “think tanks” that he created still exist today — the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Centers for Immigration Studies chief among them — and are often quoted uncritically in the mainstream press; they also have an outsized influence on the Trump administration. )Retweets of McMillan’s “fundamental problem” tweet in the above screenshot remained, evidencing the deletion of the original tweet versus its fabrication and providing a link to the original:This was among the Nazis' rationale for euthenizing the disabled and commiting genocide against Jewish ""parasites"" so it's great that it's just at the tip of people's tongues https://t.co/WbvuSNc1D5— דער יידישער ארבעטער (@JewishWorker) March 23, 2020We were able to archive McMillan’s tweet before he deleted it. Replies to McMillan, typically disapproving ones, were also archived. Once again, comparisons to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust were rife. The population of the United States as of March 2020 was 327 million — and 2.5 percent of 327 million works out to roughly 8.2 million deaths:@destroyed4com4t: That’s 8 million people. You stupid fuck … Motherfucker shrugging off literal Holocaust-range numbers of preventable death to protect his tax returns. I hope you are never capable of a good night’s sleep for the rest of your life. @guillotineshout: This reminds me of some similar rhetoric from 20th century history, though those guys called people “useless eaters”@King23Redlight: In my best Jeff Foxworthy voice – If you have to ponder between the choice of a healthy economy, and 2.5% of all people dying, you just might be a sociopath. @Blunter_: I didn’t realise the corona virus was checking tax receipts@toorsdenote: My octogenarian parents are spending the lockdown teaching their grandkids Latin, meteorology and music. To me, that sounds a hell of a lot more productive than *checks notes* practicing ‘advertising law’.On March 23 2020, Scott McMillan tweeted: “The fundamental problem is whether we are going to tank the entire economy to save 2.5% of the population which is (1) generally expensive to maintain, and (2) not productive.” Although he later deleted the tweet, it continued to spread as a screenshot — and he continued arguing in favor of intentional excess mortality due to COVID-19, in what he (and many, many others) claimed was a binary choice between “the economy” and the survival of fragile Americans."
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10829
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Promising new blood test is first of its kind to detect liver scarring
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The release is an overview of a recent journal article that reports findings on a new blood test that detects liver fibrosis — or scarring of the liver — based on differences in “DNA methylation.” The release says the new technique can also detect the severity of the fibrosis in patients. The release does not, however, discuss cost, potential harms (such as the possibility of misdiagnosis), how this technique may be better than other early diagnostic techniques (such as using magnetic resonance enterography [MRE]), or adequately discuss the limitations of the study. It also engages in some fear-mongering and unjustifiable language. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is not uncommon. An aptly named 2011 paper in the BMJ, “How big a problem is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease?,” points to existing research that states “94% of obese patients…67% of overweight patients…[and] 25% of normal weight patients” in a European population had NAFLD. The paper also notes that “The overall prevalence of NAFLD in people with type 2 diabetes ranges from 40% to 70%.” A 2008 paper estimated NAFLD prevalence at between 20 and 30 percent in developed countries. NAFLD, in itself, is “often considered a relatively benign condition,” according to the 2008 paper. But it can also be a precursor to more serious conditions, such as cirrhosis. In depth analysis of the condition has historically hinged largely on liver biopsies, which require invasive procedures. However, there are now a number of techniques aimed at collecting liver fibrosis data at various stages of the condition’s development. While this release compares the new technique to the use of biopsies, it’s not clear how it compares to any of the other techniques that are in various stages of development.
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false
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Academic medical center news release,Screening tests
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The technique is likely not at the stage of commercial availability so costs would be uncertain. Still, cost isn’t mentioned at all, even in an abstract way. Could this be comparable to the cost of existing diagnostic tools? Cheaper? More expensive? There’s still much work to do to demonstrate the value of this test. The benefits here are not clear, much less quantified. At one point, the release quotes a researcher as saying: “We know that the presence of even mild fibrosis of the liver predicts a worse long-term outcome for patients with NAFLD and so it’s important to be able to detect liver scarring at an early stage.” But why is that important? Are there therapeutic treatments or interventions available to change the course of the disease or otherwise affect the patient’s health and well-being? Lower down, a second researcher is quoted as saying “If we are able to accurately tell the extent of a person’s liver damage with a blood test, and even track the scarring as it gets better or worse, it could provide reassurance for patients, save NHS [National Health Service] resources and avoid patients having to undergo a liver biopsy.” So, the benefit is that patients could avoid having a biopsy? Is that the benefit? Without knowing the prognostic value of the test results, it’s hard to see how it could provide reassurance for patients. As noted above, the value of knowing this diagnosis in terms of directing targeted therapy is uncertain and the authors actually note that their data do not suggest superiority to existing fibrosis biomarkers. There’s no discussion of potential harms. How accurate is the new blood test? Is there a risk of false positives or misdiagnosis — and, if so, how high is that risk? The investigators assembled only a small number of carefully selected patients. Many were excluded if they had other liver diseases as well as complications from alcohol. And the as-yet undetermined potential for both false positive and false negative results could certainly undermine its value in reassuring patients. The release notes that the study looked at 26 patients with NAFLD. There was no mention of the control group included in the paper. There was no discussion of the study design. There was no mention of the test’s accuracy. There was no discussion of the study’s limitations, which are stated clearly in the paper itself. For example: “Clearly, the sample size is relatively small, with no independent validation within a separate cohort.” According to the published research, the investigators actually studied whether the new test could more accurately detect advanced fibrosis than the currently used NAFLD fibrosis score. They also found that their test could accurately detect fibrosis in patients with alcoholic liver disease–here with only 13 subjects. Controls for these analyses had no evidence of liver disease, but we can’t tell whether they had liver biopsies or just provided blood–suspect the latter. As noted above, NAFLD is both fairly common and — for most patients — is not cause for undue alarm. In a small number of patients, it can progress to more serious conditions. That is not clear from the release. Readers who know little about NAFLD could be forgiven for thinking that NAFLD is likely to progress to cirrhosis and liver failure. A little bit of extra context would have been good here; for example, noting that approximately 5 percent of patients with NAFLD are likely to deal with long-term liver failure. Is NAFLD something that should be taken seriously? Absolutely. But it needs to be discussed responsibly. Funding sources are clearly identified, as are researchers who are quoted and their affiliations related to the work. There do not appear to be any relevant conflicts of interest. The release discusses the new technique and liver biopsies. It doesn’t discuss other techniques, such as the use of MREs or other noninvasive diagnostics (like those discussed here or here or here). How does the proof-of-concept approach discussed in this news release compare to any of these other techniques? It’s not clear. Imaging tests including ultrasound, CT and MRI can detect fatty changes in the liver, although not necessarily fibrosis. The NAFLD fibrosis score used by the investigators as a comparison test is probably the most useful for detecting fibrosis. The release includes a quote that says “We are now working on confirming these findings in a larger group of patients.” Based on that, readers can infer that the technique is not yet available — so it gets a pass. However, it would have been better to state that more explicitly. As the paper itself says: “With validation, this blood-based biomarker could become an important contributory clinical tool alongside other epigenetic, genetic and biochemical biomarkers, mitigating the future need for biopsy to evaluate fibrosis.” The release makes clear that this is the first diagnostic tool to assess fibrosis based on DNA methylation, which it describes as “chemical changes on tiny amounts of ‘cell-free’ DNA that are released into the blood when liver cells are injured.” “…this could be a replacement for a liver biopsy.” That line is just under the headline, and it’s an overreach. It could just as easily have said that this may not be a replacement for a liver biopsy — particularly given that the study looked at only 26 patients. Here’s the thing: this research is really interesting. It could stand on its own, with all of the relevant qualifiers, and still be fascinating. It highlights some interesting things about how the human body works, how it responds to disease, and how researchers can monitor those changes to understand what’s happening in our bodies. The release didn’t need to go over top, but it did. A couple other examples of unjustifiable language: “This scientific breakthrough has great promise because the majority of patients show no symptoms,” according to a quoted researcher. In the preceding paragraphs the test under development is described as “proof of principle research,” and “this first stage of research,” and it’s noted that the test is now being confirmed in a larger group of patients. We cry foul on the use of “breakthrough” for this preliminary work. “…[G]reat promise because the majority of patients show no symptoms.” We don’t know that asymptomatic patients will benefit from early detection.
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3631
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Man bitten by rabid bat in southern Oregon home.
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Officials say a west Medford man was bitten by a rabid bat July 16 after he found it flopping around in his home.
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true
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Rabies, Health, General News, Oregon, Bats, Medford
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The Mail Tribune reports the unidentified man has started rabies shots and is not expected to suffer from the virus. Jackson County Public Health Division manager Jackson Baures says the man had found the bat and was restraining his dog while trying to remove the bat when it bit him in the hand. The bat was sent to Oregon State University, where tests showed it was the second bat in Oregon to be diagnosed with rabies in 2019. Rabies is a viral disease affecting the nervous system and can be transmitted from infected mammals to humans. Rabid bats are found annually in Jackson County, and the previous rabies discovery in an Oregon bat this year happened in June in Linn County.
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41013
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A San Diego biotech company is developing a Covid-19 vaccine in collaboration with Duke University and National University of Singapore.
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This is correct. The company, Arcturus Therapeutics, announced on 4 March 2020 that it would be working on a vaccine with DukeNUS Medical School in Singapore.
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true
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online
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Doctors in India have been successful in treating coronavirus with a combination of drugs (Lopinavir, Retonovir, Oseltamivir along with Chlorphenamine) and are going to suggest the same medicine globally. India’s ministry of health has advised that the anti-HIV drugs, Lopinavir and Retonovir, are used in some groups of Covid-19 patients. But it is unclear how successful this treatment has been. The other two drugs from the claim are not mentioned in their guidance. Researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center claim to have found an antibody against coronavirus. Researchers in the Netherlands have released research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, on an antibody against the new coronavirus. A 103 year-old Chinese grandmother has made a full recovery from Covid-19 after being treated for 6 days in Wuhan, China This has been widely reported in the media. Apple has reopened all 42 China stores. Correct. On 13 March 2020, Apple announced that it had reopened all 42 stores in mainland China after a closure of almost six weeks. Cleveland Clinic developed a Covid-19 test that gives results in hours, not days. The number of new cases in South Korea is declining. Italy is hit hard, experts say, only because they have the oldest population in Europe. Whilst it is true that an older population has contributed to a high number of deaths in Italy, it may not be the sole reason. Scientists in Israel are likely to announce the development of a coronavirus vaccine. Scientists in Israel and elsewhere are working on developing a vaccination to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, but it won’t be ready for the public for over a year. Three Maryland coronavirus patients fully recovered and are able to return to everyday life. Correct. On 13 March 2020, Montgomery County, Maryland confirmed that three residents who previously had the virus no longer tested positive. A network of Canadian scientists are making excellent progress in Covid-19 research. At least one group of Canadian scientists has recently announced some progress in understanding Covid-19. A San Diego biotech company is developing a Covid-19 vaccine in collaboration with Duke University and National University of Singapore. Tulsa County's first positive Covid-19 case has recovered. This individual has had two negative tests, which is the indicator of recovery. Correct, this patient has recovered according to official Tulsa County sources. Two negative tests is one of three official indicators of recovery among people with Covid-19 (who showed symptoms). All seven patients who were getting treated for Covid-19 at Safdarjung hospital in New Delhi have recovered. There is a news story reporting that seven patients in this hospital in New Delhi had recovered. However, these were not the only Covid-19 patients in the city. Plasma from newly recovered patients from Covid -19 can treat others infected by Covid-19. This is being used as a treatment in some countries, but clinical trials have not yet proved that this is effective. Claim 1 of 15
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8023
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France moves patients from swamped hospitals as death toll climbs.
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France used two high-speed trains and a German military plane to move more than three dozen critically ill coronavirus patients on Sunday to ease the pressure on overwhelmed hospitals in eastern France.
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true
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Health News
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The Grand Est region was the first in France to be hit by a wave of coronavirus infections that has rapidly moved westwards to engulf the greater Paris region, where hospitals are desperately adding intensive care beds to cope with the influx. The number of coronavirus deaths in France since March 1 climbed 13% to 2,606 on Sunday, while the total number of confirmed infections rose above 40,000. The specially adapted trains carried 36 patients to the Nouvelle-Acquitaine region in the southwest, where a line of ambulances waited outside Bordeaux station. “We urgently need to relieve congestion in the region’s intensive care units, because you have to stay one step ahead,” Francois Braun, head of the SAMU paramedics, told RTL radio. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Saturday warned France’s 67 million people that the toughest weeks in the fight against epidemic were still to come, as the number of patients on life support rose to more than 4,600. Hospitals are racing to add intensive care facilities, sometimes taking ventilators out of operating theaters as they build makeshift units. Student medics are being drafted in and retired doctors are returning to the wards. President Emmanuel Macron has deployed the army to help to move the sick while a field hospital has been set up in the eastern city of Mulhouse. Paramedics in hazmat suits loaded several patients on life-support into a German Airbus (AIR.PA) A400M aircraft in Strasbourg for transfer across the border to the German city of Ulm. European Affairs Minister Amelie de Montchalin hailed the German aid as a symbol of European solidarity, though she expressed frustration at the failure of European Union members to agree on how to mitigate the sharp economic downturn.
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10714
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Study cites new link between artery plaque and birth control pills
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The article does a competent job of conveying findings about a potential link between some birth control pills and arterial plaques in a small population study. The article includes necessary information about the preliminary nature of the findings and the shortcomings of the research methodology. The crucial question about this article is whether it should have been done at all. It also raises fundamental questions about journalists’ roles as gatekeepers of medical study information. The findings are riddled with caveats that raise serious questions about their value. To cite a few of the most important: The study was done on a homogenous population of women living in one small town in Belgium. The study linked a firm clinical endpoint (ultrasound data on arterial plaques) to drug exposure that was not controlled and about which critical data–including which drug was taken, at what dose and at what age–is missing. The article does not report on whether the data was controlled for other potential confounders, including smoking, diet and underlying risk of heart disease. The study has not been submitted to the rigorous peer review required before publication in a major journal. While the article notes these caveats at least briefly, and in some cases thorougly, it does so in the context of a story that implictly raises fear about a widely used drug. For instance, the article states: The theory needs much more rigorous testing than this single small study, but is important because of the sheer number of women now taking the pill — 100 million worldwide. It could be argued that this same reason–the fact that so many women take or have taken this drug–could disqualify this study from news coverage at this point. Is it in the public interest to report at length about such preliminary, uncertain findings about a drug that is so widely used?
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true
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The cost of the treatment is not necessary or particularly useful in the context of this article. The relevant question here is the quantification of harms. The article reports a 20 percent to 30 percent increase in prevalence of plaques for every 10 years of taking birth control pills. But it does not translate this into terms the reader can easily appreciate, because the underlying risk of plaques is not reported. The reader doesn’t know whether the risk of plaques in the population studied is, for instance, 1 percent, in which case this data could mean that 12 or 13 women rather than 10 women per 1,000 taking the pill for 10 years would develop plaques. If the underlying risk of plaques is 40 percent, the potential harms–while still unknown–could be more significant. The article focuses almost exclusively on the potential harms of treatment. It does not mention benefits. The article explains that the study is retrospective and lacking in important controls. It describes the study’s methodology adequately and indicates which kind of study–a prospective clinical trial–would be required in order to confirm the hypothesis the current study has generated. The article creates a false sense of alarm about the cardiovascular risks of a drug that has been in use worldwide for years. A small additional risk of cardiovascular problems long has been linked to these pills. This study uses one marker of heart disease–measurable but not particularly lethal arterial plaques–that may help explain that well-established small risk. The study is not published. It looked at data gathered in one town. The clinical endpoint is very specific–a measure of vascular plaques–yet dosing, long-term exposure and type of drugs taken are unknown. These caveats, taken together, do not justify the sense of alarm the article generates. The article conveys findings from an unpublished study whose details do not appear to have been made available to any of the reporters covering the American Heart Association meeting at which the findings were presented. The article quotes the study author and two independent sources who help put the study in context, which is adequate. Despite the story’s capacity to generate fear about the safety of birth control pills, it does not mention other forms of birth control currently available. The article makes clear that the birth control pills under discussion have been in wide use for many years. The article makes no claims for the drugs’ novelty. Because the story included input from several independent sources, it’s safe to assume it didn’t rely solely or largely on a news release.
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9471
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A New Drug Lowers Risk of Heart Attack and Cancer
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People with heart disease and cancer, along with physicians, are bombarded almost daily with the onslaught of novel, eye-poppingly expensive, and ever “promising” new ways to treat or prevent these life-threatening disorders. Because their benefits and potential harms are so often barely known, and because their impacts are frequently confined to “subsets” of patients in clinical trials, the overall result is a see-saw of hope and despair that journalists find challenging to report and put into context. The anti-inflammatory effects of a Novartis drug called canakinumab is the latest case in point. TIME magazine’s description of clinical trial results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, unfortunately fails to address the modest benefits, and the substantial risks and costs, of the drug. This is in contrast to a Reuters story on the same study that takes a far more cautious, cautionary and calibrated tone that better serves readers. The anti-inflammatory scientific arc is littered with the consequences of less-than-stellar clinical results, overblown expectations and pharmaceutical industry high-stakes business gambles. That makes it especially important for news organizations to cover the subject area with the utmost care and context–this story didn’t meet that bar.
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mixture
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Canakinumab,cancer,heart attack,Ilaris
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The story makes clear enough that far more must be done at the bench and bedside to bring this drug into first line use, even for subsets of people who already have had heart attacks or who have cancer. One reason is the $200,000 per year price tag already in place for the drug’s use in some rare autoimmune disorders tied to its anti-inflammatory effects. The pricing challenges are a substantial and enlightening part of the Reuters treatment of the study, which we also reviewed, but nowhere to be found in this TIME article. The story states: “After four years, the people who received the drug had a 15% lower chance of having a heart attack or stroke compared to people who didn’t get the drug.” This is an error. The benefit only applied to second heart attacks, not strokes. Also, what does 15% translate to in absolute numbers? This wasn’t explained, so we’ll elaborate here: The way researchers measured results was in “events per 100 person-years”, and the “events” were non-fatal heart attack, non-fatal stroke, or death from a cardiovascular-related cause. In the placebo group, there were 4.50 cardiac events per 100 person-years. In the group receiving 150 mg doses of canakinumab, there were 3.86 events per 100 person years. Of the various doses given (50, 150 and 300 milligrams), the 150 mg dose was the only statistically significant result, and it was only because of non-fatal heart attacks. As noted in an editorial that accompanied the study, this was translated as a “modest” benefit. The story fails readers by not including that detail. For a comparison on how to write about the study results more responsibly, see the Reuters story. Hardly a word about the real and unknown harms of the drug, which are more carefully outlined in a Reuters piece. The TIME article emphasizes the positive news–that anti-inflammatory drugs like the one described in the trial may well represent the future of substantial reductions in heart disease and cancer mortality. But there are caveats that needed much attention not paid in this story. Readers can infer this data was from a relatively large randomized controlled trial, so we’ll give this a barely passing Satisfactory. Some discussion of the study’s limitations was needed, however. No mongering here. The story does not disclose that its primary source, Dr. Paul Ridker, has accepted consultancy & speakers fees from Novartis, the funder of the study. The article does note that statin therapy also offers some anti-inflammatory effects that are possibly or probably responsible for prevention benefits in heart disease. But there are many effective and less expensive alternatives to secondary cardiac disease prevention that were not mentioned, such as smoking cessation, aspirin, statins, blood pressure control, etc. The story makes clear that no one is suggesting the drug at present for routine use, and that at present the drug is not cleared for use in heart disease patients. The TIME article, like the Reuters piece, does a pretty good job of explaining what is novel about the the drug’s effects and targeting. The story does not appear to rely on the news release.
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11262
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Studies Show Oral Testosterone Safe and Efficacious in Long-term Management of Hypogonadism
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This news release from the American Urological Association reports phase 3 trial results of an oral testosterone replacement therapy for male hypogonadism, a condition in which the body doesn’t produce enough testosterone, sperm, or both. Drug developer Lipocine Inc. anticipates that its LPCN 1021 testosterone formula soon will replace topical products that now dominate the booming testosterone market. During the 52-week trial, 315 hypogonadal men were given either LPCN 1021 or a control, T gel. The news release reports that the study showed LPCN 1021 was “shown to be safe and efficacious” and quotes an association spokesman saying, “Based on the results of this study, we might be closer than ever to having an oral form of therapy to treat the millions of men with hypogonadism.” The news release fails to discuss costs, disclose conflicts of interest, or acknowledge lingering long-term safety concerns with testosterone replacement therapy. It uses the adjective “novel” to describe the oral drug — echoing company PR materials — without explaining what makes it new or unusual. Testosterone replacement therapy has become big business as direct-to-consumer marketing peddles the notion that erectile dysfunction and other aging-related symptoms are the result of ebbing hormone levels, dubbed “low T.” Millions of men now take testosterone replacement therapy, usually in a gel or patches, without having been diagnosed with hypogonadism and despite safety and efficacy concerns. This despite the fact that the Food and Drug Administration has approved testosterone replacement therapy only for men who have demonstrated low blood levels of testosterone along with symptoms of hypogonadism, often from conditions such as pituitary or testicular problems or advanced liver disease. Last year the FDA ordered manufacturers to add heart attack and stroke risk warnings to medication labels and warned doctors against over-prescribing testosterone. An editorial in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society called on U.S. and Canadian regulators to go a step further and ban direct-to-consumer advertising of testosterone and require clear demonstrations of pathology for testosterone prescriptions. The advent of a safe testosterone pill may benefit men who truly need hormone replacement therapy by reducing inconvenience and eliminating adverse effects associated with injections and topical applications. However, it also poses a danger of enhancing the appeal of testosterone to those who wrongly believe it is the fountain of youth.
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mixture
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Association/Society news release
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The cost of this would-be product were not addressed even though it is under review by the FDA and potentially months away from approval. The news release doesn’t quantify potential benefits of oral testosterone therapy. It barely mentions why it might surpass one currently available form, topical products, which carry FDA warnings related to inadvertent transfer to other people. “Making sure an oral treatment is safe and effective for men and for the children and partners at risk for inadvertent testosterone transference is the top priority, and what we’ve found so far has shown we’re on the right track,” says Tobias S. Köhler, MD, an AUA spokesperson, in the release. More light is shed on the web site of the drug manufacturer. In a company-sponsored survey of 28 leading endocrinologists and urologists reported on the manufacturer’s web site, 94% of responded that they believed an oral testosterone replacement therapy would improve patient compliance. The web site also cited problems with existing products, including skin rashes for topical products and risk of infection, scarring, injection site reactions, and lung impairment for injectables. The news release does describe adverse effects reported in the study, including that there were no “hepatic, cardiac or drug-related serious adverse events.” It lists the percentages of patients in each of the treatment groups who had certain adverse effects, and notes that lipid levels were comparable in the two groups and androgenic measurements showed no significant differences during the study period. However, the news release fails to acknowledge long-term safety concerns, including the FDA’s call last year for manufacturers to conduct a controlled clinical trial to clarify how testosterone might affect cardiac health. The abstract presented at the medical conference (the only available information about the study) states that the total numbers of adverse events was almost the same in both groups (67% in oral group compared with 65% in the topical group) without specifying the statistical significance of that result or the types of adverse effect in these groups. The adverse events given only add up to about 10% in both groups. The release explains that this was a randomized trial based on 315 patients It would have been stronger had it given some more details about the methodology or potential limitations of the study that might help readers evaluate the evidence. It would be helpful to know how many volunteers completed each stage of the study Also, the study found that average testosterone levels were high in the study group but doesn’t mention what the level was in the control group. No disease mongering here. However, the promotion of “low T” syndrome is suspect according to the FDA. The news release fails to disclose that all of the study authors have financial ties to the drug manufacturer, Lipocine Inc., as consultants, principal investigators or employees, and that one is the company’s founder. The news release states that this oral form of testosterone was compared with T gel. It also names other delivery forms including a patch, injection or implant (pellet) The news release states “There is currently no oral form of testosterone therapy approved for use in the United States by the Federal Drug Agency” and then talks about this new product under development. Readers can assume the product is not yet available. The news release states this would be the first oral method of testosterone treatment, and in that regard it’s novel. However, it repeatedly calls this product a “novel” therapy, echoing a word used in Lipocine’s PR materials, without an explanation. The reader may assume that the treatment is novel because it’s taken orally, but a different delivery method does not seem to constitute a huge departure from existing therapies. The release does not rely on sensationalist language.
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8764
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Cancer, diabetes leave fingerprints in blood, serum.
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Diseases such as cancer and diabetes leave “fingerprints” in the serum and blood plasma of patients and these may provide a valuable and non-invasive diagnostic tool in time to come, according to a Chinese study.
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true
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Health News
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In an article published in the latest issue of Cell Research, the Chinese researchers described how they found such altered molecular biomarkers, called microRNAs, to be stable in the serum and blood of people who were ill. “This is a revolutionary finding, this is the first time we have been able to demonstrate that microRNA is stable in serum,” Zhang Chen-yu at the Jiangsu Diabetes Centre in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu told Reuters by telephone. The scientists analyzed the blood of both healthy people and patients with lung cancer, colorectal cancer and diabetes, and found that those who were ill had altered biomarkers that were vastly different from the healthy participants. Zhang said patients of one disease would have biomarkers that were markedly different from patients of another disease — and in theory, doctors can tell what disease is afflicting a person by just analyzing the blood. “We found different (classes of) biomarkers for lung cancer, colorectal cancer and diabetes, these biomarkers can reflect almost all pathological conditions,” Zhang said. This means diagnosis can be made without current invasive methods, which include removing tissue samples. Looking ahead, Zhang said the team hoped to push for such biomarker screenings to be done in local clinics to alleviate the pressure on overcrowded government hospitals.
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2195
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Firefighters in Bolivia lose hope of taming blazes as burned area doubles.
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Bolivian volunteer firefighters, exhausted from battling blazes sweeping rapidly across the country’s lowlands, are starting to lose hope and retreat from the front lines of some infernos in the drought-stricken region.
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true
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Environment
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The fires this year are Bolivia’s worst in at least two decades, with the size of burned land across the country nearly doubling in under three weeks, destroying swaths of biodiverse forest and ranches and farms that sustain thousands of people. In the dusty cattle ranching town of Concepcion, despite nearly two months of non-stop firefighting, blazes that had been put out in surrounding dry forests have reignited while others continue to spread toward the toward the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, a gateway to pristine Amazonian rainforest. “Nothing has been controlled. The fires continue,” said Elias Johns, the deputy governor of the province of Nuflo Chavez, where Concepcion is located. While helicopters have doused flames around Concepcion, the Boeing supertanker 747 that Bolivian President Evo Morales ordered to battle blazes across the country has not yet made it here. The heat and smoke are so intense along part of the front lines that firefighters cannot remain working for more than several minutes at a time. Local firefighters with Bolivia’s volunteer-based force say they are poorly equipped with little more than backpacks of water, hoses and machetes, lacking heavy machinery to clear debris and stop fires from advancing. Some 700 to 800 volunteer firefighters have gone home, Johns said. The province now mostly relies on foreign units from Argentina and France and Bolivian soldiers sent to help. Many volunteer firefighters are demoralized after working for weeks in smoke-filled landscapes scattered with the charred remains of animals and trees. Four firemen have also died, one by heart attack and three while bathing in a local lake. “It’s physically and emotionally taxing,” said Shayir Rezvani, a university student who is one of around 30 firefighters in the province’s remaining volunteer unit. Authorities in Concepcion have set up a special clinic to tend to people suffering respiratory problems from the smoke. The fires have also affected the electrical grid, triggering blackouts and disruptions to water distribution, said Johns. With no sign of the fires slowing, residents are anxiously waiting for the start of the rainy season, which might not come until October. Lowland regions have been racked by a drought fueled by an expansion of cattle ranching and soy farming in forested regions, making traditional slash-and-burn practices increasingly risky. Jose Payme, an indigenous Chiquitano chief, said a drought this year and the fires raging near his ranching community of Santa Marta are the worst it has ever seen. “We’re completely exhausted,” said Payme. “We’ve been working day and night for two months to placate this fire that’s so strong, and this drought that’s so strong. It’s impossible” Payme said Santa Marta desperately needs a truck for transporting water. Wildfires in Bolivia this year have spread over 4.1 million hectares (16,000 square miles) through Sept. 15, up from 2.1 million hectares less than three weeks earlier, according to the Bolivian environmental group Fundacion Amigos de la Naturaleza. The area burned this year has already topped the previous record since the turn of the century, 3.8 million hectares in 2010. “This is a warning for the entire continent. If we keep destroying the Amazon forest, we will soon reach the tipping point where the forest loses its capacity to recycle humidity and precipitation,” said Lykke Andersen, the head of Bolivia’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Wildfires burn in Bolivia - here
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7334
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Asia Today: India overtakes China in number of cases.
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India’s confirmed coronavirus cases have surpassed China’s, with the Health Ministry on Saturday reporting a spike to 85,940 infections and 2,752 deaths.
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true
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Health, General News, India, Asia, Wuhan, International News, China, Narendra Modi, Asia Pacific, Virus Outbreak
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China has reported 82,941 confirmed case and 4,633 deaths since the virus was first detected late last year in the central city of Wuhan. The worst-hit Indian states are Maharashtra with 29,100 cases, Tamil Nadu with 10,108, Gujarat with 9,931 and New Delhi with 8,895. In the last 24 hours, India had confirmed 3,970 new cases and 103 fatalities. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is due to announce a decision this weekend on whether to extend the 54-day-old lockdown. Early this month, the government started gradually easing the restrictions to resume economic activity by allowing neighborhood shops to reopen and manufacturing and farming to resume. It also has resumed limited train services across the country to help stranded migrant workers, students and tourists. In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region: — CHINA TO CUT SHORT ASSEMBLY: A Chinese official confirmed that the annual legislative session will be curtailed to protect public health during the coronavirus pandemic. Zhang Yesui, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress, did not indicate how much it would be shortened. He told the official Xinhua News Agency that the agenda and schedule would be approved before the session starts in Beijing on May 22. The congress, delayed from March because of the outbreak, normally lasts about two weeks. Police have announced a ban on drones and other low-flying objects from May 20-28 because of the meeting, so this year’s could run about a week. China’s ruling Communist Party decided to go ahead with the meeting of 3,000 delegates after largely stopping the spread of the virus. But some government officials will join breakout sessions with deputies via video link, and news conferences will also be conducted remotely by video. — NO SPECIAL FAVORS: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern found out there are no exceptions when it comes to social distancing after she was initially turned away from a cafe because it was too full under coronavirus guidelines. Ardern and her fiance, Clarke Gayford, decided to get brunch Saturday at Olive, a restaurant in the capital, Wellington. That was two days after the country relaxed many of its lockdown rules, including reopening restaurants. But groups must remain at least 1 meter (3 feet) apart from each other. Many restaurants have limited their seating to comply with the rules. What happened next played out on Twitter: “Omg Jacinda Ardern just tried to come into Olive and was rejected cause it’s full,” wrote one Twitter user, Joey. Gayford took the time to respond: “I have to take responsibility for this, I didn’t get organized and book anywhere. Was very nice of them to chase us down st (street) when a spot freed up. A+ service.” — SOUTH KOREA NIGHTCLUB CASES WANE: South Korean officials have so far confirmed 162 coronavirus cases linked to club goers in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, and are expressing cautious hope that infections are beginning to wane. Health Ministry official Son Young-rae said Saturday that the country may have ducked a major surge in transmissions in a region where half of its 51 million people live. Son noted that the daily increase in infections has been within 30 over the past few days despite a jump in tests. Son said 46,000 people have so far been tested following a slew of infections linked to clubs and other nightspots in Seoul’s Itaewon entertainment district. “It’s notable there were no new transmissions in churches, call centers and gyms where virus carriers went to,” said Son. Authorities have expanded anonymous testing after some media described the clubs linked to infections as catering to sexual minorities, which raised concern that people may be discouraged from coming forward in fear of homophobic backlash. — WARNING AS AUSTRALIA EASES MEASURES: Restrictions put in place to stop the coronavirus from spreading across Australia have eased, but the public was warned to take their newfound freedoms carefully in order to prevent a second wave of the pandemic. States and territories have begun the first of a three-stage process to lift restrictions on outdoor and indoor gatherings and business operations. Australians will get to sit in pubs, cafes and restaurants for the first time in weeks after isolation and social distancing measures kept the lid on infections and COVID-19 deaths. But Australian Medical Association President Tony Bartone urged people to remain vigilant because the virus is still present in the community and could flare up. The number of confirmed cases passed 7,000 on Friday, but the death toll from the pandemic remains at a relatively low 98. ___ Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
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10459
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Legs jog mind and body: How exercise can stimulate brain
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This is a feel-good health story about a simple, probably harmless therapy that appears to help people manage a debilitating disease with grace. The segment features a researcher and his colleague, as well as a research subject with Parkinson’s disease. The therapy in question requires a bicycle built for two and a willing training partner to nudge their pedal rate a little faster than normal. Before-and-after film shows how this “forced” exercise can dramatically reduce hand tremors. There is no hyping of disease or reeling off of scary statistics. Other treatment options get a brief (though incomplete) mention. Still, despite its charms, it could be better. It doesn’t mention costs, and is short on details when it comes to the quality of the evidence. It entirely overlooks potential harms of the therapy (see “Harms of Treatment”), and fails to adequately quantify the benefit. Sources are skimpy, too.
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mixture
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"No mention of cost. The news report mentions only relative improvement in motor function among people who did forced cycling (35% better than the control group), but cites no data on absolute improvement (35% better than what?). It also fails to say how long this benefit lasts. A press release says people doing forced cycling had 20% better motor improvement after 2 weeks—a substantial drop whose clinical and statistical significance is unknown. The news segment does not quantify any other outcomes of potential interest, such as the impact of exercise on medication dosing or effectiveness. There is no mention of harms. Parkinson’s patients often have problems with respiratory muscle function as well as with balance and falling. Researchers have studied their response to voluntary cycle ergometry for 15 years or more, and found that many patients are able to cycle safely on a stationary bike in a lab. Could riding a tandem bike on a road cause falls or overtax their breathing? Other research has shown that exercise can alter a patient’s absorption of the medication levodopa, the primary treatment for the condition. Is this something people should know about? Although the news piece describes a controlled clinical trial at an institution well-known for scientific research, it fails to provide enough information for us to judge its merit (""small"" is the only detail). Another sentence could have explained whether subjects in the two groups were similar, how they were assessed, and if their assessment was blinded. Also, showing that ""the same brain regions are activated"" in ""a brain scan of a patient after forced exercise"" and a patient ""on medication"" does not qualify as rigorous support for the role of ""forced exercise"" in relieving the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. One of the appeals of this news segment is that it tells us about a safe, potentially effective treatment without employing scare tactics. The only expert testimonial in the story comes from the researcher who is the subject of the news report and his colleague. The only patient testimonial comes from a subject enrolled in the researcher’s study. Together the three tell a heart-warming, but potentially one-sided, tale. The story lacks a truly independent voice. The news segment loosely compares forced cycling to medication, though it does not name the standard treatment for Parkinson’s disease, the medicine levodopa, and does not remind viewers that the research being reported did not study medicine. Anchor Chris Cuomo says “some benefit” of forced cycling lasted for 4 weeks, compared to just a few hours for medication. A news release suggests the benefit of forced cycling may decrease substantially over time, however. (See “Quantification of benefits” above). The news story does not mention deep brain stimulation, which can also be effective. The availability of tandem bikes is not in question. N/A in this story. The news report suggests that forced exercise on a bicycle is a novel treatment, a contention supported by our own quick search of the literature. Interestingly, the report leaves the viewer with the impression that researcher Jay Alberts’ tandem bike ride with a patient was quite recent. According to a press release, he first noticed improvement in a woman with Parkinson’s during a ride in 2001, then followed that with a second patient in 2006. This may help to explain why Alberts had film of a patient’s shaky hand before they embarked on their expedition: maybe he had an inkling it might come in handy. There is no obvious use of text from a press release."
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28936
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Muslim Refugees threatened to slaughter their hosts at Hope Farms in South Africa.
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What's true: A group of refugees threatened to attack their hosts at Hope Farms. What's false: The attackers were all Muslim migrants.
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mixture
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Politics Immigration, muslim, refugees, south africa
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On 27 December 2015, the disreputable web site Mad World News published a sensational article about an incident at Hope Farm in South Africa. The story centered around a South African couple, who had taken in 143 people following a wave of xenophobic attacks which swept the country in April 2015. A white bleeding-heart leftist couple made headlines when they generously opened their home to a group of Muslim refugees allegedly fleeing devout Muslim militants. However, it didn’t take long for their liberal policies to backfire in a racist and ironic way — and it’s exactly the poetic justice we’ve been warning about all along. In July, the headline read “Meet the angels who opened their hearts and home to 143 lost strangers,” and the left was drooling over the couple who followed their socialist values to the letter. Andrew and Rae Wartnaby opened up their 50-acre farmland to over 100 Muslim refugees who were reportedly displaced during “xenophobic attacks,” according to News 24. After escaping Islamic brutality in the Central African Republic, the Muslim migrants traveled to South Africa, where they were again set upon by South African natives in black-on-black attacks. So, the good-natured yet naive white couple welcomed the refugee families to their land, which included Obama’s favored “widows and orphans.” However, after only a few months of graciously allowing the Muslim migrants to live for free on their property, the loving couple soon found that they would actually be the refugees. The Wartnabys were threatened with slaughter by the same people they were helping escape brutality. While Mad World News repeatedly states that the incident involved “Muslim refugees,” less sensationalized reports from local sources such as News 24 and eNCA made no mention of the group’s religions, referring to them instead as “foreign nationals” — among the many who had initially fled other parts of Africa because of political persecution and extreme poverty. As the people staying at Hope Farm came from a wide variety of countries and backgrounds, it is unclear how Mad World News concluded that they were all Muslim. Nor were they all from the Central African Republic, as the article reported. According to farm owner Andrew Wartnaby’s personal blog, their guests originally came from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and all were legally in the country as refugees or asylum seekers. The Mad World News article also cherry-picked and exaggerated facts in order to chastise this “bleeding heart liberal” couple for taking in refugees. For instance, while it’s true that Andrew and Rae Wartnaby were threatened by the refugees, the threats came from a “breakaway group” and not the entire community: The situation took a turn for the worse two months ago, when the group was informed that each family must make individual applications to the United Nations for relocation. Fifty Five members accepted the terms, but the remaining 85 refused saying they wanted to be moved as a group. Since then, tensions between the two sides have risen. Wartnaby claims that on Tuesday the opposing group refused any food or water that was provided and the next morning, he had to call police to disperse the group which was protesting outside his home. Later that day, the electric fence around his property was cut and Wartnaby later discovered that the main tent had been torched. Mad World News also claimed that the Wartnaby’s were “threatened with slaughter,” but this, too, seems to be an exaggeration. The article published by News 24, which was the same piece quoted in the Mad World News article, reported that while Wartnaby did feel unnerved by the threats, he did not believe that the group had any intention to follow through on it: “The parents were screaming that we had ruined their lives and threatened to kill us, but we did not take them seriously. We, however, later called the police.” Wartnaby said he truly believed that the foreign nationals were making a fuss so that the government would put them up in a refugee camp. Wartnaby told reporters that while he does not regret taking in the refugees, he does want the breakaway group to leave his farm: “I am not going to help them anymore. The accommodation is burnt and my fence is cut. We have done so much for them in the last five months, we know every one of them by name, we have loved and cared for them and this is how they chose to respond. “If they want to reject our help, then it is fine, but I still don’t regret taking them in.” The Wartnabys also had to contend with pressure from the local municipality, which in September 2015 ordered them to either evict the people living on their farm, or rezone the property for residential use, a costly and time-consuming endeavor. Wartnaby wrote in a blog entry dated 3 December 2015 that the other group of people staying on their farm “are an entirely different story.” They have decided to do everything they can to improve themselves by learning skills, doing courses and building a resume of skills. They are wanting to leave the farm with a reference that will help them in the future. They have joined us as volunteers and are helping on the farm, building walls, planting veg and helping in every way they can.
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9916
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Period-free birth control pill approved
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"This story reported on FDA approval of one of several oral contraceptives now on the market that claims to reduce or stop menstrual periods. The manufacturer claims this drug, Lybrel, is ""the first and only low dose combination contraceptive pill taken 365 days a year, without a placebo phase or pill-free interval."" The story didn’t discuss the quality of the evidence for the drug, so it didn’t disclose that many women in the trials dropped out because of spotting or breakthrough bleeding. Some have said that it’s difficult to make the claim that the drug stops periods when women still get bleeding like this – bleeding that is uNPRedictable. While the story made an attempt to put the new drug into context of other attempts by many women to control their periods with other products already on the market, the story would have been improved with more hard evidence and more scrutiny of the quality of the evidence. It also could have emphasized more clearly what is truly ""new"" here and what is just new ""packaging."" If the story could find time to discuss the ""big business potential"" for the drug, which it did, then it should be able to find time for brief mention of the quality of the evidence. It was good that the story included at least one expert’s concerns about long-term safety of the drug. At the end of the story, the anchor referred viewers to the network’s partnering website for more information. Indeed, there was much more complete information once we found the story on that website. But for people who have or use TVs but not computers, that information was lacking in the on-air-only message."
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mixture
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"There was no mention of Lybrel’s cost – not even a projection of what Wyeth might charge. Cost of the new product is likely to be substantial, while the same effect can be achieved (and could have been all along) with generic pills. There were no details on the benefits seen in the trials, which is disturbing since the story did find time to discuss potential sales impact of the new drug. In fact, all that was stated was an overstatement: "" the drug not only prevents pregnancy, it eliminates periods, period."" It would be good to take into account the experiences of all of the women who dropped out of the trials because of bleeding to see if they consider that the drug eliminated periods, period. The story stated that doctors studying Lybrel said it’s no riskier than the traditional pill. Then it quoted one researcher’s concerns about long-term safety for bone health, breast cancer, heart disease, and clots especially for young women. But the ""harms"" of poor cycle control and uNPRedictable spotting and bleeding are very common and certainly impact quality of life and result in an outcome different from what the woman who selects this methods is seeking. And that point was not emphasized in this story. There’s another risk beyond dissatisfaction with bleeding pattern – that is that women stop their contraception completely and are at risk of pregnancies from not contracepting or using an inferior method in the interval before they return to their provider to discuss dissatisfaction and arrange a change. The quality of the evidence was not discussed and this is a major flaw. Many of the women enrolled in the Lybrel studies dropped out before the studies were over because of bleeding or spotting. That was not discussed. This is a toss-up. There were elements of disease mongering – calling menstruation a ""monster"" and ""the monthly curse."" But the story included comments from two women who felt it was better to let nature run its course. So we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt. Mixed bag. One of the trial investigators was quoted, but the fact that she is a paid consultant to the drug company was not mentioned. Another researcher, concerned about long-term safety was also interviewed. But because the story found time to discuss the ""big business potential"" of the drug, we’ll lean toward ruling this unsatisfactory. The story stated that women have been manipulating their menstrual cycles with birth control pills for 40 years, and that other drugs are on the market to stop or reduce periods. So the story did attempt to put the new drug in context, although it certainly could have done a better job in clarifying what’s ""new"" and what’s just ""packaging."" It’s clear from the story that the new pill called Lybrel has just been approved. What is not clear yet is how many health plans will cover the new drug. Some women may find it hard to obtain. But it’s also worth noting that the same effect can be achieved with any low dose monophasic pill. The story stated that women have been manipulating their menstrual cycles with birth control pills for 40 years, and that other drugs are on the market to stop or reduce periods. So the story did attempt to put the new drug in context. But the story could have made more clear how similar this pill is to existing pills and that continuous use of pills is also not new and has been done with conventional monophasics under healthcare provider direction for decades. Because there were several sources, it’s safe to assume the story did not rely solely or largely on a news release."
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17042
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"Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson is a ""liberal"" who voted with Nancy Pelosi to ""fund sex study programs of San Francisco prostitutes"" and ""to regulate the sale of firearms."
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The ad cherry picks a handful of votes to create the impression that Simpson and Pelosi are in ideological lockstep. But the votes chosen are old, cherry-picked and deeply misleading. Suggesting any substantial alliance between Simpson and Pelosi is ridiculous.
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false
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National, Congress, Negative Campaigning, Science, Sexuality, Guns, Madison Action Fund,
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"We’ve seen plenty of Democrats called out for voting records that closely align with President Barack Obama and other party leaders. But it isn’t every day that a conservative super PAC claims that an eight-term Republican congressman is closely aligned with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The Madison Action Fund is claiming just that, running an ad in Idaho linking GOP Rep. Mike Simpson to Pelosi, a frequent target of Republican ire. Here’s what the ad says: ""How liberal is congressman Mike Simpson? Simpson voted with Nancy Pelosi to bail out Wall Street. That wasnt enough spending for Mike Simpson, so he joined Pelosi in voting to take more of your money to fund sex study programs of San Francisco prostitutes. Simpson also joined Pelosi in voting to regulate the sale of firearms."" (We should note that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander: A group backing Simpson is also running ads tying his Republican primary opponent, Bryan Smith, to Pelosi. We checked that claim separately here). Simpson did in fact vote for the Wall Street bailout, as Pelosi did. But beyond that, the ad gets more dubious. Is Simpson a ""liberal""? Despite what the ad suggests, Simpson and Pelosi have very different voting records. In the current Congress, spanning 820 votes, Simpson and Pelosi have voted the same way just 29 percent of the time, according to OpenCongress.org, a website created by the pro-transparency Sunlight Foundation. Still, 29 percent isn’t nothing and some may say, if Simpson was a real conservative, he would vote with Pelosi 0 percent of the time. Maybe, but not every congressional vote is polarized, and even some of the most conservative members of Congress have voted with Pelosi at least on some issues. For instance, no one would confuse Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., for a liberal, yet Bachmann and Pelosi have voted the same way 24 percent of the time since January 2012. Simpson has voted with his party 95 percent of the time. Calling him a liberal and insinuating ideological coziness between him and Pelosi is simply inaccurate. Did Simpson and Pelosi both vote ""to fund sex study programs of San Francisco prostitutes""? This is an exaggeration. The Madison Action Fund’s ad cites a House vote from July 10, 2003. (You read that right — this happened 10 years ago.) On that day, the House of Representatives voted to pass an appropriations bill to fund the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, which included money for the National Institutes of Health. An amendment to the bill offered by then-Rep. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., sought to strip funding from five National Institutes of Health research grants. Toomey said one of those grants was a ""study on San Francisco's Asian prostitutes and masseuses."" Simpson voted against Toomey’s amendment. Pelosi (who represents San Francisco) did as well, and it narrowly failed. But Toomey’s description of the research grant might have warranted a ruling from the Truth-O-Meter were it around back then. The grant was awarded to the University of California San Francisco, the home of the AIDS Research Institute, and studied ways to reduce HIV risks among Asian women. Researchers pinpointed commercial sex workers at massage parlors as a key source of the large increase in HIV prevalence among Asian and Pacific islanders in the Bay area, for whom AIDS was the second-leading cause of death among those aged 25 to 44 in San Francisco in 2001. The researchers interviewed sex workers about their background, education, history of violence from customers, and sexual health, in order to develop programs to improve awareness of drug abuse and STD prevention among at-risk Asian-American popuations. Whether this research should have been selected for funding given the limited pool of money available is a reasonable question to debate, but saying it was to ""fund sex study programs of San Francisco prostitutes"" fails to factor in the public-health concerns at stake. Did Simpson and Pelosi vote together ""to regulate the sale of firearms""? This claim goes even further back. The Madison Action Fund singles out Simpson’s votes on the Mandatory Gun Show Background Check Act, a 1999 bill that emerged in the aftermath of the Columbine High School shooting. While on the surface the bill added some background check provisions for gun shows, the measure was more complicated. It included an amendment that actually eased restrictions on firearm purchases at gun shows. That measure, which had strong backing from the NRA and was harshly criticized by President Bill Clinton, passed the House with help from 45 Democrats. Simpson voted for it; Pelosi did not. Clinton called the vote ""a great victory for the NRA."" But it also included an amendment that was added to require safety locks to be sold with all handguns. The amendment had overwhelming bipartisan support, including from a majority of Republicans. Simpson voted for it, as did Pelosi, and it passed 311-115. The National Rifle Association ultimately urged Republicans to back the entire bill on final passage. Simpson followed the NRA’s lead and voted for the bill. Pelosi didn’t. And it failed 147-280. So ultimately, Simpson and Pelosi were mostly on opposite sides of the fight over this bill. Most importantly, when it came on votes to ""regulate the sale of firearms,"" Simpson voted to loosen restrictions while Pelosi wanted to maintain the status quo. They only voted on the same side on a measure to require safety locks on handguns. Our ruling The ad cherry picks a handful of votes to create the impression that Simpson and Pelosi are in ideological lockstep. But the votes chosen are old, cherry-picked and deeply misleading. Suggesting any substantial alliance between Simpson and Pelosi is ridiculous."
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3757
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Trump’s plan to curb teen vaping exempts some flavors.
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U.S. health officials will begin cracking down on most flavored e-cigarettes that are popular with underage teenagers, but their plan includes major exceptions that benefit vaping manufacturers, retailers and adults who use the nicotine-delivery devices.
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true
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AP Top News, Health, General News, Politics, Marijuana, Business, Vaping, Tobacco industry regulation, Donald Trump
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The Trump administration announced Thursday that it will prohibit fruit, candy, mint and dessert flavors from small, cartridge-based e-cigarettes favored by high school and middle school students. But menthol and tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes will be allowed to remain on the market. The targeted flavor ban will also entirely exempt large, tank-based vaping devices, which are primarily sold in vape shops that cater to adult smokers. Together, the two exemptions represent a significant retreat from President Donald Trump’s original plan announced four months ago, which would have banned all vaping flavors — including menthol — from all types of e-cigarettes. The new policy will spare a significant portion of the multibillion-dollar vaping market. And the changes mark a major victory for thousands of vape shop owners who sell the tank-based systems, which allow users to mix customized nicotine flavors. Vape shop owners expressed relief following the announcement. “We’re thankful the guidance doesn’t shut down flavors in every aspect,” said Spike Babaian, owner of VapeNY in New York City. Anti-tobacco advocates immediately condemned the decision to permit menthol and exempt tank-based vapes, accusing the administration of caving to industry pressure. “It’s disturbing to see the results of industry lobbying to undermine public health protections, especially the lives and health of our youth,” said American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer. The association and other health groups argue that teenagers who vape will simply shift to using menthol if it remains on the market. E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that typically heat a flavored nicotine solution into an inhalable aerosol. They have been pitched to adults as a less-harmful alternative to traditional cigarettes, but there is limited data on their ability to help smokers quit. The Food and Drug Administration has struggled for years to find the appropriate approach to regulate vaping. No e-cigarettes have yet won FDA approval, but the agency permits their sale under a policy called “enforcement discretion.” Under Thursday’s policy change, the FDA said it would begin targeting companies that continue to sell the targeted products. Companies will have 30 days after the policy is published to halt manufacturing, sales and shipping. “We have to protect our families,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday, ahead of the announcement. “At the same time, it’s a big industry. We want to protect the industry.” The flavor restrictions apply to e-cigarettes that use prefilled nicotine cartridges mainly sold at gas stations and convenience stores. Juul Labs is the biggest player in that market, but it previously pulled all of its flavors except menthol and tobacco after coming under intense political scrutiny. The small, discrete devices are the most popular brand among underage users. Many smaller manufacturers continue to sell sweet, fruity flavors like “grape slushie,” “strawberry cotton candy” and “sea salt blueberry.” The flavor restrictions won’t affect the larger specialty devices sold at vape shops, which typically don’t admit customers under 21. These tank-based systems allow users to fill the device with the flavor of their choice. Sales of these devices represent an estimated 40% of the U.S. vaping business, with sales across some 15,000 to 19,000 shops. The new policy still represents the federal government’s biggest step yet to combat a surge in teen vaping that officials fear is hooking a generation of young people on nicotine. In the latest government survey, more than 1 in 4 high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the previous month. Late last month Trump signed a law raising the minimum age to purchase all tobacco and vaping products from 18 to 21 nationwide. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the administration decided to exempt menthol after reviewing new data showing the flavor was not popular with teens. “As we got better data on the flavors, we modified our thinking,” Azar said. Survey data published in November reported that less than 6% of teens picked menthol as their top choice for vaping. In contrast, mint was the most popular flavor among sophomores and seniors. Incoming FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said the government’s approach attempts to balance the problem of underage vaping with “the potential role that e-cigarettes may play in helping adult smokers transition completely away” from regular cigarettes. When Trump officials first sketched out their plans at a White House event in September, they specifically said menthol would be banned. But that effort stalled after vaping proponents and lobbyists pushed back and White House advisers told Trump that a total flavor ban could cost him votes. Industry groups including the Vapor Technology Association launched an aggressive social media campaign — #IVapeIVote — contending that the plan would force the closure of vaping shops, eliminating jobs and sending users of e-cigarettes back to traditional smokes. Trump’s initial announcement came amid an outbreak of unexplained lung illnesses tied to vaping. But since then, health officials have tied the vast majority of the cases to a contaminating filler added to illicit THC vaping liquids. THC is the chemical in marijuana that makes users feel high. Makers of legal nicotine-based vaping products have tried to distance themselves from the problem. FDA officials said Thursday they will continue targeting vaping products that appeal to underage users in other ways, such as packaging that mimics juice boxes, cereal or kid-friendly snacks. Administration officials also pledged to work with the industry ahead of a looming deadline that manufacturers say threatens their products. The FDA is scheduled to begin reviewing all e-cigarettes in May. Only those that can demonstrate a benefit for U.S. public health will be permitted to stay on the market. Officials noted that products submitted by the deadline that don’t appeal to kids will be permitted to remain on the market for up to one year pending FDA review. They also clarified that some vape flavors could return to the market if they can win FDA approval. Trump suggested ahead of the announcement that the flavor restrictions might be temporary. “Hopefully, if everything’s safe, they’re going to be going very quickly back onto the market,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. ___ Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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4080
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Kansas confirms state’s first death linked to vaping.
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Kansas health officials have confirmed the first death in the state related to an outbreak of a lung disease linked to vaping.
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true
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Health, General News, Kansas, Lung disease, U.S. News
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The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said in a news release Tuesday the recent death involved a Kansas resident over the age of 50 who had a history of underlying health issues. The unidentified patient was hospitalized with symptoms that progressed rapidly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there have been 450 possible cases of lung disease related to vaping reported in 33 states. As many as six cases nationwide have ended in death, including the now confirmed Kansas death. The agency says no evidence of infectious diseases have been identified, meaning the illnesses are likely associated with chemical exposure. It says no specific substance or product has been linked to all cases, though many cases involve people who reported vaping THC, marijuana’s high-inducing chemical. Health officials said they do not have detailed information on what specific e-cigarette products were used by the deceased patient in Kansas. “Our sympathies go out to the family of the person who died,” Governor Laura Kelly said in the news release. “Health officials are working hard to determine a cause and share information to prevent additional injuries. As that work continues, I urge Kansans to be careful. Don’t put yourself in harm’s way, and please follow the recommendations of public health officials.” The state has had six reports associated to the national lung disease outbreak, including three which they believe to be confirmed or probable cases. The remaining three are still under investigation. “It is time to stop vaping.” KDHE Secretary Lee Norman said. “If you or a loved one is vaping, please stop. The recent deaths across our country, combined with hundreds of reported lung injury cases continue to intensify.”
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28542
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Man-made, radioactive “diamond batteries” are capable of providing thousands of years of energy without a charge.
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What's true: The idea of generating a virtually inexhaustible source of energy from radioactive material has long been discussed and, indeed, is already employed in a variety of non diamond-based technologies; “diamond batteries” are a theoretical application of this technology currently in development. What's false: The concept of a “diamond battery”, which would be created synthetically from radioactive carbon-14 sourced from nuclear waste is, at this point, a theoretical idea and it is one that comes with myriad challenges not discussed in viral stories.
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mixture
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Science, battery, carbon-14, diamond
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In February 2017, the World Economic Forum’s “Futurism” column reported on a lecture given by University of Bristol materials engineering professor Tom Scott. As part of the university’s Cabot Institute’s annual “Ideas to Change the World” lecture series, Scott spoke in generally theoretical terms about the potential to turn a specific part of nuclear waste into a radioactive diamond which could then be used as a source of energy. In this talk, titled “Diamonds Are Forever”, Scott spoke optimistically about the prospect of solving two problems at once: The buildup of undisposable radioactive graphite used in containers that store spent nuclear fuel, and the need for a long-lasting source of constant energy. The solution could lie in “deliberately radioactive” diamonds made from carbon found and extracted from the this graphite casing, as described in Scott’s lecture: [The reactors in the UK], instead of using water, […] use gas. We use carbon dioxide gas in a sealed vessel which we cycle round and around and that never leaves the reactor core. […] We use that graphite [in that reactor core as well] because it slows down the particles which are coming out of the nuclear fuel and that makes the heat transfer more efficient, but what that means in the UK, because we have been running for 60 years with dozens of nuclear reactors, is we’ve accumulated a lot of interesting nuclear waste. […] Some of the graphite becomes radioactive. In fact, what happens is it gains some mass. It gains particles and it turns into radioactive carbon 14. […] What if we do something really useful with the radioactive carbon 14? What if instead of using normal carbon to make our diamonds, we use radioactive carbon and we form the world’s first highly and deliberately radioactive diamond? Diamonds, by their nature, are made up entirely of carbon, and take hundreds of thousands to millions of years to form naturally. That means that they would never naturally contain any of this radioactive carbon, which has a half life of more than 5,000 years. The prospect of radioactive diamonds, however, raises interesting possibilities for energy generation. That is because carbon-14 emits beta radiation, which in this case simply means it that it puts out high-energy electrons as it decays. Since the 1970s, beta radiation (which does not travel far through air and is therefore relatively safe compared to other forms of radiation) has been investigated as a possible source of energy through the production of what are known as betavoltaic cells. A 1973 paper described the topic as follows: The basic entity in a betavoltaic power source consists of a beta-emitting material coupled to a junction device […]. The current source is due to collection of electron-hole pairs generated by high energy beta particles. In other words, as individual carbon atoms making up the diamond matrix lose electrons, certain regions with missing electrons (electron holes) would carry a net positive charge than surrounding areas. One could theoretically exploit this to maintain a current of electricity that lasts as long as the carbon-14 is decaying — a process that would take many thousands of years. The specific concept of a diamond battery exploiting these process is, for the most part, theoretical. The concept’s individual components — synthetic diamonds and betavoltaic cells — are already a reality, however. Betavoltaic cells which utilized the radioactive elements promethium or plutonium were once a common energy source for pacemakers, prior to the advent of lithium-ion batteries. Today, many betavoltaic systems are employed in applications where a constant supply of low power energy that can also withstand harsh environments are beneficial, according to a 2014 review of the technology: Betavoltaic power sources can potentially replace conventional chemical batteries in many low-power applications, since they can also operate well in extreme environmental conditions. Betavoltaics find application in present-day micro-electromechanical and electronic devices, implantable biomedical prosthetic devices, and in the military intelligence applications. Synthetic diamonds have been a reality for some time as well, and are increasingly common. In his lecture, Scott says: “We can grow diamonds, and we do that every day of the week.” That process, known as chemical vapor deposition, occurs at high temperatures but (unlike real diamond formation) at low pressure. The process has become increasingly refined and perfected over the years, per a 2009 review on the topic: Growth of diamond by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has become a well-established field over the last three decades. CVD diamond materials range in grain size from ultrananocrystalline and nanocrystalline films, through polycrystalline plates and wafers, to large single crystals. The benefit to using a diamond (which is, by definition, made up of carbon atoms) to create a betavoltaic cell is threefold. First, it is the hardest material on the planet, and as such will not break apart as its decay continues (or through any other physical mechanism). Second, diamonds are superconductors that readily carry a current. And third, according to Scott, their diamond-making process makes it possible to encase the radioactive carbon-14 diamond with a thin layer of regular diamond made from carbon-12, thus confining its radiation and amplifying its output: The one thing we can do with that diamond and we need to do to make the technology work is actually we sandwich it in normal diamond. The reason for that is the normal diamond will not only shield that radiation and not let it out but it also increases the efficiency of the energy generation. By making that sandwich, we have the radioactive carbon 14 on the inside of the sandwich and the normal carbon 12 on the outside of that sandwich and hooking it up to our electrodes, we have our tiny little diamond device. A final benefit would be that, in theory, the removal of large amounts of carbon-14 from the graphite in these holding containers would make disposing of that material much cheaper. This idea, as neat and as flashy as it sounds, is, as best we can tell, still entirely theoretical. At the time of his lecture, Scott said they have developed a prototype battery, but this was made using nickel-63 as the radiation source and is therefore not a diamond, and also was not harvested from nuclear waste. Since then, Scott tells us, he and his team have created a prototype synthetic diamond that uses a combination of carbon-14 and bits of tritium (a form of radioactive hydrogen) as the source of beta-radiation. “Some devices will have just 14C and others will have tritium and beryllium as additional beta emitting radioisotopes,” he told us via email. So far their work has remained private, however. “We have filed patents in the US and the UK and a number of publications and demonstrations will shortly be forthcoming.” It also bears mentioning that, while the total output of energy from this theoretical battery would far exceed the length of time that modern agriculture has thus far existed, it would likely have fairly limited applications, according to the researcher’s press release: The actual amount of carbon-14 in each battery has yet to be decided but one battery, containing 1g of carbon-14, would deliver 15 Joules per day. This is less than an AA battery. Standard alkaline AA batteries are designed for short timeframe discharge: one battery weighing about 20g has an energy storage rating of 700J/g. If operated continuously, this would run out in 24 hours. Using carbon-14 the battery would take 5,730 years to reach 50 per cent power, which is about as long as human civilization has existed. However, it is unlikely that the diamond battery will provide direct power to an attached device. More likely is that it will be associated with a capacitor that will be ‘trickle charged’ by the battery and then discharge at set intervals, to power devices at set intervals or to continually power low draw devices. The science discussed in Scott’s “Diamonds Are Forever” lecture is valid, and rests on decades of research into both betavoltaic systems and synthetic diamond production. However, as such a battery has yet to be made, and because its applications would in all likelihood be somewhat limited, we rank any claim that suggests this technology is a reality now as a mixture.
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283
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AIDS drugs prevent sexual transmission of HIV in gay men.
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A European study of nearly 1,000 gay male couples who had sex without condoms – where one partner had HIV and was taking antiretroviral drugs to suppress it - has found the treatment can prevent sexual transmission of the virus.
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true
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Health News
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After eight years of follow-up of the so-called serodifferent couples, the study found no cases at all of HIV transmission within couples. The study proves, the researchers said, that using antiretroviral therapy to suppress the AIDS virus to undetectable levels also means it cannot be passed on via sex, the researchers said. “Our findings provide conclusive evidence for gay men that the risk of HIV transmission with suppressive ART is zero,” said Alison Rodger, a professor at University College London who co-led the research. She said this “powerful message” could help end the HIV pandemic by preventing the virus’ transmission in high-risk populations. In this study alone, for example, the researchers estimate that the suppressive antiretrovial treatment prevented around 472 HIV transmissions during the eight years. The study, published in the Lancet medical journal on Thursday, assessed the risk of HIV transmission between serodifferent gay male couples - where one partner is HIV-positive and one is HIV-negative - who do not use condoms. Its findings add to an earlier phase of the study which looked at HIV transmission risk for serodifferent heterosexual couples in the same circumstances. It also found zero risk. While 15 of the men among the 972 gay couples in this phase did become infected with HIV during the eight years of follow-up, genetic testing showed their infections were with strains of HIV acquired from another sexual partner. Since the start of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, more than 77 million people have become infected with HIV. Almost half of them - 35.4 million - have died of AIDS. Global health experts say the fight against HIV is at a precarious point, with the annual number of AIDS deaths falling and the number of people getting antiretroviral treatment rising, but the number of new infections is stubbornly high at around 1.8 million new cases a year worldwide. Rachel Baggaley, the World Health Organization’s coordinator for HIV prevention and testing, said this latest study “adds to the clear and consistent evidence” that HIV transmission to sexual partners does not occur when someone with HIV is on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and their virus is suppressed. “Increasing access to HIV testing (and) ART ... remains critical for individuals and is central to the HIV public health response,” she said.
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33725
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Titanium rings can be removed from swollen fingers only through amputation.
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One noticeable downside to a titanium wedding ring is its innate inability to be resized should the wearer gain or lose weight or should the configuration of the finger it’s worn on change over time.
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false
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Medical
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We started collecting versions of a belief about titanium rings in 2003, when that substance began to find favor among the about-to-be-weds as wedding band material: Do you have any information on the idea that titanium rings are almost impossible to cut off in the case of an emergency … particularly aircraft grade titanium? I have heard several stories where a person was wearing a titanium ring and for whatever reason his finger swelled and they could not get it off and his finger had to be amputated or severe damage was incurred with the way the ring was finally cut off. This lustrous element is a strong, light, corrosion-resistant material of a greyish color whose strength-to-weight ratio is the highest of any metal. It appears to offer very good value for those seeking a less expensive alternative to traditional gold for their wedding bands because it’s tough, lightweight, and a fair bit more scratch-resistant than other metals commonly used for such purpose. Titanium rings are perfectly safe to wear: even if a finger bearing one becomes swollen or otherwise injured, removal of the circlet can be accomplished using equipment such as a jeweler’s saw or a dental saw. Contrary to rumor, fingers so trapped do not need to be amputated, smashed, or otherwise further injured to effect rescue from the encircling ring. (Interestingly, a number of those who reported encountering the rumor about titanium-encircled fingers needing to be amputated say they heard this claim from jewelers who were trying to warn them off from purchasing such bijoux and perhaps were trying to steer them towards more expensive items.) It is true, however, that the equipment needed to remove a titanium ring may not be readily available, and that the procedure can sometimes be uncomfortable for the patient: Titanium rings are becoming popular because of their strength, durability, low weight and hypoallergenicity. Ring constriction is a relatively common presentation, which can result in necrosis of the affected digit if not relieved. Rings made of gold or silver are easily removed with basic ring cutters; in contrast, titanium rings require specialist cutting equipment such as dental saws, drills or diamond tipped saws. These techniques can take up to 15 min to divide the ring, can burn the underlying skin, require an assistant to provide irrigation, and may not be available within all hospitals at all times. Aerospace (or aircraft) grade titanium is more difficult to saw through because it is not pure but rather a special alloy meant to be used under high stress conditions, and it should therefore be eschewed by those seeking titanium jewelry in favor of its commercial grade version because its removal could present additional problems. One could still be cut loose from it, but the process would be a bit more involved. There is one additional difference between removing a titanium ring from a swollen body part and freeing said digit from a band fashioned of a different metal: titanium doesn’t bend easily. That means two cuts must sometimes be made in the ring (one on each side, thereby dividing the band into two distinct halves) if the item is to be easily removed. By contrast, a gold ring typically requires only one such cut, after which it can be effortlessly pried apart. Those worried about getting titanium bands off their ring fingers should consider that such circlets have been successfully removed from other body parts, some a great deal more sensitive than fingers. For example, in 2005 a German medical journal described the removal of a titanium thumb ring of 2 mm thickness from a patient’s penis. Said situation (in which the ring was excised with the aid of an electric cutting tool) was described as having presented “an interdisciplinary challenge for urologists, jewelers, and locksmiths.” (While folks of more sedate tastes might not think to put wedding rings to such use, the practice is far from unheard of. Many an emergency room professional has had to deal with such cases, as mentioned in our article about a revenge legend involving a deliberate act of wedding band entrapment.) A case report published in the Emergency Medical Journal in August 2015 described the successful removal of a titanium ring from a swollen finger after several earlier methods had failed: We describe a simple and quick method to remove a titanium ring in a patient who presented to the emergency department (ED) with a painful, swollen left ring finger. The finger had become increasingly swollen following prolonged bathing in a warm spa 6 hours earlier. Attempts to remove the ring in ED using traditional methods such as elevation, finger lubrication, finger binding and a manual ring cutter failed. The fire service was called and attempted removal using specialised cutting equipment, which also failed. The patient was then admitted under the plastic surgery service for hand elevation and further attempts 8 hours later blunted two manual ring cutters. An attempt was then made to cut the ring with a pair of large bolt cutters obtained from theatre, and this was successful. Once the ring had been split it was then pulled apart by lateral traction on a pair of large paper clips. The patient made an uneventful recovery.
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3377
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New Hampshire board accepts funding for vaccination database.
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The New Hampshire Executive Council voted to accept a $1.5 million federal grant in order to create an “immunization information system.” New Hampshire is the only state that doesn’t have a vaccination database, said Lisa Morris, the director of the state’s Division of Public Health Services.
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true
|
New Hampshire, General News, Immunizations, Public health
|
“We need a working registry because immunizations save lives,” Morris said. “And so we want to make sure that providers and individuals and families have the information they need to keep up to date on their immunizations.” Councilors voted unanimously Wednesday, the Concord Monitor reported. But the vote followed a contentious discussion in which councilors criticized the state’s Department of Health and Human Services for a $1.3 million contract in 2014 for an immunization registry that didn’t become fully operational. The grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will allow the state to gather data to improve vaccination rates, according to a document from the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. State officials still have to negotiate with vendor Envision Technology Partners, and the Executive Council will have to sign off on a contract proposal. Activists, many of whom are opposed to a registry of vaccine users, had signs protesting how the government handled the project in the past, the newspaper reported.
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2429
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Mysterious disease turning starfish to 'slime' on U.S. West Coast.
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Scientists are struggling to find the trigger for a disease that appears to be ravaging starfish in record numbers along the U.S. West Coast, causing the sea creatures to lose their limbs and turn to slime in a matter of days.
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true
|
Environment
|
Marine biologists and ecologists will launch an extensive survey this week along the coasts of California, Washington state and Oregon to determine the reach and source of the deadly syndrome, known as “star wasting disease.” “It’s pretty spooky because we don’t have any obvious culprit for the root cause even though we know it’s likely caused by a pathogen,” said Pete Raimondi, chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Lab. Signs of sea star wasting syndrome typically begin with white lesions on the arms of the starfish that spread inward, causing the entire animal to disintegrate in less than a week, according to a report by the Pacific Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Program at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Starfish have suffered from the syndrome on and off for decades but have usually been reported in small numbers, isolated to Southern California and linked to a rise in seawater temperatures, which is not the case this time, Raimondi said. Since June, wasting sea stars have been found in dozens of coastal sites ranging from southeast Alaska to Orange County, California, and the mortality rates have been higher than ever seen before, Raimondi said. In one surveyed tide pool in Santa Cruz during the current outbreak, 90 to 95 percent of hundreds of starfish were killed by the disease. “Their tissue just melts away,” said Melissa Miner, a biologist and researcher with the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network, a group of government agencies, universities and nonprofits that monitor tidal wildlife and environment along the West Coast. Miner, based in Washington state, has studied wasting starfish locally and in Alaska since June, when only a few cases had been reported. “It has ballooned into a much bigger issue since then,” she said. The syndrome primarily affects the mussel-eating Pisaster ochraceus, a large purple and orange starfish, but Raimondi said that at least 10 species of sea stars have shown signs of the disease since June. If the numbers of Pisaster ochraceus begin to decrease, mussels could crowd the ocean, disrupting biodiversity, he said. He has studied wasting starfish and will aid in the months-long survey of the animals, along with other state and federal researchers. In addition to on-site sampling, scientists in the coming months will use an interactive map to spot starfish wasting location patterns and help identify a driver for the disease. Raimondi said he could not estimate, out of the millions of starfish on the West Coast, how many have been affected or could be in the future. “We’re way at the onset now, so we just don’t know how bad it’s going to get,” he said.
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25965
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Quotes Dr. Denis Mukwege as saying he resigned from the Congolese coronavirus response team because he was ordered to fabricate COVID-19 case and death numbers.
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The quote is fabricated. Dr. Denis Mukwege said he resigned from Congo’s COVID-19 response team over inefficient testing and lax preventive measures, not because he was asked to falsify numbers.
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false
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Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
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"You may have seen some recent Facebook posts that claim Dr. Denis Mukwege, a renowned doctor from the Democratic Republic of Congo, said he resigned from the Congolese COVID-19 response team because he was asked to falsify COVID-19 case and death numbers. Mukwege did resign, but it wasn’t for those reasons. Mukwege is a Congolese gynecologist and surgeon who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 along with Nadia Murad for their work to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. The post displays a photo of Mukwege and claims he said this about resigning from the team: ""I cannot in any case dirty my Nobel Peace Prize for money, we had been ordered to declare any illness to be coronavirus and any death. In addition, the thing that displeased me is that, after more than 100 samples none came out positive. I have a career to protect and I am Congolese by blood. Getting rich by lying is a sin before God, I quit."" The quote is fake. Mukwege said he resigned because of problems that included inadequate preventive measures and inefficient testing. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Mukwege served as vice chairman of the Multi-sectoral Coronavirus Response Committee and president of the Health Commission, which were established in Congo’s South Kivu province to handle its COVID-19 pandemic response. Mukwege released a statement about his decision to resign from the committee on June 10 on the website for the Panzi Foundation, a charitable organization he founded. He said the decision was due to slow testing, problems implementing a response strategy and inadequate preventative measures. ""We are therefore at the start of an exponential epidemiological curve and we can no longer apply a strategy that would only be preventive,"" Mukwege wrote. ""I therefore decided to resign from my duties as Vice-President of the Multi-sectoral Coronavirus Response Committee in our province and President of the Health Commission, in order to devote myself entirely to my medical responsibilities and to treat this influx of patients at Panzi Hospital."" A Panzi Foundation spokesperson also confirmed to PolitiFact that the quote is fabricated. On Twitter, Mukwege said any statements posted in his name were not genuine unless they appeared on his official social networks or websites. Statements or press releases posted in my name but not appearing on our social networks @PanziFoundation@PanziUSA@MukwegeFound or our official sites https://t.co/ODQFGakgcm https://t.co/0DEwKkzxw1 https://t.co/KekC4StAma https://t.co/f0pTQFf4mr are not genuine. Mukwege did resign from the coronavirus response team in Congo, but he never made the statement attributed to him in the post."
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34440
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A chiropractor is developing a labial glue as a menstrual alternative to tampons and sanitary napkins.
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We note that both the questions and answers reproduced above came from Dobbs himself; he was not responding to a series of questions we posed to him ourselves.
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unproven
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Medical
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In February 2017, news outlets reported on a new product called “Mensez” and its promise to solve menstrual inconveniences and serve as an alternative to tampons and pads by gluing women’s labia together, along with the inventor’s claims that it would revolutionize the menstruation-product industry. Although the reports about Mensez sounded to many readers like just more online satire, we found that a Wichita chiropractor named Dan Dopps was awarded indeed awarded a patent for the concept on 10 January 2017. The Wichita Eagle tracked down Dopps for a profile and quoted him as follows: “I don’t want to offend anyone in any of this,” Dan Dopps, CEO and president at Wichita-based Mensez Technologies, said in a phone interview. “It’s a good option that if women will actually consider, they will see it will improve their lives.” Dopps also owns Dopps Chiropractic Clinic at 8114 W. Central, according to his brother Brad Dopps. The clinic is independent of the other Dopps Chiropractic clinics in Wichita, and family members have disavowed the product … Thea Butler, 26, shared screenshots of the “feminine lip-stick” after seeing screenshots of the post and realizing Dopps worked only a few minutes from her mother’s house. “I thought it was satire at first, and then I started looking at it, and I was like, ‘no, this guy has got to be serious,’” Butler said over the phone. Butler was one of many who responded with incredulity. Comments ranged from calling for Dopps to glue his mouth shut to asking whether he understood basic female anatomy. The Mensez account shot back. “Yes, I am a man and you as a woman, should have come up with a better solution then diapers and plugs, but you didn’t,” read a comment from the now-unavailable Mensez Facebook account. “Reason being women are focused on and distracted by your period 25% of the time, making them far less productive then they could be.” Dopps’ brothers answered questions about the Mensez controversy, distancing themselves and their businesses from their sibling’s foray into inventing: “None of us agree with what he’s doing or trying to do,” Brad Dopps said over the phone. “We have tried to control his concept and marketing, and we have been unable to prevent his freedom of thought, expression and speech.” Fred Dopps, another brother who owns a clinic at 2243 S. Meridian, said his brother’s idea has been “an embarrassment.” “Dan’s a great chiropractor, and he’s helped many people, but this has nothing to do with chiropractic, and I personally told him it was a bad idea to associate his name with the product,” Fred Dopps said over the phone. “I didn’t think it was in his best interest or the family name, which we’ve tried hard to build in this community.” Among myriad news reports about Mensez were some that pointed out the product had not been fully developed, nor did it appear to exist even in prototype form. Much of the information about Mensez came from Dopps’ since-deleted Facebook page, where he purportedly made a number of inflammatory comments about women, vaginas, and menstruation: Anyone with basic knowledge of human anatomy knows that the vagina is a muscular, tube-shaped structure, with its opening located behind the urethra, where the urine is expelled. Several women have suggested that Dopps is a misogynist, and that a man shouldn’t make products for women without firsthand knowledge of female anatomy. He easily corroborated this charge in a response to one visitor’s comment on the Mensez Facebook page, in which he explained that “[Y]ou as a woman should have come up with a better solution than diapers and plugs, but you didn’t. Reason being women are focused on and distracted by your period 25% of the time, making them far less productive than they could be. Women tend to be far more creative than men, but their periods that [sic] stifle them and play with their heads.” Dopps added over the phone that “a lot of the LGBT community, lesbians in particular, are furious at me because I’m a white straight man.” Although it is true that Dopps was issued a patent for Mensez-like concept in January 2017, inventions do not have to work, or even be feasible concepts, in order to be patented. It is possible that Mensez was the legitimate brainchild of a person not entirely familiar with female anatomy, but it is also within the realm of possibility the concept was nothing more than a media hoax. We reached out to Dopps for general comment, and he sent us the following reply: Q: What made you come up with this? A: Innovation is essential it makes the world go round, we all have to have a new iPhone every year. Feminine hygiene has not had any significant innovation in the past 50 years. That is if you don’t count a new colored boxes. I looked at the issues that women have like. Security, comfort, reliability, cleanliness, convenience, humiliation, infections, health, discrete, cost, environment, and the overall hassle factor. I believe that Mensez is a simple elegant solution that will improve all of that, and that it will improve the lives of women around the world. Q: Can people actually order this [product], or is it still in the testing and funding stage? A: Mensez is not available. It an idea, with a patent a month ago, I am in the funding stage. Then there will need to be substantial development and testing and regulation approval. Q: What response are you getting from the women who have used it? No one has used it. I do not have the final formulation or certification. When that happens it will be done by licensed professionals. Q: Some might question your qualifications because you are a Chiropractor and not an OB/GYN … How would you respond to those concerns? A: Those people believe that a person is not allowed to think outside of their little box or specialty. Yet they know that innovation comes from thinking outside the box … I always ask, why and I do think outside of box. I like to connect the dots between boxes. I do not practice obstetrics, but in my Chiropractic degree I had classes in Obstetrics and Gynecology and I did passed my national board exams in them. I do know the anatomy and physiology. Q: How long does an application of Mensez lipstick last? A: It will last until it comes in contact with urine, or soap and water. Q: How about when it comes to sex? Does it just dissolve or do you have to wash it off? A: Wash it off. I imagine that most women would freshen up any. The same as if they were wearing a tampon. Q: How does it affect the delicate ecosystem of flora and PH balance of a woman’s vagina? A: I don’t see that there will be any negative affect on that, if anything it will only improve. The PH is from natural secretions. There is no air exchange with the blood, which can alter the PH, cause odors and promote bacterial growth There are no potentially bacteria and chemical contaminated tampons being inserted. The irritations from the absorbent materials is gone. Irritations increases your risk of infection. Mensez is an ELEGANT AND HEALTHY Idea The PH in the vagina is 3.5-4.5, we are not changing that. The PH of urine is 6.5-8, and the difference between the two PH’s is one thing that helps to dissolve the Mensez seal. It’s natural. Q: Please take me back to the first clinical trials and how you were able to get women to try this, because messing around down there can be a little scary? A: There have not been any clinical trials. Probable 20 % of the emails that I have gotten are women volunteering to test it. I personally have no interest in doing that. Q: So Mensez Lipstick seals the lips shut when a woman is on her period… and the menstrual blood just collects in the vagina waiting to drain? Is that how it works? A: Yes, the menstrual blood collects in the vagina the same location that a tampon collects it. The labia like all mucus membranes naturally want to stick together, it’s a very weak attraction and Mensez only increases that attraction between the labia. It’s made of a combination of amino acids (the building blocks of protein) and oil. It is not a glue as so many have been calling it. The seal that is created is strong enough to prevent leakage until it comes in contact with urine. A woman will not feel sensation of stretching or hair pulling with her normal activity. Q: There might also be some concerns that a man designed this for women … how have you battled those concerns? A: I have done very poorly, it’s tough to communicating, it is so taboo, and guys are not allowed to an opinion about periods Q: Would you let your wife or daughter use it? A: Absolutely! Q: Would you also recommend using a pad as well as Mensez Lipstick, or is there a need for a pad? A: Yes, I don’t believe that any women would want to take that risk, at least a panty liner is required initially until she learns to use it and develops confidence. There are normal variations in anatomy, and there will be some women that it will not work for. Each one them will have to experiment with it how it works for them. Q: What kind of response have you gotten? A: Website traffic ranges between has been scary. 10,000 and 75,000 visitors per day. Thousands of emails and tweets from women wanting to buy it or volunteering to test it. A lot of high fives and companies and foundations offering to provide funding, companies wanting distribution rights, Colombia, Bulgaria, Indonesia, South America. And there have been almost as many emails from haters, mainly because my Facebook post were not understood or taken out of context and there were some that were just wrong of me to post. I have had just set up the web site a month ago and started talking to women on face about Mensez. There are a lot of smart women there that were willing to convers and share their issues. I was not intending to offend anyone, I was totally unprepared and did not think that it would go viral. Q: And who is the ideal target age group for this? Younger women for sure, there are women that have bladder control issues and it will not work for them. I do have some ideas for a similar solution that may come later for that group. It will really come down to an individual bases and women will have to try it and see if they benefit. A: Did you ever consider pitching this on Shark Tank? With all my patents I consider Shark tank, but not with this idea, it’s too early and will take a whole lot of funding. Whoever does that will want all the rights. I personally want to sell the idea and intellectual rights and go on doing what I do.
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15304
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Rick Perry Says Donald Trump is for a single-payer health care system.
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"Perry said Trump is ""for single-payer health care."" Fifteen years ago, Trump was decidedly for a universal healthcare system that resembled Canada’s system, in which the government pays for care for all citizens. Recently, he's said he admires Scotland’s single-payer system and disses the Affordable Care Act as incompetently implemented. However, a Trump spokesman denied that the candidate supported ""socialized medicine"" and suggested Trump prefers a ""free-market"" solution. Other than that, though, the Trump campaign has been silent about what his specific health care policies are; perhaps Trump will be pressed on this point during the Aug. 6 debate. Given the current evidence, Perry's attack is partially accurate, but leaves out details."
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mixture
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National, Health Care, Rick Perry,
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"For all his success firing up the GOP base, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump may be a Republican in name only when it comes to health care, says former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Perry -- at 11th place in the polls and currently just shy of making it into the first Republican debate Aug. 6 -- has been trading jabs with Trump for weeks. Trump mocked Perry’s glasses in July, and Perry responded by calling Trump ""a cancer on conservatism"" and challenging him to a pull-up contest. Perry switched up his attacks from the physical to the political on Aug. 2’s Fox News Sunday. ""He's for single payer,"" Perry said. ""How can anyone who's a conservative stand up and say I am for single-payer health care?"" Perry’s campaign referred us to a Buzzfeed piece and a PunditFact article that noted Trump’s past support for a Canadian-style, single-payer plan. Perry’s claim goes further to suggest Trump, like Vermont socialist and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, currently supports a single-payer system, which is a specific type of universal health care in which the government foots the bill for all residents. We wanted to know if Trump still supports that model. Trump’s campaign did not respond to our inquiry, and his campaign website does not outline any of his positions on major issues, including health care. So we scoured transcripts and videos from Trump’s public statements and interviews. Trump has been a vocal opponent of the Affordable Care Act, but his general stance on health care is much murkier. On the medical record Trump has said multiple times that he would ""get rid of Obamacare"" as soon as he takes office. He’s also repeatedly attacked the Healthcare.gov website as a $5 billion failure that ""has never worked"" (which rates False). But disliking the Affordable Care Act, which is not a single-payer system, is not the same thing as condemning the concept of health care for all. During his short-lived flirtation with a 2000 Reform Party presidential bid, Trump supported universal health care without ambiguity, and he voiced support for a single-payer system in several instances. • ""If you can’t take care of your sick in the country, forget it, it’s all over. ... I believe in universal healthcare,"" Trump told CNN’s Larry King in October 1999. • ""I would put forth a comprehensive health care program and fund it with an increase in corporate taxes, "" Trump told The Advocate right before he dropped out of the race in February 2000. • ""The Canadian plan also helps Canadians live longer and healthier than America. … We need, as a nation, to reexamine the single-payer plan, as many individual states are doing,"" Trump writes in his 2000 book The America We Deserve. Trump has said very little about single-payer health care since 2000, according to our search of the LexisNexis database. Reading between the lines Trump’s more recent comments about health care systems contradict each other, which experts say suggests he hasn’t formed a clear position. While bantering with David Letterman on Jan. 8, 2015, Trump voiced admiration for Scotland’s publically funded health care system and suggested that the problem with the Affordable Care Act is its implementation. Here’s a transcript of their exchange: Letterman, recounting how cheap it is to treat injuries abroad: ""In one case, I had my arm reattached and at the end of the procedure ... it was like $12 dollars!"" Trump: ""A friend of mine was in Scotland recently. He got very, very sick. They took him by ambulance and he was there for four days. He was really in troubl,e and they released him and he said, ‘Where do I pay?’ And they said, ‘There’s no charge.’ Not only that, he said it was like great doctors, great care. I mean we could have a great system in this country."" Letterman: ""Are people afraid of socialism?"" Trump: ""Well, people are afraid of a lot of things. But it’s mostly incompetence. … How do you spend $5 billion on a website, just the creation of the site itself, and it doesn’t work? … There are things you could do to give unbelievable healthcare and a much better healthcare system. It’s a complicated topic, unfortunately."" Experts told us Trump is either implicitly supporting a single-payer system or putting his foot in his mouth. ""The Scottish system is a classic single-payer system, like the English system, except better funded,"" said Timothy Jost, a professor of health care law at Washington and Lee University. ""He should stop citing Scotland,"" said Gail Wilensky, a health economist and former head of Medicare and Medicaid under President George H.W. Bush. ""He doesn’t seem to know what the Scottish system is. Most market-oriented people are not real keen about it."" In a July radio interview, Trump came short of rejecting his previous position for a Canadian-style plan and instead talked about a totally different approach. He called himself a ""conservative with a heart"" and described his alternative to the Affordable Care Act: ""Great (private) plans"" made through ""deals with hospitals"" that allow the government to help people ""at the lower levels."" On July 31, a spokesperson for Trump clarified to Forbes that he’s ""never supported socialized medicine"" but is for ""a universal ‘market-based’ plan that would offer a range of choices."" The sort of system Trump is alluding to — a universal, market-based system with a mix of public and private funding — is essentially what the Affordable Care Act establishes, Jost said. More teased-out conservative alternatives with less government regulation than the Affordable Care Act can be found in John McCain’s 2008 proposal or Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s reform bill, Wilensky said. Our ruling Perry said Trump is ""for single-payer health care."" Fifteen years ago, Trump was decidedly for a universal healthcare system that resembled Canada’s system, in which the government pays for care for all citizens. Recently, he's said he admires Scotland’s single-payer system and disses the Affordable Care Act as incompetently implemented. However, a Trump spokesman denied that the candidate supported ""socialized medicine"" and suggested Trump prefers a ""free-market"" solution. Other than that, though, the Trump campaign has been silent about what his specific health care policies are; perhaps Trump will be pressed on this point during the Aug. 6 debate. Given the current evidence, Perry's attack is partially accurate, but leaves out details."
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3967
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Veterinary technology company stumbles in first full quarter.
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A Maine-based animal health technology and services company has fallen short of financial expectations in its first full quarter of operations.
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true
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North America, Technology, General News, Animal health, Health, Earnings reports, Maine, Earnings
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The Portland Press Herald reports Covetrus Inc. lost nearly 40% of its value amid an investor sell-off during pre-market trading Tuesday. Covetrus, which is the state’s largest publicly traded company in terms of annual sales, reported quarterly revenue of $1.01 billion, about $50 million less than analysts’ expectations. The loss follows the veterinary services company’s release of a discouraging second-quarter earnings report after it become available for trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Feb. 8. Company executives blame the poor performance on unexpected costs and a slowdown in North American and U.K. sales. Covetrus provides software and technology services that helps veterinary practices and pharmacies administer their operations. ___ Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com
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6539
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2 firms first to export LatAm medicinal marijuana to Europe.
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Two companies from Uruguay and Colombia will become the first in Latin America to export medical marijuana products to Europe under deals announced Wednesday.
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true
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Global trade, AP Top News, Uruguay, Medical marijuana, Marijuana, Latin America, Caribbean, Germany, Colombia, Europe
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Fotmer Life Sciences of Uruguay and Clever Leaves of Colombia will export cannabis extract and dried marijuana flowers to Germany, which they called the largest market in Europe, with an estimated 700,000 people using medicinal products derived from marijuana. Uruguay in December 2013 became the first country in the world to legalize a national cannabis market from growing to purchase for personal use, and the government later legalized the export of medical marijuana products to countries where it is legal, a move that has brought a wave of investment. Colombia, which has decriminalized pot use, legalized medical marijuana products. The announcements of the deals did not provide a dollar figure or start date. “This puts Uruguay on the world map” of pharmaceutical cannabis, said Fotmer CEO Jordan Lewis, an American who moved to Uruguay to participate in the cannabis industry after its legalization. In a press statement from Germany, Clever Leaves CEO Andrés Fajardo said the export deal shows “that the Colombian market can reach international standards and produce high quality medicinal cannabis.” The German company that will import the products, Cansativa GmbH, said it is the first time a European company is buying medicinal cannabis from Latin America. Benedikt Sons, co-founder and director of Cansativa, said in a statement the trade with Latin America will ensure better prices in Germany by expanding sources of supply beyond the Netherlands and Canada. Fotmer, based in the small town of Nueva Helvecia, employs 80 people and is investing $7 million in laboratories and 10 tons of marijuana crops for the export market. It sells dried cannabis flowers. Clever Leaves produces extracts oil from marijuana flowers that is used in pills, creams, ointments, patches and other products for the treatment of epilepsy and chronic pain, among other uses. It plans to produce 32 tons of dried marijuana flowers this year and increase that to 85 tons by 2020. ___ Follow AP’s complete marijuana coverage: https://apnews.com/Marijuana
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2660
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Water use rising faster than world population.
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Like oil in the 20th century, water could well be the essential commodity on which the 21st century will turn.
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true
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Environment
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A man walks along Lake Travis after water receded during a drought in Austin, Texas September 10, 2011. REUTERS/Joshua Lott Human beings have depended on access to water since the earliest days of civilization, but with 7 billion people on the planet as of October 31, exponentially expanding urbanization and development are driving demand like never before. Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century, said Kirsty Jenkinson of the World Resources Institute, a Washington think tank. Water use is predicted to increase by 50 percent between 2007 and 2025 in developing countries and 18 percent in developed ones, with much of the increased use in the poorest countries with more and more people moving from rural areas to cities, Jenkinson said in a telephone interview. Factor in the expected impacts of climate change this century — more severe floods, droughts and shifts from past precipitation patterns — that are likely to hit the poorest people first and worst “and we have a significant challenge on our hands,” Jenkinson said. Will there be enough water for everyone, especially if population continues to rise, as predicted, to 9 billion by mid-century? “There’s a lot of water on Earth, so we probably won’t run out,” said Rob Renner, executive director of the Colorado-based Water Research Foundation. “The problem is that 97.5 percent of it is salty and ... of the 2.5 percent that’s fresh, two-thirds of that is frozen. So there’s not a lot of fresh water to deal with in the world.” Over a billion people lack access to clean drinking water, and over 2 billion live without adequate sanitation, leading to the deaths of 5 million people, mostly children, each year from preventable waterborne disease, Renner said. Only 8 percent of the planet’s fresh water supply goes to domestic use and about 70 percent is used for irrigation and 22 percent in industry, Jenkinson said. Droughts and insufficient rainfall contribute to what’s known as water risk, along with floods and contamination. Hot spots of water risk, as reported in the World Resources Institute's Aqueduct online atlas here , include: — Australia’s Murray-Darling basin; — the Colorado River basin in the U.S. Southwest; — the Orange-Senqu basin, covering parts of South Africa, Botswana and Namibia and all of Lesotho; — and the Yangtze and Yellow river basins in China. What is required, Jenkinson said, is integrated water resource management that takes into account who needs what kind of water, as well as where and how to use it most efficiently. “Water is going to quickly become a limiting factor in our lifetimes,” said Ralph Eberts, executive vice president of Black & Veatch, a $2.3 billion engineering business that designs water systems and operates in more than 100 countries. He said he sees a “reprioritization” of resources to address the water challenges posed by changing climate and growing urbanization. Eberts’ company is not alone. Water scarcity and water stress — which occurs when demand for water exceeds supply or when poor quality restricts use — has already hit water-intensive companies and supply chains in Russia, China and across the southern United States. At the same time, extreme floods have had severe economic impacts in Australia, Pakistan and the U.S. Midwest, according to Ceres, a coalition of large investors and environmental groups that targeted water risk as an issue that 21st century businesses will need to address. “The centrality of fresh water to our needs for food, for fuel, for fiber is taking center stage in what has become a crowded, environmentally stressed world,” said Ceres President Mindy Lubber. A Ceres database lets institutional investors know which companies are tackling water risk. Nestle and Rio Tinto were seen as leading the way. Water risk is already affecting business at apparel maker The Gap, which cut its profit forecast by 22 percent after drought cut into the cotton crop in Texas. Similarly, independent gas producer Toreador Resources saw its stock price drop 20 percent after France banned shale-gas fracturing, primarily over concerns about water quality. Food giants Kraft Foods Inc Sara Lee Corp and Nestle all announced planned price rises to offset higher commodity prices caused by droughts, flooding and other factors. Water risk is more than a corporate concern. For international aid groups, it poses a risk of disaster for those in the path of increasing drought or rising uncertainty about water supplies. In East Africa, for example, a changing climate could bring changes in temperature and precipitation that would shorten the growing season and cut yields of staple crops like maize and beans, hitting small farmers and herders hardest, according to an Oxfam report. A scientific analysis of 30 countries called the Challenge Program on Water and Food offered hope. It found that major river basins in Africa, Asia and Latin America could double food production in the next few decades if those upstream work with those downstream to efficiently use the water they have.
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36579
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U.S. President Barack Obama shut down the federal government in 2013 in order to force the passage of his Obamacare law.
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Did President Barack Obama Shut Down the Government to ‘Force Obamacare’ in 2013?
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false
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Fact Checks, Politics
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On December 29, 2018, a Facebook user posted a status update claiming that a federal shutdown over border wall funding was similar to one in 2013 — and it was purportedly initiated by President Barack Obama:This was nearly identical to a December 22, 2018 post shared hundreds of thousands of times. The version above (which was also heavily shared) read:Obama , Shut the Government down for 17 days, in 2013, to force Obamacare! Just a friendly reminder! #BuildTheWallThe post made reference to a federal government shutdown, which began on December 22, 2018 and continued into January 2019. On December 11, 2018, the New York Times reported increasing and public hostilities leading toward federal gridlock over U.S. President Donald Trump’s insistence that his campaign promise of a border wall be funded (despite the fact that a border wall already exists):Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leaders, seated on couches flanking Mr. Trump in the Oval Office, took issue with the president’s position and his false assertions about the wall in front of a phalanx of news cameras, imploring him repeatedly to continue the tense conversation without reporters present. But Mr. Trump insisted on a conspicuous clash that undercut Republican congressional leaders and his own staff working to avoid a shutdown at all costs, or at least to ensure that Democrats would shoulder the blame for such a result.“If we don’t have border security, we’ll shut down the government — this country needs border security,” Mr. Trump declared as the testy back and forth unfolded, and Mr. Schumer reminded the president repeatedly that he had called several times for a shutdown, appearing to goad him into taking responsibility.The New York Times quoted an exchange between Schumer and President Trump about a then-impending suspension of federal government operations, adding commentary from Democrat leaders following the meeting. In the exchange, President Trump stated explicitly that he was shutting the government down:“You want to know something?” Mr. Trump finally said, exasperated. “I’ll tell you what: I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck.”“I will take the mantle,” Mr. Trump went on. “I will be the one to shut it down — I’m not going to blame you for it.”…Outside the West Wing after the meeting, Mr. Schumer said Mr. Trump had thrown a “temper tantrum” over the wall, later telling reporters, “You heard the president: He wants a shutdown.”Republican leaders were also quoted on the prospect of a shutdown which had at that point not yet come to pass:“I hope that’s not where we end up,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, told reporters. “It was a rather spirited meeting we all watched, but I’d still like to see a smooth ending here.”Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said, “My experience has been that shutdowns don’t help anybody.”Personal finance site TheBalance.com published a play-by-play of the lead-up to the 2018-2019 federal government shutdown:On December 11, 2018, Democratic Congressional leaders met with President Trump. The meeting’s goal was to negotiate key budget points and avoid a shutdown. Trump reiterated his threat to shut down the government if Democrats didn’t include $5 billion to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. But Democrats say the wall would be ineffective. They offered $1.3 billion to continue current border-security funding. It includes border fencing, levee walls, and technology but not a concrete wall.On December 18 [2018], the Trump said he would compromise on receiving the full $5.7 billion to avoid a shutdown. On December 19, 2018, the Senate approved an extension of current spending until February 8, 2019.But then Trump changed course, saying he wouldn’t sign a bill without $5.7 billion for the wall. On December 20, 2018, the House of Representatives passed a bill that included funding to maintain existing barriers. Senate leaders tried to renegotiate and pass a new spending bill. At 7 p.m. eastern time it became clear that was not going to happen.On December 23 [2018], the Trump administration signaled it would accept a package that included $2.5 billion in wall funding. Democrats argue that the administration has only spent 6 percent of the $1.7 billion already allocated. They also maintain that a concrete wall is ineffective and wasteful. Even the conservative Heritage Foundation agrees. It says the money would be better spent on technology and agents to prevent illegal crossings. It also advocates more enforcement to apprehend immigrants who overstay their visas.By all accounts, Trump favored a full shutdown of the federal government for as long as it took to secure $5.7 billion in funding to construct a border wall. According to social media rumors like the Facebook post referenced here, Trump’s actions were identical to a political strategy purportedly employed by Barack Obama in 2013 to pass the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.After describing a shutdown in January 2018 (not to be confused with the shutdown from December 2018 into January 2019) and an averted shutdown in April 2017, the piece turned to the “Obamacare” shutdown in October 2013. That shutdown was caused when the House and Senate sparred over bills including and failing to include clauses relating to a health insurance mandate:The government shutdown began on October 1, 2013. The Republican-controlled House submitted a continuing resolution without administrative funds for Obamacare. The Senate rejected the bill and sent one back that included Obamacare. The House ignored that bill. It sent one back that delayed the mandate that everyone should buy health insurance. It also deleted the subsidies for Congress and their staffers. The Senate ignored that bill, and the government shut down.Ironically, the shutdown did not stop the rollout of Obamacare. That’s because 85 percent of its funding is part of the mandatory budget, just like Social Security and Medicare. It was already authorized by the Affordable Care Act of 2010. The Department of Health and Human Services had already sent out the funds needed to launch the health insurance exchanges.Posts on social media heavily implied or said outright that Presidents Obama and Trump each used federal government shutdowns to ensure that their favored policies were funded, in a classic case of whataboutism.But as is often the case, the comparison was specious. As mentioned, Trump emphasized his willingness to leverage a government shutdown to force funding for a wall, telling Sen. Chuck Schumer he was “proud to shut down the government for border security.”News articles from September and October 2013 described different circumstances, primarily reluctance across the political spectrum to suspend federal operations:In the hours leading up to the deadline, House Republican leaders won approval, in a vote of 228 to 201, of a new plan to tie further government spending to a one-year delay in a requirement that individuals buy health insurance. The House proposal would deny federal subsidies to members of Congress, Capitol Hill staff, executive branch political appointees, White House staff, and the president and vice president, who would be forced to buy their health coverage on the Affordable Care Act’s new insurance exchanges.But 57 minutes later, and with almost no debate, the Senate killed the House health care provisions and sent the stopgap spending bill right back, free of policy prescriptions. Earlier in the day, the Senate had taken less than 25 minutes to convene and dispose of a weekend budget proposal by the House Republicans … The federal government was then left essentially to run out of money at midnight, the end of the fiscal year, although the president signed a measure late Monday that would allow members of the military to continue to be paid.“You don’t get to extract a ransom for doing your job,” Mr. Obama said in the White House briefing room as the clock ticked to midnight.Mr. Obama called House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, but they spoke for less than 10 minutes, without any sign of progress.The coverage provided myriad examples of Republican infighting over that shutdown, primarily hinging on the effects that “brinkmanship” posed to Republican lawmakers with shorter tenure:The House’s most ardent conservatives were resigned to seeing through their war on the health care law to its inevitable conclusion, a shutdown that could test voters’ patience with Republican brinkmanship.Cracks in the party were opening into fissures of frustration.“You have this group that keeps saying somehow if you’re not with them, you’re for Obamacare,” said Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California. “If you’re not with exactly their plan, exactly what they want to do, then you’re somehow for Obamacare, and it’s just getting a little old.”“It’s moronic to shut down the government over this,” he continued … House leaders would have none of [further negotiations], again demanding a significant hit to the health law as a price for keeping the government open. […]In one of their final moves, House Republicans attached language to a government funding bill that would delay the mandate that individuals obtain health insurance and would force members of Congress, their staffs and White House staff members to buy their health insurance on the new exchanges without any government subsidies … Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York, said junior staff members were “being used as a sacrifice” for a political gambit, driven by Republican hard-liners in the Senate like Ted Cruz of Texas, that will go nowhere.“They locked themselves into this situation, the dead end that Ted Cruz created,” Mr. King said.In recent years, Republican leaders have enthusiastically blamed one another for the 2013 shutdown. In 2016, former Speaker John Boehner lashed out at Ted Cruz over his role in the 2013 shutdown:Never was the rift between the [Boehner and Cruz] so open than during the 2013 government shutdown.The Texas senator was able to marshal conservatives in the House against Boehner’s carefully crafted attempts to reopen the government—at one point infamously meeting with them at a Mexican restaurant on Capitol Hill to plot creative ways to insert a measure to defund Obamacare into one of the deals to reopen the government (never mind that such a proposal was DOA on President Obama’s desk).In September 2015, Boehner revisited the tumultuous shutdown period in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, following the Ohio Republican’s retirement announcement.“The Bible says beware of false prophets. And there are people out there, you know, spreading noise about how much can get done. I mean this whole notion that we’re going to shut down the government to get rid of Obamacare in 2013 — this plan never had a chance,” Boehner said.In Texas, Cruz’s home state, the Dallas Morning News refuted his assertions that he bore no responsibility for the 2013 shutdown. Once again, Cruz’s fellow Republicans primarily pointed their fingers at him as a proponent of using a federal shutdown as leverage in lieu of legislative support.The article also noted that Cruz’s push for a shutdown was aimed at defunding Obamacare, not blocking its passage:To hear Sen. Ted Cruz tell it, he deserves no blame for the 2013 government shutdown that cost the U.S. economy $24 billion … The assertion doesn’t match the historical record … while Cruz’s stance caused dismay and allegations of revisionism, he has always maintained that Democrats bore responsibility for the 16-day shutdown — along with GOP congressional leaders who lacked the backbone to back him up in the crusade to defund Obamacare.The episode remains a key moment in Cruz’s five-year Senate career, elevating his status among tea partiers and propelling his 2016 presidential bid. He alluded to it often during the primaries, reminding voters that none of his White House rivals had fought as hard in Washington for their agenda.Yet he has always denied responsibility for the shutdown, even in the run-up, at its height, and in the days afterward, as other Republicans openly fumed at him for pushing the tactic.Cruz spent the summer of 2013 promoting the idea that the fight to defund Obamacare was worth the risk of shutdown, and stirring public pressure on GOP leaders.“A lot of Republicans are scared about being beaten up by President Obama for wanting to shut down the government,” he told a hotel ballroom of young conservatives that July.It was one of many times he publicly promoted the threat of a shutdown in the crusade against Obamacare.On Sept. 24 and 25 [2013], he staged a 21-hour filibuster-like talkathon to dramatize his push.“We should not shut down the government. We should fund every bit of the government, every aspect of the government, 100 percent of the government except for Obamacare. That is what the House of Representatives did. The House of Representatives — 232 Members of the House, including 2 Democrats — voted to fund every bit of the Federal Government, 100 percent of it, except for Obamacare,” he said at one point in his overnight marathon.His insistence that he didn’t want a shutdown struck his critics then and now as disingenuous.Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called it a “dumb idea” to risk a shutdown. House Speaker John Boehner rejected the tactic and later called Cruz a “jackass” for pursuing it.Likewise, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, then the minority leader, and his deputy, Texas’ own John Cornyn, warned that trying to use a must-pass budget to kill Obamacare was a losing cause.“There’s no end result other than shutting the government down, for which Republicans are going to be blamed,” Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch said after a meeting with Cruz, shortly before the shutdown. “We’re in the minority. We have to find a way of standing up for our principles without immolating ourselves in front of everybody, when we don’t have the votes to do it.”In October 2013, Nunes again blamed Cruz for what he described as a hollow strategy:Rep. Devin Nunes, a Republican from California’s Central Valley, is generally considered a conservative. He says the 30 or so House Tea Party members who frequently vote against House Speaker John Boehner and have carried Cruz’s flag in the House are “lemmings. They’re followers.”He says the speaker has acquiesced to their strategy.“We’re this far, so you have to let it play out,” he says. “I mean, we’ve already shut the government down … and now you have to, I think, keep up with this Ted Cruz lemming strategy. It’s got to move forward.”But Nunes isn’t convinced there really is a strategy.“Now, we’re letting these guys — this lemming crew — play out their hand,” he says. “Now, they’re kind of playing with no cards in their hand. But they don’t know that yet.”Both President Obama and Boehner were repeatedly quoted as opposing the shutdown-as-strategy gambit in 2013, the former describing it as “entirely preventable” and the latter as “[not] some damn game.” Even before the shutdown, Cruz was largely deemed instrumental in it:Having tried and failed to sell restive conservatives on plans to keep the government open without picking a fight over Obamacare, it appears that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is moving on to Plan C: Giving in to people like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) who are insisting that any bill to keep the government open after Sept. 30 [2013] must defund Obamacare.In December 2014, CNBC reported that Cruz “almost single-handedly persuaded House Republicans to shut down the government in 2013 – with disastrous political results” and “was a major architect of the 2013 shutdown, taken in protest of the Obama administration’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act” in a piece about a separate “game of Shutdown Chicken” over to Obama’s executive action on immigration at the time. In September 2015, Cruz again appeared to float the prospect of another shutdown over Planned Parenthood, appearing to criticize Boehner for his efforts to avert a shutdown:Republicans and Democrats advanced a temporary spending measure that will keep government agencies operating at current spending levels through December 11 [2015], by a vote of 77 to 19. The Senate is expected to give the bill, which does not cut Planned Parenthood funding, final approval … The bill, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set up last week, was expected to pass, and fellow senators weren’t very receptive to Cruz’s complaints after the fact. Politico reports that once the measure passed, Cruz tried to get a roll-call vote, a typical courtesy, but other Republicans shouted “no.” Only Mike Lee backed Cruz’s request, and it was overruled by McConnell and the rest of the GOP leadership.Then the presidential candidate [Cruz] took to the floor to rail against the Senate leadership and share his theory for why Boehner is really stepping down as House speaker. He asserted that to avoid a shutdown, Boehner cut a deal with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to push the continuing resolution through the House and continue funding various liberal initiatives. (Boehner and Pelosi say they have a shared interest in keeping the government open, but there’s no secret deal. )“I believe if Speaker Boehner had done that … that he would have lost his speakership,” Cruz said. “And so what did he do? He announced that he is resigning as speaker and resigning as a member of Congress. That is unsurprising. But it also telegraphs the deal he just cut. It’s a deal to surrender and join with the Democrats. Notice he said he’s going to stay a month. He’s going to stay a month in order to join with the Democrats and fund Barack Obama’s priorities.”In 2018 and 2019, President Donald Trump himself said that he was “proud” to usher in a shutdown to fund a border wall. By contrast, President Barack Obama was opposed to the 2013 shutdown — which was triggered by the actions of the House and Senate; almost all accounts credited Ted Cruz with engineering a shutdown in 2013, an impasse considered unwelcome by Democrats and Republicans alike.The second claim in the Facebook posts was perhaps more relevant than the first, suggesting the that action was undertaken in 2013 to “force Obamacare.” This is clear disinformation. At the time of the 2013 shutdown, the ACA had already been established law for three years. By contrast, no such law existed to secure border wall funding as of December 2018 or January 2019.The claims were unfounded on both points. The 2013 shutdown was primarily advanced by Cruz, as recounted by fellow Republicans in the intervening years, and the 2013 shutdown was an effort to defund an existing law, not an attempt by President Barack Obama to pass a law that already existed at the time of that shutdown.
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29510
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"President Obama has demanded all Americans ""celebrate gay sex"" for the month of June 2016."
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What's true: President Obama issued a Presidential Proclamation officially recognizing June 2016 as LGBT Pride Month. What's false: Sexual activity of any sort was not mentioned in the proclamation; no portion of the document was a directive.
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false
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Politics, fury news, lgbt pride month, presidential proclamation
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On 1 June 2016, the web site Fury News published an article widely shared on social media, reporting that President Obama “demanded” that the United States celebrates “gay sex”: By royal decree, King Obama announced that the month of June will now be dedicated to celebrating… Happy Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride month everyone! Screw what the majority of the American population feels or thinks. By royal decree, the King has just announced that the month of June will be dedicated to celebrating the LBGT community. Here’s King Obama’s royal decree, which can be found on Whitehouse.gov[.] The article went on to quote a 31 May 2016 Presidential Proclamation that officially recognized the month of June 2016 as LGBT Pride Month, but despite what it reported, the proclamation did not mandate participation. nor did it mention “gay sex”: Since our founding, America has advanced on an unending path toward becoming a more perfect Union. This journey, led by forward-thinking individuals who have set their sights on reaching for a brighter tomorrow, has never been easy or smooth. The fight for dignity and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people is reflected in the tireless dedication of advocates and allies who strive to forge a more inclusive society. They have spurred sweeping progress by changing hearts and minds and by demanding equal treatment — under our laws, from our courts, and in our politics. This month, we recognize all they have done to bring us to this point, and we recommit to bending the arc of our Nation toward justice. Last year’s landmark Supreme Court decision guaranteeing marriage equality in all 50 States was a historic victory for LGBT Americans, ensuring dignity for same-sex couples and greater equality across State lines. For every partnership that was not previously recognized under the law and for every American who was denied their basic civil rights, this monumental ruling instilled newfound hope, affirming the belief that we are all more free when we are treated as equals. LGBT individuals deserve to know their country stands beside them. That is why my Administration is striving to better understand the needs of LGBT adults and to provide affordable, welcoming, and supportive housing to aging LGBT Americans. It is also why we oppose subjecting minors to the harmful practice of conversion therapy, and why we are continuing to promote equality and foster safe and supportive learning environments for all students. We remain committed to addressing health disparities in the LGBT community — gay and bisexual men and transgender women of color are at a particularly high risk for HIV, and we have worked to strengthen our National HIV/AIDS Strategy to reduce new infections, increase access to care, and improve health outcomes for people living with HIV. Despite the extraordinary progress of the past few years, LGBT Americans still face discrimination simply for being who they are. I signed an Executive Order in 2014 that prohibits discrimination against Federal employees and contractors on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. I urge the Congress to enact legislation that builds upon the progress we have made, because no one should live in fear of losing their job simply because of who they are or who they love. And our commitment to combatting discrimination against the LGBT community does not stop at our borders: Advancing the fair treatment of all people has long been a cornerstone of American diplomacy, and we have made defending and promoting the human rights of LGBT individuals a priority in our engagement across the globe. In line with America’s commitment to the notion that all people should be treated fairly and with respect, champions of this cause at home and abroad are upholding the simple truth that LGBT rights are human rights. There remains much work to do to extend the promise of our country to every American, but because of the acts of courage of the millions who came out and spoke out to demand justice and of those who quietly toiled and pushed for progress, our Nation has made great strides in recognizing what these brave individuals long knew to be true in their hearts — that love is love and that no person should be judged by anything but the content of their character. During Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, as Americans wave their flags of pride high and march boldly forward in parades and demonstrations, let us celebrate how far we have come and reaffirm our steadfast belief in the equal dignity of all Americans. NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2016 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand sixteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fortieth.
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10052
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Osteoporosis medication extends life by five years
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It is bad enough that the story asserts that bisphosphonates prolong life, based on a study design that can’t possibly prove that. Adding the researchers’ musings about a possible mechanism is pure speculation, and just compounds the error. We think of the thousands of women thinking about osteoporosis who could be misled by the claims in this story and we shudder. Observational research findings are important and intriguing, but reporting on them requires more context than what was provided in this story if people are to comprehend the true strength or weakness of the available evidence.
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false
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Los Angeles Times,Osteoporosis
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There is no discussion of the cost of these drugs. If one is to accept the premise of the story – that taking these drugs “extends life by five years” – one needs to explore how long you would need to take the drugs in order to gain this benefit. And how much would that cost? Not insignificant questions. Some quantification was provided, but we doubt that many readers could understand them. The story stated: “The death rate for women taking bisphosphonates was 0.8% per 100 person-years, compared with 1.2% for women taking hormone therapy, 3.2% for women taking calcium and vitamin D and 3.5% for women taking no treatment. In men, bisphosphonates also lowered the death rate compared with other therapies.” Do readers understand person-years? Why not give the raw numbers? The story at least mentioned harms, but didn’t give any sense of the scope of the problems. Again, in the context of a story about longterm use of these drugs, the question of harms is important. The story never addressed the limitations of drawing conclusions from observational studies. It did state: “It’s not clear what accounts for this benefit. It could be that people taking bisphosphonates are generally healthier or get better overall healthcare. But the researchers suggest that the link is tied to physiology. When people age and lose bone, heavy metals, like lead and cadmium, which are stored in bone over a lifetime are released into the bloodstream and can affect health. Preventing bone loss may prevent the release of these toxic substances and the damage they do.” But it should have an overarching statement about why you can’t establish cause and effect from this type of study. Read our primer on this topic. It is bad enough that the report asserts that bisphosphonates prolong life, based on a study design that can’t possibly prove that. Adding the researchers’ musings about a possible mechanism is pure speculation, and just compounds the error. Not applicable. The story is about extending life, not about any one condition. No independent expert was quoted in the story. This was badly needed to provide the perspective of the limitations of this research – rather than a headline that stated as fact, “Osteoporosis medication extends life by five years.” We’ll rule this not applicable – and perhaps that’s being kind. The story could have at least nodded in the direction of what else women can do to try to extend their lifespan – rather than simply the notion of taking bisphosphonate drugs to do so. Not applicable. The availability of the bisphosphonate drugs is not in question. The story doesn’t give any context about whether there’s ever been any other research on this question. The story admits that it took its quote of the co-author from a news release. There is no evidence of any independent reporting.
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28582
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An essay outlines the fates of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
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A popular essay outlines the fates of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, but many of its details are inaccurate.
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mixture
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History, 4th of july, American History, declaration of independence
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In the waning years of their lengthy lives, former presidents (and Founding Fathers) John Adams and Thomas Jefferson reconciled the political differences that had separated them for many years and carried on a voluminous correspondence. One of the purposes behind their exchange of letters was to set the record straight regarding the events of the American Revolution, for as author Joseph J. Ellis noted, they (particularly Adams, whom history would not treat nearly as kindly as Jefferson) were keenly aware of the “distinction between history as experienced and history as remembered”: Adams realized that the act of transforming the American Revolution into history placed a premium on selecting events and heroes that fit neatly into a dramatic formula, thereby distorting the more tangled and incoherent experience that participants actually making the history felt at the time. Jefferson’s drafting of the Declaration of Independence was a perfect example of such dramatic distortions. The Revolution in this romantic rendering became one magical moment of inspiration, leading inexorably to the foregone conclusion of American independence. Evidently Adams was right: So great is our need for simplified, dramatic events and heroes that even the real-life biographies of the fifty-six men who risked their lives to publicly declare American independence are no longer compelling enough. Through multiple versions of pieces like the one quoted below, their lives have been repeatedly embellished with layers of fanciful fiction to make for a better story: Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? What fates befell them for daring to put their names to that document? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward. Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton. At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt. Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year, he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates. Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing talk straight, and unwavering, they pledged: “For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” They gave you and me a free and independent America. The history books never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary War. We didn’t fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government! Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn’t. So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July Holiday and silently thank these patriots. It’s not much to ask for the price they paid. Remember: Freedom is never free! I hope you will show your support by please sending this to as many people as you can. It’s time we get the word out that patriotism is NOT a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer, picnics, and baseball games. As we often do, we’ll try here to strip away those accumulated layers of fiction and get down to whatever kernel of truth may lie underneath: It is true that five signers of the Declaration of Independence were captured by the British during the course of the Revolutionary War. However, none of them died while a prisoner, and four of them were taken into custody not because they were considered “traitors” due to their status as signatories to that document, but because they were captured as prisoners of war while actively engaged in military operations against the British. George Walton was captured after being wounded while commanding militia at the Battle of Savannah in December 1778, and Thomas Heyward, Jr., Arthur Middleton, and Edward Rutledge (three of the four Declaration of Independence signers from South Carolina) were taken prisoner at the Siege of Charleston in May in 1780. Although they endured the ill treatment typically afforded to prisoners of war during their captivity (prison conditions were quite deplorable at the time), they were not tortured, nor is there evidence that they were treated more harshly than other wartime prisoners who were not also signatories to the Declaration. Moreover, all four men were eventually exchanged or released; had they been considered traitors by the British, they would have been hanged. Richard Stockton of New Jersey was the only signer taken prisoner specifically because of his status as a signatory to the Declaration, “dragged from his bed by night” by local Tories after he had evacuated his family from New Jersey, and imprisoned in New York City’s infamous Provost Jail like a common criminal. It is true that a number of signers saw their homes and property occupied, ransacked, looted, and vandalized by the British (and even in some cases by the Americans). However, as we discuss in more detail below, this activity was a common part of warfare. Signers’ homes were not specifically targeted for destruction — like many other Americans, their property was subject to seizure when it fell along the path of a war being waged on the North American continent. Abraham Clark of New Jersey saw two of his sons captured by the British and incarcerated on the prison ship Jersey. John Witherspoon, also of New Jersey, saw his eldest son, James, killed in the Battle of Germantown in October 1777. If there was a second signer of the Declaration whose son was killed while serving in the Continental Army, we have yet to identify him. This statement is quite misleading as phrased. Nine signers died during the course of the Revolutionary War, but none of them died from wounds or hardships inflicted on them by the British. (Indeed, several of the nine didn’t even take part in the war.) Only one signer, Button Gwinnett of Georgia, died from wounds, and those were received not at the hands of the British, but from a fellow officer with whom he dueled in May 1777. Before the American Revolution, Carter Braxton was possessed of a considerable fortune through inheritance and favorable marriages. While still in his teens he inherited the family estate, which included a flourishing Virginia tobacco plantation, upon the death of his father. He married a wealthy heiress who died when he was just 21, and within a few years he had remarried, this time to the daughter of the Receiver of Customs in Virginia for the King. As a delegate representing Virginia in the Continental Congress in 1776, he was one of the minority of delegates reluctant to support an American declaration of independence, a move which he viewed at the time as too dangerous: [Independence] is in truth a delusive Bait which men inconsiderably catch at, without knowing the hook to which it is affixed … America is too defenceless a State for the declaration, having no alliance with a naval Power nor as yet any Fleet of consequence of her own to protect that trade which is so essential to the prosecution of the War, without which I know we cannot go on much longer. Braxton invested his wealth in commercial enterprises, particularly shipping, and he endured severe financial reversals during the Revolutionary War when many of the ships in which he held interest were either appropriated by the British government (because they were British-flagged) or were sunk or captured by the British. He was not personally targeted for ruin because he had signed the Declaration of Independence, however; he suffered grievous financial losses because most of his wealth was tied up in shipping, “that trade which is so essential to the prosecution of the War” and which was therefore a prime military target for the British. Even if he hadn’t signed the Declaration of Independence, Braxton’s ships would have been casualties of the war just the same. Although Braxton did lose property during the war and had to sell off assets (primarily landholdings) to cover the debts incurred by the loss of his ships, he recouped much of that money after the war but subsequently lost it again through his own ill-advised business dealings. His fortune was considerably diminished in his later years, but he did not by any stretch of the imagination “die in rags.” As one biography describes Thomas McKean (not “McKeam”): Thomas McKean might just represent an ideal study of how far political engagement can be carried by one man. One can scarcely believe the number of concurrent offices and duties this man performed during the course of his long career. He served three states and many more cities and county governments, often performing duties in two or more jurisdictions, even while engaged in federal office. Among his many offices, McKean was a delegate to the Continental Congress (of which he later served as president), President of Delaware, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, and Governor of Pennsylvania. The above-quoted statement regarding his being “hounded” by the British during the Revolutionary War is probably based upon a letter he wrote to his friend John Adams in 1777, in which he described how he had been “hunted like a fox by the enemy, compelled to remove my family five times in three months, and at last fixed them in a little log-house on the banks of the Susquehanna, but they were soon obliged to move again on account of the incursions of the Indians.” However, it is problematic to assert that McKean’s treatment was due to his being a signer of the Declaration of Independence. (His name does not appear on printed copies of that document authenticated in January 1777, so it is likely he did not affix his name to it until later.) If he was targeted by the British, it was quite possibly because he also served in a military capacity as a volunteer leader of militia. In any case, McKean did not end up in “poverty,” as the estate he left behind when he died in 1817 was described as consisting of “stocks, bonds, and huge land tracts in Pennsylvania.” First of all, this passage has a couple of misspellings: the signers referred to are William Ellery (not “Dillery”) and Edward Rutledge (not “Ruttledge”). Secondly, this sentence is misleading in that it implies a motive that was most likely not present (i.e., these men’s homes were looted because they had been signers of the Declaration of Independence). The need to forage for supplies in enemy territory has long been a part of warfare, and so it was far from uncommon for British soldiers in the field to appropriate such material from private residences during the American Revolution. (Not only were homes used as sources of food, livestock, and other necessary supplies, but larger houses were also taken over and used to quarter soldiers or to serve as headquarters for officers.) In some cases, even American forces took advantage of the local citizenry to provision themselves. Given that many more prominent American revolutionaries who were also signers of the Declaration of Independence (e.g., Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, James Wilson, Benjamin Rush, Robert Morris) had homes in areas that were occupied by the British during the war, yet those homes were not looted or vandalized, it’s hard to make the case that the men named above were specifically targeted for vengeance by the British rather than unfortunate victims whose property fell in the path of an armed conflict being waged on American soil. The tale about Thomas Nelson’s urging or suggesting the bombardment of his own house is one of several Revolutionary War legends whose truth may never be known. Several versions of this story exist, one of which (as referenced above) holds that Nelson encouraged George Washington to shell his Yorktown home after British Major General Charles Cornwallis had taken it over to use as his headquarters in 1781: Cornwallis had turned the home of Thomas Nelson, who had succeeded Jefferson as governor of Virginia, into his headquarters. Nelson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, had led three Virginia brigades, or 3,000 men, to Yorktown and, when the shelling of the town was about to begin, urged Washington to bombard his own house. And that is where Washington, with his experienced surveyor’s eye, reputedly pointed the gun for the first (and singularly fatal) allied shot. Legend has it that the shell went right through a window and landed at the dinner table where some British officers, including the British commissary general, had just sat down to dine. The general was killed and several others wounded as it burst among their plates. Other versions of the story have Nelson directing the Marquis de Lafayette to train French artillery on his home: The story goes that the new Virginia Governor Thomas Nelson (who’d been held at Yorktown but released under a flag of truce) was with American forces that day. Lafayette invited Nelson to be present when Captain Thomas Machin’s battery first opened fire, as both a compliment and knowing Nelson lived in Yorktown and would know the localities in the riverport area. “To what particular spot,” Lafayette reportedly asked Nelson, “would your Excellency direct that we should point the cannon.” Nelson replied, “There, to that house. It is mine, and … it is the best one in the town. There you will be almost certain to find Lord Cornwallis and the British headquarters.” “A simultaneous discharge of all the guns in the line,” Joseph Martin wrote, was “followed [by] French troops accompanying it with ‘Huzza for the Americans. '” Sounding much like the Nelson legend, Martin’s account added that “the first shell sent from our batteries entered an elegant house formerly owned or occupied by the Secretary of State under the British, and burned directly over a table surrounded by a large party of British officers at dinner, killing and wounding a number of them.” Still other accounts maintain this legend is a conflation of two separate events: Thomas Nelson, acting as commander in chief of the Virginia militia, ordered a battery to open fire on his uncle’s home, where Cornwallis was then ensconced. Later, Nelson supposedly made a friendly bet with French artillerists in which he challenged them to hit his home, one of the more prominent landmarks in Yorktown. Whatever the truth, the Nelson home was certainly not “destroyed” as claimed. The house stands to this day as part of Colonial National Historical Park, and the National Park Service’s description of it notes only that “the southeast face of the residence does show evidence of damage from cannon fire.” Francis Lewis represented New York in the Continental Congress, and shortly after he signed the Declaration of Independence his Long Island estate was raided by the British, possibily as retaliation for his having been a signatory to that document. While Lewis was in Philadelphia attending to congressional matters, his wife was taken prisoner by the British after disregarding an order for citizens to evacuate Long Island. Mrs. Lewis was held for several months before being exchanged for the wives of British officials captured by the Americans. Although her captivity was undoubtedly a hardship, she had already been in poor health for some time and died a few years (not months) later. John Hart’s New Jersey farm was looted in the course of the Revolutionary War (possibly due his status as Speaker of the Assembly), and he did have to remain in hiding in nearby mountains for a short time, but the rest of the above passage is gross exaggeration. When the British overran the area of New Jersey where Hart resided in late November of 1776, he was not “driven from his [dying] wife’s bedside,” as his wife had already died several weeks earlier (and most of his thirteen children were adults by then). He certainly didn’t spend “more than a year” on the run living “in forests and caves,” as the Continental Army recaptured the area within a month (through General George Washington’s famous crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas night). Hart also did not die “from exhaustion and a broken heart” a mere “few weeks” after emerging from hiding — in 1778 he was re-elected to the New Jersey assembly, and he invited the American army to encamp on his New Jersey farmland in June 1778 before succumbing to kidney stones in May 1779. Lewis Morris (not Norris) indeed saw his Westchester County, New York, home taken over in 1776 and used as a barracks for soldiers, and the horses and livestock from his farm commandeered by military personnel, but he suffered those initial deprivations at the hands of the Continental Army, not the British. Shortly afterwards his property was appropriated, looted, and burned by the British when they occupied New York. (Morris and his wife were eventually able to reclaim their property and restore their home after the war.) Philip Livingston lost several properties to the British occupation of New York and sold off others to support the war effort, and he did not recover them because he died suddenly in 1778, before the end of the war.
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Mexico confirms first 2 cases of coronavirus.
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Mexico’s assistant health secretary announced Friday that the country now has two confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.
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true
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AP Top News, Religion, Mexico, Health, General News, Flu, Latin America, Caribbean, Virus Outbreak, Mexico City
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Hugo Lopez-Gatell said one of the patients is in Mexico City and the other in the northern state of Sinaloa. While a second test is still pending on that case, he said, “We are treating this as confirmed.” Neither is seriously ill; one is in isolation at a hospital, the other is isolated at a hotel. At least five family contacts of the first patient have been placed in isolation. He said the men had traveled to the northern Italian region where there has been an outbreak and had returned to Mexico between last Friday and Saturday. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador appeared to downplay the seriousness of the COVID-19 virus, saying “it isn’t even equivalent to flu.” Seasonal flu kills more people because it has infected far more people, but the new virus appears to have a far higher mortality rate. In the central China city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus first exploded, 2% to 4% of patients have died, according to the World Health Organization. But in the rest of China, the death rate has been 0.7%. On average, the death rate from seasonal flu is about 0.1%. “I repeat, according to the available information, it is not something terrible, fatal,” López Obrador said. “There shouldn’t be any yellow journalism, or exaggerations, to cause a mass psychosis of fear, of terror.” Brazil on Wednesday confirmed Latin America’s first confirmed case of the new coronavirus in a man who traveled to Italy this month. López Obrador, who holds wide-ranging news conferences almost every weekday, announced that his officials will now hold news conferences on coronavirus every night. Lopez-Gatell also said that Mexico’s traditional culture of hearty handshakes, friendly hugs and kisses as a form of greeting must change. Lopez-Gatell drew a chuckle from the president when he suggested replacing those greeting with a self-hug —a gesture that López Obrador frequently uses in front of large crowds when he can’t greet people individually. The Roman Catholic Bishops Conference in Mexico said in a statement Friday that Mass-goers should substitute verbal for physical greetings when exchanging the ritual expressions of peace, and that communion wafers should be placed in parishioners’ hands rather than their mouths, both as preventive measures. Mexico’s Health Department said the case in Mexico City involved a 35-year-old Italian man who lives in the Mexican capital, while the Sinaloa case involves a 41-year-old resident of Hidalgo state. The confirmed cases shifted attention from the long-suffering passengers of the MSC Meraviglia, which had been turned away from two ports before docking in Mexico’s Caribbean coast resort of Cozumel on Thursday. The passengers were finally allowed off the ship on Friday after health checks found influenza, but no cases of the new coronavirus, in a crew member and passenger. Some of the roughly 4,580 passengers went ashore in Cozumel on Friday, according to MSC Cruises, which said it will offer passengers 100 percent refunds of cruise fares “due to the disruptive nature of their vacation.” “Spirits, overall, were high – especially in light of the difficult situation that had developed over the previous day,” according to the company. The ship was scheduled to depart Cozumel late Friday and return to its home port of Miami, Florida on Sunday.
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29008
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A study showed 69% of all store-bought extra virgin olive oils in the US are 'probably fake.'
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"What's true: Testing carried out in 2008 and 2010 reported that some popular olive oil brands did not meet the criteria to be labeled as ""extra virgin."" What's false: Tests did not show that 69% of the olive oil sold in the U.S. is made wholly or primarily from something other than olives."
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mixture
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Food, fake olive oil, food legends, Odd Ingredients
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In early March 2015, an article titled “Fake Olive Oil: What You Need to Know [Now]” began circulating via social media, focusing on the health benefits of olive oil and making the claim that 69% of store-bought olive oils are “probably fake.” Predictably the claim was well-circulated among health buffs, as olive oil is prized for its status as a heart-healthy food. The prospect of counterfeit olive oil caused many diners to wonder what might be lurking in their bottles of Bertolli and whether there was cause for concern over adulterants and impurities. Given the wording of that article, it was difficult to determine how a study might identify a specific proportion (not “about 70%”, but precisely 69%) of store-bought olive oil, yet only arrive at the partial conclusion that the referenced percentage of oils was “probably fake”: Independent tests at the University of California found that 69% of all store-bought extra virgin olive oils in the US are probably fake. This study reported that the following brands failed to meet extra virgin olive oil standards: Embedded links in the article pointed back to the University of California Davis Olive Center, which operates under the university’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, so the article was referencing a document released by the center in April 2011 under the title “Report: Evaluation of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Sold in California.” That paper was not a research study, but it did provide some context for the claim that 69% of store-bought olive oil was “fake.” The Olive Center’s testing took place between 2008 and 2010. Researchers did not examine whether olive oil was “fake” as such (i.e., something other than olive oil misleadingly labeled as such), but rather whether oils identified as “extra virgin” actually met the strict criteria required for that designation: While there are many excellent imported and domestic extra virgin olive oils available in California, our findings indicate that the quality level of the largest imported brand names is inconsistent at best, and that most of the top selling olive oils we examined regularly failed to meet international standards for extra virgin olive oil. “Extra virgin” is the top grade of olive oil according to standards established by the International Olive Council (IOC) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). In addition to establishing chemistry standards for extra virgin olive oil, the IOC and USDA have established a sensory standard — the oil must have zero defects and greater than zero fruitiness. In the same passage, the Center explained that the 69% figure dated to 2010 tests of the sensory standards criteria for extra virgin olive oil and that the substandard olive oils were not unique to the United States: In July 2010 the UC Davis Olive Center issued a report showing that 69 percent of imported olive oils labeled as “extra virgin” failed the IOC sensory standard — in other words, these oils were defective and failed to meet the international standard for extra virgin olive oil. In the months since the release of the study, similar quality problems have been found in Andalusia, the world’s most productive olive oil region, by Spanish authorities. While tests carried out on olive oil between 2008 and 2010 revealed that many store-vended oils did not meet the criteria set by regulatory agencies for the “extra virgin” label, the testing did not determine that the oils were “fake” in the sense of not being made from olives. The tested samples did not always meet the stringent extra-virgin standards for taste, aroma, and color, and the flavor profiles of some olive oils were likely overstated, but the samples were not oils produced from another source masquerading as olive oil, nor did the study raise concerns about purity, adulteration, safety, or substitution of various brands of olive oils. UPDATE: 19 February 2017 — The status of this page was changed to “MIXTURE” and the “What’s True” and “What’s False” descriptions were reworded to better distinguish between “olive oil that does not meet the standards for extra virgin labeling” and “‘fake’ olive oil.”
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4071
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Officials say death of Montana teenager was vaping-related.
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Health officials say a teenager in Montana has died of a lung disease associated with a national outbreak of vaping-related illnesses.
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true
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Health, General News, Lung disease, Montana, Vaping, U.S. News, Public health
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The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services said Tuesday it was the state’s first recorded death connected to e-cigarette use. Officials declined to release any further details about the teen, citing confidentiality. Officials said they have identified two other people in the state with vaping-associated lung illnesses. U.S. health officials have reported about 1,300 vaping-related illnesses and at least 26 deaths nationwide. A temporary ban on flavored vaping products goes into effect Oct. 22 in Montana.
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9130
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How six cups of ground coffee can improve nose, throat surgery
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This Vanderbilt University news release describes a tight-fitting silicone cap vacuum-packed with coffee grounds that tracks a patient’s head movement during surgery. With the help of a video, it does a good job of explaining how this “granular jamming cap” could improve upon currently used elastic headbands with double-stick tape, which it says are prone to slippage and don’t allow markers to cover the entire head. But costs aren’t addressed, and there are unacknowledged limitations with the research, which was published in March by the International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery. For one thing, the device hasn’t been tested in real surgeries. Further, researchers say coffee isn’t actually suitable for a surgical product because it biodegrades. So the headline’s assertion that “six cups of ground coffee can improve nose, throat surgery” is overblown. We also wish it had clearly explained how reducing head tracking errors could help patients. The news release coincides with the presentation of the cap design at the International Conference on Information Processing in Computer-Assisted Interventions. It appears to be aimed at drumming up interest in order to attract an investor that could bring this product to market. Inventions are fascinating, especially if they involve familiar technologies like vacuum-packed coffee and silicone swim caps. But news releases should strive to go beyond “gee whiz” and explain how patients might benefit in terms of fewer harmful errors, quicker procedures, or lower costs. They also need to acknowledge the hurdles to widespread adoption. Science is rife with cool ideas that for one reason or another never took off. Remember inhalable insulin? The project summarized in the release is part of the university’s technology transfer program. These projects exist to promote university-industry partnerships and often give an economic boost to businesses by commercializing products developed in a university lab. Releases on such projects must walk a fine line between serving the public’s interest (which should be their first priority) and promoting products for the marketplace.
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mixture
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granular jamming cap,surgical procedure,Vanderbilt University
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There’s no discussion of how switching to the coffee-filled cap might affect costs. A silicone swim cap and six cups of coffee grounds run less than 20 bucks. But it’s safe to say this device will cost much more given the need for a potential investor to recoup the cost of clinical trials and other expenses related to getting a medical device to market. The news release suggests the cap may save time or prevent errors during surgery, which could reduce some health care costs. The news release says that researchers “designed three tests to determine how well this ‘granular jamming cap’ performed relative to the current headband in reducing targeting error: But the release doesn’t say how often these errors occur using the current headband method, so it’s impossible to know whether this is an improvement that would amount to a significant advance. Also, the news release does not explain how these tests translate to something meaningful for patients, such as fewer surgical errors, shorter procedure times, greater safety, or lower costs. It does state that in about one operation out of seven, the target error is so large that the surgeon is forced to “redo the registration process,” which orients the markers. But what that means is unclear. Does that prolong surgery to a significant extent? Does it result in greater risk or higher costs? The news release doesn’t say. The gold standard for fiducial (or placement) markers is the use of anchors for attachment to rigid structures such as the skull. This approach is routinely used in proton beam therapy, for example, where precise location and targeting is necessary. The coffee ground cap was not tested against the anchored placement method but with what is recognized as a painless but flawed method. The news release mentions that the cap is “noninvasive” but doesn’t say whether there are any potential harms. Silicone allergies are purportedly rare, but they do exist. The news release is silent on the issue of potential harm which is movement from anatomic landmarks. We aren’t sure that the lower error rate seen with the coffee cap is really an advantage. An earlier publication from the group concluded: Our results show that our granular jamming fixation prototype reduces registration error by 28%-68% (depending on bump direction) in comparison to a standard Brainlab reference headband.. Indeed the method appears to be better than the headband approach but it is unclear how it performs in comparison to anchored fiducial markers. The news release doesn’t point out some important limitations. While the tests were intended to simulate what happens in an operating room, trials have not been performed showing that this device is safe and effective during actual surgeries. Also, the news release does not report the study’s assessment that the current design “is suitable for sinus surgery but not applicable to neurosurgeries approached via craniotomy,” a procedure in which part of the skull is removed. The news release misses a key conclusion from the study: “Future work remains to make the granular jamming cap a robust clinical product. One objective is to replace the coffee grounds with a non-organic particle that does not biodegrade over time.” So while coffee grounds may have inspired this device, they’re unlikely to be part of a final product. No disease mongering here. The news release says the research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. It states that one of the researchers now works for Eli Lilly and Company, and that the university is seeking a commercial partner to bring the device to market. The news release does discuss the use of stabilizing markers and points to their downside. Unfortunately, the release ignores the potential upside of the gold standard approach, greater precision in registration and greater precision of therapy. The news release says researchers believe the cap will “contribute to improving the guidance system’s accuracy” by increasing the number of markers used to indicate head positioning as well as improving the stability of the markers. Currently, stabilizing markers would involve “drilling and attaching the markers directly to the skull…which we don’t like to do because it is painful and it’s a step backwards from the majority of what we are doing,” said assistant professor of otolaryngology Paul Russell, who is collaborating with the engineers on the project. The news release does the minimum, saying “Vanderbilt University has applied for a patent on the design and the technology is available for licensing. (Interested parties should contact the Vanderbilt Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization. )” A companion video states that “the next step is to work with a commercial partner to make it an FDA-approved product.” Information on how long FDA approval could take, as well as a nod to the fact that this might never make it to market, would have made this better. The news release states developers are presenting the “novel design and data on its effectiveness” at an upcoming scientific meeting. It also describes the cap as “an effort to improve the reliability of the sophisticated ‘GPS’ system that surgeons use for these delicate operations.” The news release maintains a restrained approach, with the exceptions of the headline and the lead. “How six cups of ground coffee can improve nose, throat surgery” is vague and misleading, since there’s no proven benefit yet. And it doesn’t strike us as accurate to describe this as “plopping six cups of coffee grounds on the heads of patients just before they are wheeled into the operating room to have nose or throat surgery.”
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28612
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In ancient Rome, women would drink turpentine to make their urine smell sweet like roses.
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What's true: According to the medical literature, drinking turpentine does impart a scent resembling violets to urine, which was known to physicians in first-century Rome. What's false: The imparted floral scent is that of violets, not roses. What's undetermined: We have encountered no documentary evidence to the effect that women in ancient Rome commonly used this method to sweeten the smell of their urine.
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mixture
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History, rome, turpentine
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One of those fascinating tidbits of historical “fact” that circulates perennially on the Internet holds that women in ancient Rome drank turpentine, a toxic solvent (better known as paint thinner) distilled from the resin of pine trees, to make their urine smell “like roses.” Here’s an example from Facebook: In Ancient Rome, women would drink turpentine to make their urine smell sweet like roses https://t.co/uH5p8ooymp — Facts Zone (@facts_zone) April 8, 2016 We also find the claim set forth in a 30 May 2013 article by natural health entrepreneur Joseph Mercola explaining what, according to him, the color and odor of one’s urine says about the state of one’s health: If you’re a woman from ancient Rome and your urine smells like roses, you’ve probably been drinking turpentine. This is a high price to pay to woo your suitor with pleasant-smelling pee, as turpentine may kill you! A version posted in article entitled “Bizarre Facts About … Pee!” on the web site Neatorama.com in 2010 repeated the claim that it was a practice indulged in by women, but that its origin wasn’t necessarily so ancient: Asparagus isn’t the only thing some people smell in urine. Drinking turpentine is said to make urine smell like a rose, so hundreds of years ago, women would drink turpentine so their piss would smell sweet. Despite the fact that no one ever cites a source for it, the claim has a plausible enough ring. As most people are aware, the things we consume can directly affect the appearance and smell of our urine. Two of the most common examples, as noted by the Harvard Medical School web site, are beets and asparagus: Beets, blackberries, and rhubarb can temporarily turn urine pink or red, which can be alarming, because it may be mistaken for blood. The pigment that gives beets their deep magenta color is stable only at certain levels of stomach acidity and is usually too faint to show up in most people’s urine. The phenomenon — dubbed “beeturia” — occurs in only about 10% to 14% of the population. Even if you’re in that select group, eating beets won’t always have a visible effect, because the acidity of your stomach (and therefore your urine) depends on when you ate and what else you ate. Rhubarb can also turn urine dark brown or tea-colored, as can fava beans and aloe. Carrots, carrot juice, and vitamin C can color urine orange, and B vitamins can turn it a fluorescent yellow-green. Asparagus sometimes gives urine a greenish tinge and a distinctive smell, said to resemble rotting cabbage. The cause of this smell is a matter for speculation. Some blame it on the sulfur-containing fertilizers used on asparagus plants (there is no record of the vegetable causing urine odor before such fertilizers were introduced). Others suggest that only people who carry a particular gene break down the sulfur-containing proteins in asparagus and release the odor. Still another view is that the smell of everyone’s urine undergoes a change, but only some of us notice it. It’s not a vast leap from beets and asparagus to claiming that drinking turpentine imparts a floral aroma (and some say a pink tinge) to the urine. As a matter of fact we find that confirmed in any number of legitimate medical texts — except the specific floral scent they name, oddly, is never that of roses, but rather of violets! For example, the Toxnet database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) states that “Turpentine exposure can produce the odor of violets in urine.” A Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for gum spirits of turpentine lists “painful urination with a violet-like odor of the urine” as a health effect of acute exposure to turpentine via inhalation. The definition of “turpentine poisoning” on Drugs.com states that “symptoms include hematuria, albuminuria, and coma; the urine may have an odor of violets.” This characteristic of turpentine has been recognized by medical practitioners for centuries, in large part, no doubt, because turpentine itself was once regarded as a medicine. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica lists turpentine’s “pharmacological” qualities, among which are: “The drug is excreted partly by the bronchi — which it tends to disinfect — and partly in the urine, which it causes to smell of violets.” Abraham Rees’ The Cyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and Literature, published in 1819, contains a discussion about which of several varieties of turpentine works best as a diuretic, noting that all of them “seem to act in a peculiar manner on the urinary organs, impregnating the water with a violet smell, even when applied externally, particularly the Venice sort.” “A few Stems of Asparagus eaten, shall give our Urine a disagreable Odour,” wrote Benjamin Franklin in a satirical 1781 letter to the Royal Academy of Brussels, “and a Pill of Turpentine no bigger than a Pea, shall bestow on it the pleasing Smell of Violets. And why should it be thought more impossible in Nature, to find Means of making a Perfume of our Wind than of our Water?” The 1749 edition of Pharmacopoeia Universalis: or, A New Universal English Dispensatory by Robert James notes that turpentine sourced from Cyprus, in particular, “gives a Violet Smell to the Urine, even when given in a clyster. It is an excellent Diuretic, and very proper in Ulcers of the Kidneys, Bladder and Uterus.” What we not been able to find, however, is any record of the use of turpentine by women in ancient Rome (or anywhere else thereafter) specifically to lend their urine a floral scent. While it’s certainly possible that this was the case, no historical sources have been cited by those making the claim.
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42173
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CHILD RAPE CAMP DISCOVERED NEAR TUCSON
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Q: Was a recently discovered encampment in Arizona used as a “child rape camp”?A: There is no evidence to support that claim. Authorities say their investigation revealed no such criminal activity.
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false
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conspiracy theories,
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Q: Was a recently discovered encampment in Arizona used as a “child rape camp”? A: There is no evidence to support that claim. Authorities say their investigation revealed no such criminal activity.Hi, would like your help with this story found on Facebook.“BREAKING: CHILD RAPE CAMP DISCOVERED NEAR TUCSON – PRISON CELL MADE FOR CHILDREN – RAPE TREE – CHILDREN’S TOYS – MASSIVE COVER-UP BY CITY OFFICIALS…”Thank you so much!The recent discovery of a homeless encampment in Tucson, Arizona, has become material for the latest viral conspiracy theory, one that claims the site was used for child trafficking and as a “rape camp.”But the Tucson Police Department has said its dayslong investigation yielded no evidence of such criminal activity — and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told FactCheck.org it “concurred with” that conclusion. “There were no obvious signs of any criminal activity out there — besides trespassing on private property,” Tucson Police Sgt. Pete Dugan told us in a June 7 interview, emphasizing there were no indications “of human trafficking or child sex trafficking.”The site has been turned over to the property owner, Dugan said.Still, unsubstantiated claims of nefarious activity have been widespread — making their way into reports by news organizations and onto a slew of questionable websites, including some that have tried connecting the conspiracy theory to the Clintons.The strange tale began May 29, when police responded to the site, near West Valencia Road and Interstate Highway 19. A homeless veterans group “had discovered the site and expressed concerns” about it, the police said.That group, Veterans on Patrol, headed by Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer, has posted a flurry of Facebook videos referring to #OperationBackyardBrawl. In the videos, Meyer speculates about the activity at the site (he calls it a “child sex camp”) and rejects the conclusions of authorities who have said otherwise (he says, “the experts from the government, they’re full of s—”).In the days after the initial discovery, local media reported on the unfounded claims. A June 1 headline on Patch.com read, “Underground Tucson Bunker Possibly Used In Child Sex Trafficking.”Local station KGUN-TV labeled its segment “Underground Bunker Found,” as part of the “KGUN9 Child Trafficking Series.” And News 4 Tucson (KVOA-TV) aired a segment — titled on YouTube “Homeless camp or child trafficking den?” — that was preceded by an anchor asking, “Is it an abandoned homeless camp or is it something more sinister?”The latter report showed viewers a number of seemingly benign findings at the camp: a mirror, a table with shaving cream and flea shampoo, as well as an area “where people probably slept.” It then showed “straps” on trees and a “bunker” with a small opening, and later mentioned children’s items, such as toys and clothes.“This place is meant for child trafficking — it’s meant for torturous, terrible things,” a volunteer with the veterans group said in that News 4 report.Dugan, however, said that “the items that we found there are just not uncommon from what we see at other camps around the town and county.”“Just because they’re homeless doesn’t mean they don’t use a mirror,” he added.As for the straps found on trees, Dugan said authorities “have seen similar types of things” at other homeless camps, and they are sometimes used to hang food out of the reach of animals.ICE, in a statement provided by a spokeswoman, said that “special agents who specialize in human smuggling and human trafficking collaborated with the Tucson Police Department on the information collected from the scene.”“Based on the information provided by TPD,” the agency said, it “concurred with the police department’s findings that nothing at the site validates the claims of possible human trafficking or child sex trafficking.”One video about the conspiracy theory, posted on the Facebook page “Stranger Than Fiction News,” received 41,000 shares. It referred to the matter as a “massive cover-up by city officials.”“People need to know we investigated it from the first report and continued to investigate it for days after,” Dugan told us, adding that the department continues to encourage residents to report perceived suspicious activity.Attempts to connect the camp to the Clintons echoed the debunked “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, which posited that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was operating a child sex ring out of a Washington, D.C., pizza shop. Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton lamented the most recent conspiracy, referring to it on Twitter as “#Pizzagate 2.0.”Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk false stories shared on the social media network.Dugan, Pete. Sergeant, Tucson Police Department. Phone interview with FactCheck.org. 7 Jun 2018.Mack, Lauren. Spokeswoman, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Email sent to FactCheck.org. 8 Jun 2018.“Media Release: Suspicious Activity – W. Valencia Rd. and S. I-19.” Tucson Police Department. 4 Jun 2018.Robb, Amanda. “Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal.” Rolling Stone. 16 Nov 2017.
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7420
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2 cats in NY become first US pets to test positive for virus.
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"Two pet cats in New York state have tested positive for the coronavirus, marking the first confirmed cases in companion animals in the United States, federal officials said Wednesday.
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true
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AP Top News, Animals, Understanding the Outbreak, Tigers, New York, Anthony Fauci, United States, Lifestyle, Infectious diseases, Science, Pets, Bronx, Virus Outbreak, General News, U.S. News
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The cats, which had mild respiratory illnesses and are expected to recover, are thought to have contracted the virus from people in their households or neighborhoods, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The finding, which comes after positive tests in some tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo, adds to a small number of confirmed cases of the virus in animals worldwide. U.S. authorities, including the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, say that while it appears some animals can get the virus from people, there’s no indication pets are transmitting it to human beings. “Now, obviously, is that impossible? I mean, biologically, no, anything is possible,” Fauci said. “But there’s no evidence whatsoever that we’ve seen from an epidemiological standpoint that pets can be transmitters within a household.” Dr. Casey Barton Behravesh, a CDC official who works on human-animal health connections, stressed that there’s no need for pet owners to panic, or rush to test their animals. “We don’t want people to be afraid of pets,” Barton Behravesh said. “There’s no evidence that pets are playing a role in spreading this disease to people.” Still, the CDC is recommending that people prevent their pets from interacting with people or animals outside their homes -- by keeping cats indoors and dogs out of dog parks, for instance. Coronavirus testing for pets isn’t recommended unless an animal has been exposed to a person with COVID-19 and the animal has symptoms of the disease — and tests have ruled out more common possible causes, said Dr. Jane Rooney of the USDA. Veterinarians who think testing is warranted are supposed to contact state officials to decide. Barton Behravesh said the animal tests are done at veterinary labs and use different chemicals than human tests, which have been in short supply during the crisis. The American Veterinary Medical Association says pets can stay in homes where a person has COVID-19, so long as the animal can be cared for. “In this emergency, pets and people each need the support of the other,” the group said in a statement Wednesday. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as a fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and can be fatal. Scientists studying the virus have been looking closely at links between human and animals. While a consensus is still evolving, the leading theory is that infection among humans began at an animal market in China, probably from an animal that got the virus from a bat. Scientists are working to understand the potential for transmission to animals in homes, farms and elsewhere. So far, it doesn’t appear that livestock or poultry are susceptible, Rooney said. The two cats live in different parts of the state; the USDA and CDC wouldn’t say where specifically. The first cat fell ill about a week after a person in its household had a short respiratory illness, though the person’s ailment wasn’t confirmed to be COVID-19, Barton Behravesh said. The animal goes outdoors at times and might have come into contact with an infected person in the area, she said. The second cat’s owner tested positive for COVID-19 before the cat became sick, officials said. Another cat in the same home hasn’t shown any signs of illness. The cats’ symptoms included coughing and slightly runny noses, officials said. The agencies have recommended that any pet owners with COVID-19 avoid petting, snuggling or other contact with their animals as much as possible, including wearing a face covering while caring for them. There have been a handful of reports outside the U.S. of pet dogs or cats becoming infected after close contact with contagious people, including a Hong Kong dog that tested positive for a low level of the pathogen in February and early March. Hong Kong agriculture authorities concluded that pet dogs and cats couldn’t pass the virus to human beings but could test positive if exposed by their owners. A tiger at the Bronx Zoo had what was believed to be the first confirmed coronavirus case in an animal in the U.S. or a tiger anywhere. The 4-year-old Malayan tiger, named Nadia, was tested after starting to showing signs of illness on March 27, 11 days after the zoo closed to the public because of the virus. Three other tigers and three lions later showed symptoms. Tests subsequently confirmed they all had the virus, as did another tiger that shares their exhibit but didn’t show any signs of illness, the zoo said Wednesday. All the affected cats are doing well, with good appetites and much less coughing, the zoo said. Zoo officials said they believe the animals were exposed by a keeper who had the virus but wasn’t showing symptoms at the time. Staffers who work with the cats have since started wearing infection-protection garb."
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Calling #77 or 112 on your cell phone will connect you to emergency services no matter where you are.
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A March 2002 version of the story changed the girl’s name from Lauren to Lisa. An October 2003 version moved the action to Australia. Once again, 19-year-old Lauren barely escaped disaster, but she did so by using the “No. 112 feature” on her cell phone to summon help. A July 2004 version shifted the story to Canada, but in this instance Lauren dialed *677. (The number *677, aka *OPP, is the non-emergency cell phone caller line of the Ontario Provincial Police.)
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false
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Crime, crime warnings, Criminal Intent
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[Collected via e-mail, March 2002] This is an actual true story and not one of those Internet stories that are passed on and on. This actually happened to one of my dearest nw friend’s daughter. Her daughter, Lauren, is 19 yrs. old and a sophomore in college. This happened to her over the Christmas/New Year’s holiday break. It was the Saturday before New Year’s and it was about 1 pm in the afternoon. Lauren was driving from here (Winchester, Va.) to visit a friend in Warrenton. For those of you who are familiar with the area, she was taking Rt. 50 East towards Middleburg and then was going to cut over to I-66 via Rt. 17. Those of you who aren’t familiar with this area, Rt. 50 East is a main road (55 mph and two lanes each side with a big median separating East/West lanes), but is somewhat secluded, known for it’s big horse farms and beautiful country estates. Lauren was actually following behind a state police car shortly after she left Winchester and was going just over 65 mph since she was following behind him. An UNMARKED police car pulled up behind her and put his lights on. My friend and her husband have 4 children (high school and college age) and have always told them never to pull over for an unmarked car on the side of the road, but rather wait until they get to a gas station, etc. So Lauren actually listened to her parents advice, and promptly called #77 on her cell phone to tell the dispatcher that she would not pull over right away. She proceeded to tell the dispatcher that there were 2 police cars, one unmarked behind her and one marked in front of her. The dispatcher checked to confirm that there were 2 police cars where she was. There wasn’t and she was connected to the policeman in front of her. He told her to keep driving, remain calm and that he had back-up already on the way. Ten minutes later, 4 police cars surrounded her and the unmarked car behind her. One policeman went to her side and the others surrounded the car behind. They pulled the guy from the car and tackled him to the ground … the man was a convicted rapist and wanted for other crimes. Thank God Lauren listened to her parents! She was shaken up, but fine. I never knew that bit of advice, but especially for a woman alone in a car, you should NEVER pull over for an unmarked car in a secluded area. In fact, even a marked car after dark should follow you to a populated area. Apparently police have to respect your right to keep going to a “safe” place. You obviously need to make some signals that you acknowledge them (i.e. put on your hazard lights) or call #77 like Lauren did. I am so thankful that my friend was sitting at our book club meeting telling us this scary story, rather than us at her house consoling her had something tragic occurred! Be safe and pass this on to your friends. Awareness is everything! [Collected via e-mail, March 2006] A bit of useful advice – verified by the Dorset Police. The number does work from a mobile. This actually happened to someone’s daughter. Lauren was 19 yrs old and in college. This story takes place over the Christmas/New Year’s holiday break. It was the Saturday before New Year and it was about 1.00pm in the afternoon, and Lauren was driving to visit a friend, when an UNMARKED police car pulled up behind her and put its lights on. Lauren’s parents have 4 children (of various ages) and have always told them never to pull over for an unmarked car on the side of the road, but rather wait until they get to a service station, etc. So Lauren remembered her parents’ advice, and telephoned 112 from her mobile phone. This connected her to the police dispatcher she told the dispatcher that there was an unmarked police car with a flashing blue light on his rooftop behind her and that she would not pull over right away but wait until she was in a service station or busy area. The dispatcher checked to see if there was a police car where she was and there wasn’t and he told her to keep driving, remain calm and that he had back-up already on the way. Ten minutes later 4 police cars surrounded her and the unmarked car behind her. One policeman went to her side and the others surrounded the car behind. They pulled the guy from the car and tackled him to the ground….. the man was a convicted rapist and wanted for other crimes. I never knew that bit of advice, but especially for a woman alone in a car, you do not have to pull over for an UNMARKED car. Apparently police have to respect your right to keep going to a ‘safe’ place. You obviously need to make some signals that you acknowledge them I.e., put on your hazard lights) or call 112 like Lauren did. Too bad the mobile phone companies don’t give you this little bit of wonderful information. So now it’s your turn to let your friends know about 112 (112 is an emergency number on your mobile that takes you straight to the police because 999 does not work if you have no signal). This is good information that I did not know! Please pass on to all your friends, especially any females. As far as I am aware, 112 uses a system called triangulation so they can also pinpoint exactly where you are phoning from. Whether the accounts reproduced above really represent an “actual true story and not one of those Internet stories that are passed on and on” is unknown, but the main point that most readers have taken from them is undeniably not true: calling #77 or 112 from your cell phone will not connect you to emergency services no matter where you are, nor doing so connect you with emergency services even when your cell phone does not have an adequate signal to place outgoing calls. Although in a few states in the U.S. calling #77 on a cell phone will immediately connect you to that state’s highway patrol, that code is far from universal. Some states use #77, but others use *55, *47, *77 or *HP, and some don’t have any special code at all. Rather than frantically try to figure out which one will work in the area you’re in, police generally recommend that the best approach is to get around the problem by trying 911 first: “Just call 9-1-1,” said Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste. “There’s no reason to use another number. 9-1-1 is always the best way to reach the police when you need our assistance.” The phone number 112 is used as a global emergency phone number in a number of countries, primarily in the European Union. In some parts of the United States a call to 112 will roll over to the local 911 system, but since 112 is not implemented as a universal emergency number in the U.S., calling 911 directly is the better option. Some police agencies have even issued social media warnings advising the public not to call 112 at all, saying that “the (idea) that calling 1-1-2 is somehow faster than calling 9-1-1 is utterly false.” Regarding the scenario described in the examples at the head of this page, police advise motorists to immediately pull over when signaled to do so, suggesting those concerned about their safety keep their doors locked and crack their windows to speak with persons presenting themselves as officers of the law. They suggest sidelined drivers who are suspicious of their detainers’ demands should request to examine the officers’ photo IDs and ask them where they work, then place calls to 911 to verify their identities. While this would certainly be the right way to handle genuine police officers making bona fide traffic stops, this method may fail to protect motorists from the ill-intentioned. Real bad guys often carry guns, against which locked car doors and cracked windows would avail little by way of protection. The instance of rapists and murderers pretending to be police officers is not of epidemic proportions, but enough incidents of this nature have occurred that precautions are warranted. In 1948 in Los Angeles, Caryl Chessman successfully robbed couples and sexually assaulted a number of women in California after first fooling them into believing he was a police officer by flashing a red light at their vehicles. (Though often he approached parked cars this way, in at least one case he managed to pull over a car that was driving on Pacific Coast Highway.) His method of approach earned him the nickname of “The Red Light Bandit.” Chessman was executed on a kidnapping charge in 1960, but only after gaining fame for writing three books while in prison (most notably Cell 2455 Death Row) and becoming the focus of the then nascent movement to abolish the death penalty. Since then others have used similar ruses to isolate their victims. More recently, in 1997 Arkansas was plagued by its “blue light rapist” who assaulted three women after first luring them to the side of the road with the help of a police-style blue light mounted on his car. Robert Todd Burmingham was sentenced in 1998 to 80 years in prison for rape, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery. In 2000, a Tampa woman was sexually assaulted by a man who had put a flashing blue and red light atop his car and motioned her off the road as if he was a police officer. After she admitted she had been drinking, he offered to drive her home; she got into his car, and he took her to an isolated location where he raped her. That case is still open. Someone who has taken to impersonating a police officer for nefarious purposes is counting upon his intended victim’s unquestioning cooperation. Because he appears in the guise of a trusted authority figure whose commands must be obeyed, he expects automatic reaction to kick in even if it overrides common sense. That could prove a fatal error to make. In 1996 Governor Pataki of New York issued an executive order to prevent unmarked state police cars from stopping motorists for routine traffic violations, citing “a growing number of cases around the country in which criminals trap their victims by posing as police officers.”
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Mosquitoes can transfer COVID-19 “from person to person”
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The World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there is no evidence that COVID-19 is transmitted by mosquitoes. COVID-19 is a respiratory virus that spreads primarily from person to person when an infected person coughs or sneezes, or through droplets of saliva or nasal discharge.
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false
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Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
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"Misleading claims on social media have spread the myth that with summer around the corner, mosquitoes are another way that COVID-19 will spread. ""u think its bad now just wait till them mosquito's start transferring Corona blood from person to person,"" stated an April 22 Facebook post. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) While mosquitoes can transmit some illnesses such as malaria, we found no evidence that COVID-19 is spread through mosquitoes. It is a respiratory virus that spreads between people, public health agencies say. ""To date there has been no information nor evidence to suggest that the new coronavirus could be transmitted by mosquitoes,"" says the World Health Organization on a myth-busting page. The main driver of COVID-19 transmission, based on available data, is people who have symptoms, WHO spokeswoman Carla Drysdale told PolitiFact. COVID-19 spreads primarily through droplets generated when an infected person coughs or sneezes, or through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose, the WHO found. ""The main way that COVID-19 spreads is from person to person,"" said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For a virus to pass to a person through a mosquito or tick bite, the virus must be able to replicate inside the mosquito or tick, said Joseph M Conlon, an adviser for the American Mosquito Control Association. ""None of the coronaviruses have been shown to do that,"" he said. However, mosquitoes can factor into the severity of the disease if a patient has underlying medical issues due to mosquito-borne diseases, Conlon said. ""Mosquito-borne viruses such as West Nile virus and dengue fever have not disappeared as COVID-19 has usurped the media landscape,"" he said. ""As potential contributors to severe outcomes, their prevention/control becomes even more critical."" Though the WHO and CDC have said mosquitoes don’t transmit COVID-19, ProPublica reported that an internal briefing memo showed that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched its own study into the matter. The USDA did not respond to ProPublica’s questions. We tried to confirm the memo ourselves but did not hear back from the agency. A Facebook post said mosquitoes can transfer COVID-19 ""from person to person"" Major health organizations said that mosquitoes do not transfer the virus. Instead, it is transferred via droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose. Without evidence to support the claim."
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More than 1,000 vaccinated as hepatitis A strikes Virginia.
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A confirmed case of hepatitis A in a Virginia restaurant worker prompted a health division to launch a public vaccination effort for the first time this year as the state fights its outbreak status.
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true
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Bristol, General News, Public health, Hepatitis, Virginia
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More than 1,000 people were vaccinated in southwest Virginia on Thursday and Friday, the Bristol Herald Courier reported. The Virginia Department of Public Health announced last week that an employee at Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen in Bristol had been diagnosed with the virus. An employee at NHC Healthcare Bristol was also recently diagnosed, WCYB-TV reported. Patients and employees at the nursing home were vaccinated and officials say there is no threat to the public from the case. “We certainly are dealing with hepatitis A cases daily,” said Mount Rogers Health Division medical director Dr. Karen Shelton. She says more than 5,000 vaccines for the virus have been administered by the district since May. The district’s population health manager says not all of the people who were vaccinated last week ate at the restaurant when customers may have been exposed Nov. 16-17. Breanne Forbes Hubbard says many people who got the vaccine said they eat out regularly and were generally concerned about protecting themselves from the virus. Health officials say the hepatitis A virus can cause fever, nausea, jaundice and other symptoms, which can take about two to seven weeks to develop. Exposure can happen through contact with an infected person on by consuming food or drink that is contaminated. “In this case, we had two employees who were working without knowledge of being infected and then all of a sudden they had symptoms but by the very nature of this disease, they had already been contagious for two weeks,” Shelton said. Virginia was named an outbreak state for hepatitis A in April, according to the health department. State data show there have been 250 confirmed cases across the state this year, according to the Bristol Herald Courier.
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23054
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Congressman Perriello voted in lock step with Nancy Pelosi 90 percent of the time.
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India’s health ministry has asked all state governments in the country not to partner with the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW) because of its links to tobacco giant Philip Morris International Inc (PM.N), a letter seen by Reuters showed.
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mixture
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Voting Record, Virginia, Robert Hurt,
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Established in 2017, the FSFW focuses on eliminating usage of cigarettes and works toward smoking cessation using new technologies and alternative products. It says it works independently, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has said there are “clear conflicts” due to the $80 million in annual funding the foundation receives from Philip Morris. At least three Indian anti-tobacco groups earlier this year wrote to the federal health ministry in New Delhi calling for the rejection of any possible partnerships with FSFW, according to copies of their representations seen by Reuters. India’s federal health ministry has sent a letter, dated June 24, to chief secretaries of all states, saying they should not partner with FSFW and also advise other departments and institutions in their region accordingly. The ministry said Philip Morris was funding FSFW as well as manufacturing and promoting harm-reduction smoking devices. Reuters has previously reported Philip Morris has plans to launch its iQOS smoking device in India which it says is less harmful than conventional cigarettes. “Any collaboration with the Foundation for a Smoke Free World should be avoided in the larger interest of Public Health,” senior health ministry official, Sanjeeva Kumar, wrote in the letter, which was reviewed by Reuters. The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, which is led by former WHO official Dr. Derek Yach, said it “operates with complete independence from Philip Morris” and was committed to full transparency about who its funders were. Philip Morris, which has a stated longer-term vision to replace cigarette sales with products such as its iQOS device, in a statement said FSFW was “an independent body governed by its own independent Board of Directors”. In recent years, the Indian government has intensified its tobacco-control efforts, raising cigarette taxes and ordering companies to print bigger health warnings on cigarette packs. India has 106 million adult smokers, second only to China, and more than 900,000 people die each year in India due to tobacco-related illnesses. A federal health ministry official said on Sunday the letter on FSFW had been sent as a preventive measure to dissuade states from any collaboration with the foundation, and similar instructions were likely to be sent to other federal ministries. The FSFW said there were no projects with any state government institutions in India. “We seek partnerships with all who share our goal to end smoking in the world,” a spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters. In May, FSFW said its team was committed to working with others “to accelerate an end to smoking in this generation” in India. It also invited people to study its strategic plan. That same month, Philip Morris in a press statement said it had urged the Indian government to create a regulatory environment for devices such as its iQOS. When the FSFW was launched in 2017, the WHO had said it will not partner with the foundation and asked governments around the world and public health communities to follow the agency’s lead. (Story refiled to fix grammar in paragraph 4)
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Coca-Cola halted production of its flagship beverage in 1985 and introduced New Coke in its place as a marketing ploy to combat declining market share and rekindle interest in the original drink.
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The company’s rebound from this disaster was nothing short of a miracle (hence the persistent belief that the whole thing must have been planned). Yet it’s a very understandable miracle once you think about it. It took the loss of the beverage people had grown up with and fallen in love over to remind them how much it meant to them. No longer taken for granted, Coca-Cola had been reaffirmed in their affections. As for the debacle’s being a deliberate marketing ploy, Donald Keough said: “Some critics will say Coca-Cola made a marketing mistake. Some cynics will say that we planned the whole thing. The truth is we are not that dumb, and we are not that smart.”
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false
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Cokelore, Marketing 101
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As much as we’d like to believe that The Coca-Cola Company is infallible, it proved in 1985 that it isn’t. It’s inconceivable to us mere mortals that a company of the size and scope of Coca-Cola could make a mistake on the scale of the one it made in 1985. Although company officials have been honest (albeit a bit redfaced) about the blunder all along, the legend has arisen that New Coke was nothing more that a throwaway product created as part of a greater plan. People refused to believe any decision that colossally disastrous (and ultimately that colossally fortuitous) could have been the mere result of a very human miscalculation. And yet it was. It was also a very logical — indeed, reasonable — mistake to make. The early 1980s found Coke teetering on the edge of losing the cola war to Pepsi. The previous fifteen years saw Coca-Cola‘s market share remain flat while Pepsi’s continued to climb. Pepsi was winning in the supermarkets (where shoppers had free rein to choose either beverage), and it was only Coke’s greater availability in restricted markets (such as soda vending machines and fast food outlets) that was keeping its numbers ahead of Pepsi’s. (Coke’s market share had been shrinking for decades, from 60% just after World War II to under 24% in 1983.) Coke’s market share problems were exacerbated by the relative success of other types of sodas, including some manfactured by Coca-Cola and Pepsi themselves. The more consumers drinking diet, citrus, or caffeine-free beverages, the fewer sugar cola drinkers there were to sell to. The pie was getting smaller. This market segmentation should have been affecting Coke and Pepsi equally, yet only Coke had to fight to hang onto its share. Despite the competition, Pepsi was gaining new customers. No doubt about it, people liked the taste of what the boys in blue were selling. Adding to Coca-Cola‘s segmentation problems was the runaway success of their own child, Diet Coke. Rather than replacing the sugars in the Coca-Cola formula with artificial sweeteners and then attempting to bring the taste of the new beverage back to more closely resemble the original, the company formulated Diet Coke the other way around. An entirely new flavor was created — one that was smoother and had less bite to it but was still a cola. People loved it. Introduced in 1982, Diet Coke shot up the charts to become the uncontested #4 soft drink in America (with only Coke, Pepsi, and 7-Up ahead of it) by the end of 1983, and by 1984 it was comfortably nestled in the #3 spot. It was also helping to speed the ascendency of Pepsi over Coca-Cola, because the more Diet Coke drinkers there were, the smaller the pool of available sugar cola drinkers became. Unless something was done to stem the tide, it was only a matter of time before Pepsi pulled ahead of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola management couldn’t allow this to happen because Pepsi could then honestly claim more people drank Pepsi than Coke, not just that people preferred the taste of Pepsi to Coke (which they were already proclaiming in their “Pepsi Challenge” commercials). It was panic button time in Atlanta; time to figure out how to beat Pepsi. When all other factors were eliminated, it came down to a matter of flavor. Batteries of well-controlled taste tests showed folks liked the taste of Pepsi better. Seemingly confirming that original Coca-Cola had a taste problem was the popularity of Diet Coke, a beverage formulated in such a way that it ended up with a flavor a lot closer to that of Pepsi than to its parent beverage. Enter New Coke. When traditional methods of developing a new taste failed, Coca-Cola pulled a reverse on the old method of creating diet soft drinks. Diet Coke was stripped of its artificial sweeteners, and high fructose corn syrup was added in their place. After a year of fiddling with the flavor balances, New Coke was finally as good as the company could make it. It tasted smoother and sweeter than original Coke, more like Pepsi. Sounds like a good idea so far, eh? Well, it sounded like an even better one when the results came in from a battery of taste tests utilizing the new formula. People said they liked the new Coke better than Coca-Cola or Pepsi, and by a significant factor, too. Taste for taste, it was a winner. The next hurdle was what to do with the original: continue to market it, or discontinue the product? The company was already seeing its sugar cola market shrink thanks to competing lines; it wasn’t going to make its market share problems any worse by splitting its entry in the sugar cola category. Although New Coke and Classic Coke drinkers combined might outnumber Pepsi imbibers, it was a lead pipe cinch Pepsi would claim to have a more popular drink than one or both of them. This was too big a marketing advantage to hand to Coca-Cola‘s #1 competitor. Thus the decision was made to discontinue Coca-Cola when New Coke was introduced. Again, this looked great on paper — wage the war between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, not Coca-Cola and itself. So what happened? When Coke went ahead with its plan, an immediate and very loud outcry was raised. Long before they’d tasted a sip of it, millions of Americans had decided they hated New Coke. Yes, in blind taste tests people had consistently said they liked the new formula better. However, a soft drink is so much more than merely its flavor; a soda is also its marketing. Coke had spent more than a hundred years convincing the North American population that its product was an integral part of their lives, their very identities. Taste be damned: to do away with Coca-Cola was to rip something vital from the American soul. Americans (never ones to peaceably go along with anything perceived as violating their identity) weren’t going to stand for it, and they weren’t shy about saying so. Although the company had known all along a segment of Coke drinkers weren’t going to switch to the new product, they had no way to even roughly estimate how large this segment would be. The New Coke project had been kept secret for years; this secrecy wouldn’t have been possible if company personnel had been questioning test subjects on how they’d feel about the new cola if it were to replace the old one. That secrecy lay at the heart of the fiasco, for it prevented Coca-Cola from asking the key question during its product tests. New Coke was introduced on 23 April 1985, and production of the original formulation ended that same week. The outrage of millions of Americans didn’t take long to sink in, and not all that much longer to be redressed. At an 11 July 1985 press conference, two Coca-Cola executives announced the return of the original formula. “We have heard you,” said Roberto Goizueta, then Chairman of Coca-Cola. Donald Keough (then the company’s President and Chief Operating Officer) said: There is a twist to this story which will please every humanist and will probably keep Harvard professors puzzled for years. The simple fact is that all the time and money and skill poured into consumer research on the new Coca-Cola could not measure or reveal the deep and abiding emotional attachment to original Coca-Cola felt by so many people . . . The passion for original Coca-Cola — and that is the word for it, passion — was something that caught us by surprise . . . It is a wonderful American mystery, a lovely American enigma, and you cannot measure it any more than you can measure love, pride, or patriotism. How important was this news of the beloved beverage’s return? Vital enough that Peter Jennings of ABC News interrupted General Hospital to break the story on national TV. Company insiders referred to the decision as “the second coming,” and that’s how consumers reacted to it. Anger melted into forgiveness, and then turned to celebration. Having two sugar cola products on the market did indeed split the market share as Coca-Cola had feared: market surveys at the end of 1985 showed Pepsi ahead of New Coke and Classic Coke combined. Even so, a miracle was underway. Against all expectations, Classic Coke began outselling New Coke, and to everyone’s surprise it kept gaining in popularity until it had reclaimed the sugar cola crown from Pepsi in early 1986. New Coke sort of faded away (it quickly settled to a 3% market share in its first year and was redubbed “Coke II” in 1990) and now holds onto a 0.1% market share. Those who’d liked New Coke (but wouldn’t, one would suppose, be caught dead drinking it due to all the bad feelings associated with the beverage) gravitated to Diet Coke, the product that tasted most like what they really wanted. An interesting little claim sprang up in the wake of the introduction of Classic Coke, one having to do with its sweetener. People swore they detected a change in the flavor between Classic Coke and the original. This gave rise to the rumor that the product had been reformulated, dropping cane sugar in favor of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Depending upon whom you listened to, either the demand for the return of original Coca-Cola afforded the company the opportunity to switch from cane sugar to corn syrup or the whole fiasco of taking original Coca-Cola off the shelves and reintroducing it three months later as Classic Coke was all a brilliant scheme to mask the change in sweetener. According to whispered wisdom, the company had hoped to slip the modification past consumers by having it take place during the original beverage’s absence from the shelves. People would be so darned glad to have Classic Coke back that they wouldn’t notice it didn’t taste the same as original Coca-Cola. (Another twist to this rumor had it that New Coke had deliberately been formulated to taste awful in order to facilitate the switch — this supposedly gave Coca-Cola an excuse for pulling the original formula and then putting it back on the market after a brief absence, making it look all along as if they were simply responding to consumer demands.) The change in sweetener wasn’t anything that diabolical. Corn syrup was cheaper than cane sugar; that’s what it came down to. In 1980, five years before the introduction of New Coke, Coca-Cola had begun to allow bottlers to replace half the cane sugar in Coca-Cola with HFCS. By six months prior to New Coke’s knocking the original Coca-Cola off the shelves, American Coca-Cola bottlers were allowed to use 100% HFCS. Whether they knew it or not, many consumers were already drinking Coke that was 100% sweetened by HFCS. In the wake of the discontinuation of the original cola, the introduction of New Coke, and the return of the original a few months later as Classic Coke, persistent rumors sprang up that it had all been a gambit to rekindle Coca-Cola‘s declining sugar cola market share. Various people have claimed to have known someone who saw the original Coca-Cola still being bottled and canned during the New Coke-only phase. Such claims are best considered in light of two things: freshness of product, and what was written on the can itself. It’s inconceivable that Coca-Cola could have been continuing to bottle the original during its discontinuation phase, stockpiling it in anticipation of its reintroduction into the market. Soft drinks don’t stay fizzy and sharp-flavored forever. Utilizing product from such a stockpile to meet a sudden high demand for the original product would have required the company to risk its reputation on a supply that might have died in the can. Coca-Cola wouldn’t have willingly risked following one marketing disaster with a second, particularly at a time when confidence in the company itself had been severely shaken. The can itself is another point against this theory. Prior to New Coke, Coca-Cola‘s flagship product was bottled and canned under a label of “Coca-Cola.” After its reintroduction, the soda’s labels read “Classic Coke.” Claims by those who heard the original was bottled under the Coca-Cola label during this period have to be dismissed, because any product so marked wouldn’t have been sellable after the second coming. Harder to dismiss would be claims that Classic Coke cans were being produced during this period. Oddly enough, this rumor is the one that doesn’t surface. Whenever anyone claims to know someone who saw the cans, it’s always the original “Coca-Cola” cans they claim to have seen. These rumors are an attempt to make sense of the unthinkable, that a company of the size and reputation of Coca-Cola could have effected such a blunder. It’s more comforting to cast it all off as a brilliant conspiracy than to live with the notion that a large company might not be infallible. We defend our icons, and Coca-Cola is as American an icon as there’s ever been. Far better to admire its verve than to recognize its feet of clay.
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11349
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Vitamin D, The Surprise Powerhouse: Wonder pill. Really.
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This was a carefully reseached piece about vitamin D, following a scientific workshop on the subject. It was overzealous in describing purported benefits but did call for caution. The scientists quoted are all leaders in the field. The article would have been much stronger if it had not had so much hyperbole (“Wonder Pill. Really.” in the headline?) and was better organized. It should also have included information about potential harm and cost. While it is true that by its very definition as a vitamin, vitamin D is a substance required by the body for optimal function, the article could have done a cleaner job of separating demonstrated benefits of vitamin D from some of the hyperbole. Educating about this vitamin, and highlighting some of the reasons why many people don’t have adequate vitamin D levels would have resulted in a more informative, balanced piece. It would have given the reader a frame work for thinking about what their own levels might be and what that means to them in terms of disease risk. The story comes close to disease-mongering at several points. At the end of the article, a physician says that at his osteoporosis clinic, they “just assume that every patient is [vitamin D] deficient”. It also quotes a recent review as stating that vitamin D deficiency is “a largely unrecognized epidemic in many populations worldwide.” But the article also tempers some of the “excitement” about vitamin D by saying “Much of vitamin D’s potential is still just that: potential.” And the story included a section labeled “a call for caution” with a quote, “Too many people expect nutrients to work like drugs…That kind of approach is likely to lead to disappointment.” Overall, the number of sources and perspectives was excellent, as was the citation of several studies.
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true
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There was no comparison of the cost of foods with and without vitamin D supplementation, or for the amount of foods naturally rich in vitamin D needed to obtain adequate levels, or for the cost of vitamin D supplements. Most of the potential benefits from adequate vitamin D levels are not quantified. The story does present an estimate that 45% of deadly digestive system cancers could be reduced with extra daily vitamin D intake, but this is an opinion rather than an actually demonstrated benefit of treatment. The 80% reduction in diabetes in Finnish one year olds given vitamin D supplements does not provide sufficient context. (This was prevention of type I diabetes. The Finnish population has a higher prevalence of this disease compared to surrounding populations.) While there is a quote in the article stating that “it’s not especially easy for consumers to add large amounts of vitamin D to their diets,” the article also mentions that vitamin D can be purchased as an individual supplement. Although it is not possible to overdose on vitamin D just from sunlight exposure, excess consumption of vitamin D can cause loss of appetite, weakness, kidney stones, heart problems and even death. These were not mentioned in the article. The evidence presented comes from retrospective studies showing that people with different conditions (e.g. those dying from cancer, people with unexplained pain, or those with osteoporosis) are commonly found to have lower vitamin D intake or levels than others. The article did not elucidate that while these are interesting observations, they are not the same as data showing that increasing vitamin D intake alters the risk of developing these conditions. Including an estimate that “an extra 1,500 International Units of vitamin D each day could reduce the risk of deadly cancers of the digestive system by 45%” is merely an estimate and not a documented fact. But the story does give citations of several studies. And it does state that scientists don’t always find what they think they will find, calling for caution and citing the stories of Vitamin E, beta carotene, and Women’s Health Initiative results from vitamin C and calcium. So we’ll give the story a satisfactory score, with some hesitation. The story comes close to disease-mongering at several points. At the end of the article, a physician says that at his osteoporosis clinic, they “just assume that every patient is [vitamin D] deficient”. It also quotes a recent review as stating that vitamin D deficiency is “a largely unrecognized epidemic in many populations worldwide.” But the article also tempers some of the “excitement” about vitamin D by saying “Much of vitamin D’s potential is still just that: potential.” And the story included a section labeled “a call for caution” with a quote, “Too many people expect nutrients to work like drugs…That kind of approach is likely to lead to disappointment.” We’re wavering on this score, but will give the story the benefit of the doubt. Quotes from a number of individuals who were involved in the 13th Vitamin D Workshop, held on April 26, 2006, were included in this story, as well as a quote with a broader prospective from someone involved in crafting the current dietary guidelines for vitamin D. The number of sources and perspectives was excellent. The article mentions several ways for a person to increase their vitamin D intake (see above). The article included information about the body’s ability to synthesize vitamin D with exposure to sunlight containing UVB, or from foods rich in vitamin D, foods commonly supplemented with vitamin D, and vitamin D supplements. Vitamin D is accurately referred to in the article as not a new miracle drug, but a common nutrient and the “sunshine vitamin.” There is no evidence that this story relied solely or largely on a news release.
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30138
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A brewery worker contaminated Dragon Soop products with HIV-infected blood.
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Though it is very rare, HIV can be spread by eating food that has been pre-chewed by an HIV-infected person. The contamination occurs when infected blood from a caregiver’s mouth mixes with food while chewing. The only known cases are among infants.
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false
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Junk News, Food Contamination
|
The Dragon Soop brand of caffeinated alcoholic beverages has joined Anchor Butter and Cadbury chocolates as the target of unoriginal updates of an internet hoax dating back several years, a hoax holding that production line worker deliberately contaminated the product with HIV-infected blood: There is no truth to this rumor, just as there was no truth to similar rumors about other food and beverage items falsely alleged to have been contaminated with the virus that causes AIDS, such as pineapples, oranges, bananas, canned goods, and soft drinks, including Pepsi-Cola: This is the guys who added his infected blood to Pepsi :)#Copied pic.twitter.com/4rf5m2a5XR — RKJockies (@rkjhaw) December 18, 2017 Because the specter of AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome), scares people, the rumor continues to mutate and thrive despite the extreme unlikelihood of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) being transmitted in such a manner. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the virus cannot survive long outside a human host and only under the rarest circumstances has been passed from person to person via food: You can’t get HIV from consuming food handled by an HIV-infected person. Even if the food contained small amounts of HIV-infected blood or semen, exposure to the air, heat from cooking, and stomach acid would destroy the virus.
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10593
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More unusual, fewer usual breaks with bone drugs
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Strong points: clear language, such as “slightly increased chance of suffering an unusual type of thigh fracture” clear analysis provided to readers – at least through the words of the two sources cited reflection on how past news reports may have overstated risks of the drugs Room for improvement: drugs were only described as “cheap” – what does that actually mean? An estimated 10 million people in the United States have the diagnosis of osteoporosis, a bone-weakening disease. Most of those are women. While millions are taking the widely prescribed drugs for this condition, the medical community is still evaluating side effects. Consumers have to take responsibility for discussing risk vs. benefit balances with their treating physicians, and remain open to learning new medical discoveries as the years pass. Well-reported stories on risk are vitally important as consumers have to navigate uncertain medical territory.
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true
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Reuters Health
|
The cost of a year’s treatment should have been included. The story only says the drug are “cheap.” Cheap to one woman may be a financial burden to another. The story did a good job – starting with the headline – of portraying the tradeoffs between harms and benefits as found in the latest study. The story does a good job of telling the reader how few women suffered the unusual thigh fracture. They further give some context by explaining how those on the drugs reduced their harm from more-typical fractures by 24 percent. Reuters squeaks by on this one, by mentioning how many women were in the study – 205,000 – which is often a measure of quality. But they don’t explicitly say anything about the methods or quote independent sources about the quality of the evidence. Good job of avoiding mongering. If anything, the story could have given a line of context regardingwhat a hip fracture truly means as a life-changer for many elderly people. It is common for such a fracture to end independent living and force people into nursing homes for the remainder of their lives. The Centers for Disease Control estimate one in four hip fractures in the elderly results in a year or more in a nursing home. Reuters gives us two voices in this piece, including a study author and a treating physician. We are not told anything about whether the treating physician has any ties to the industry, but we couldn’t find any in a brief online search. The story does briefly mention alternatives, including hormone therapy. The story makes it clear that these drugs are widely available. There isn’t anything novel about the drugs and the story painted an appropriate picture of their use. It’s clear that the story did not rely solely or largely on a news release.
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41063
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24,641 die of heart disease every day.
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This is an underestimate for all cardiovascular disease deaths, but close to the daily figure of those who die from coronary heart disease specifically.
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mixture
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online
|
26,383 people die of cancer each day. 24,641 die of heart disease every day. This is an underestimate for all cardiovascular disease deaths, but close to the daily figure of those who die from coronary heart disease specifically. 4,300 people die of diabetes every day. Suicide is the cause of death for around 3,000 people per day Suicide is the cause of death for around 2,000 people per day. Mosquitoes kill 2,740 people every day. This appears to be an overestimate. Mosquitoes are responsible for no more than around 700,000 deaths per year, or 1,900 a day. Humans kill 1,300 fellow humans every day. Snakes kill 137 people every day This is an underestimate. Snakes kill around 378 people per day. Claim 1 of 8
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10331
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Most angioplasties not necessary, study finds
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This story presented the seemingly counterintuitive results from a large, randomized trial that found that non-emergency heart patients faired equally well in terms of chest pain, risk of heart attack, or death whether they were treated with medications alone or medications plus angioplasty and the placement of a stent in the partially blocked artery. The story explained that the study followed those who were non-emergency heart patients and that angioplasty is still thought to be the best treatment for those having a heart attack or those w ho are hospitalized with worsening symptoms. The story did a good job of explaining the idea that a large number of people (> 500,000/year) are having an invasive procedure without obtaining additional benefit. Unlike many studies presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting, this one was also peer-reviewed and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, something the story pointed out. Overall good job.
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true
|
This story did not include a comparison of the costs for the two treatments. This was not a part of the journal article describing the study but was contained within the presentation given at the recent meeting of the American College of Cardiology. (Note: both the journal article and the meeting were mentioned in the story.) The benefits of treatment, reduction in chest pain, rates of heart attack and death, were presented. The story mentioned the percent of individuals in each group that initially had angina and then compared that with the percent affected at 3 and 5 years. It also mentioned the rates of heart attack and death in both treatment groups. While the story mentioned 1/3 of those in the medication-only group later went on to have a stent put in or had coronary bypass surgery, it could have compared this with the number of individuals in the stent and medication group who went on to either have an additional stent placed or had bypass surgery. (30% vs. 20%) The story did a good job reporting on the results of the study; it explained that all the people in the study were treated with medication and that half of the people were assigned to have angioplasty. This story did not engage in disease mongering. The story included quotes from two of the authors of the study as well as the director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the president of the American College of Cardiology. It might have been useful to readers to have a comment from a clinician in primary care. The story touched on several different treatment options for non-emergency heart patients: angioplasty, drug therapy, stents, bypass surgery, and healthy lifestyle interventions (diet, exercise and smoking cessation). This story reported on a comparison of treatments for coronary artery disease that are used widely and described them as such. The treatments reported on were not new and were not presented as being new. Does not appear to rely solely or largely on a press release.
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33464
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Health care legislation requires that U.S. residents be implanted with RFID microchips.
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The rumors made another appearance in the fall of 2016, when various stories began to appear once again about RFID chip implantations, this time mandatory as of 2017 rather than 2013. Needless to say, these rumors were also completely false.
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false
|
Medical, obamacare, radio frequency identification chips, RFID
|
“Big Brother” rumors (often linked to the “mark of the beast” referenced in Revelation 13:16-18) warning that the government will ultimately require all citizens to be implanted with microchips have been around just about as long as microchips have, and specific claims that health care reform legislation will require such implantations date to the Clinton administration. So, the warning reproduced above — that health care reform legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in 2010 would require “this sort of device be implanted in the majority of people who opt to become covered by the public health care option” — is nothing new under the sun. This warning is also just as false as all such previous rumors, a combination of someone’s using inapplicable source material and also misunderstanding the meaning of the information contained within that source. First off, the referenced information was not part of the “Obamacare” health care legislation actually enacted by Congress. The page numbers and language cited in the example above were taken from HR 3200, an early House version of health care reform legislation which was never passed by Congress; passages cited from HR 3200 are therefore irrelevant. The cited wording did not appear in the replacement bill (HR 3590) eventually passed as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and although similar language was included in initial versions of the subsequent reconciliation bill (HR 4872), it too did not appear in the final version of that bill as passed by Congress. Second, nothing in any of those unpassed bills mandated that anyone be implanted with any type of microchip or RFID-based device, for any reason. The passages quoted above reference a section of the legislation that simply called for the creation of a registry which would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to collect data about medical devices “used in or on a patient” (such as pacemakers or hip replacements) for purposes that included tracking the effectiveness of such devices and facilitating the distribution of manufacturer recall notices. Absolutely nothing in those bills required that patients receive any type of implantable device (microchip or otherwise) or authorized the government to mandate the implantation of devices in patients. Updates: A 28 July 2013 article about implanted microchips being “given a test run on the proud and patriotic citizens of Hanna, Wyoming” was mistaken by many readers for a genuine news story. However, that article was just a spoof from the satirical National Report web site.
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26505
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This particular pandemic is one where I don’t think nationwide, there’s been a single fatality under 25.
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Data compiled by the CDC, multiple states and news organizations all show COVID-19 deaths among young people in the United States. DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
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false
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Public Health, Florida, Coronavirus, Ron DeSantis,
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"Health officials have long said that the novel coronavirus is particularly dangerous for older individuals and people with underlying health conditions. But Florida Gov. Ron Desantis made an even more staggering claim, that the virus hasn’t killed anyone under 25 in the United States. ""This particular pandemic is one where I don’t think nationwide, there’s been a single fatality under 25,"" DeSantis said during an April 9 meeting to discuss reopening Florida schools. ""For whatever reason, it just doesn’t seem to threaten kids. ""And we lose in Florida between five and 10 kids a year for the flu. This one (coronavirus), for whatever reason, much more dangerous if you're 65 and plus than the flu, no doubt about that, if you're younger it just hasn't had an impact. So that should factor into how we're viewing this. I think the data on that has been 100% consistent. I have not seen any deviation on that."" This is inaccurate. Florida hasn’t yet reported any deaths of COVID-19 patients under the age of 25, but several Americans in that age group have been killed by the virus. PolitiFact reached out to Desantis’ office for comment but did not hear back. So far, the federal government’s count shows that four people between 15 and 24, and one child between the ages of 1 and 4, have died from the virus. This is an undercount, because it takes ""several weeks"" for death records to be processed. Reports by news organizations and various state health departments show more fatalities among younger Americans, though it’s hard to say with precision. New York state reported that 42 people who were 29 years or younger have died from the virus, as of April 10. Of those, six were 19 or younger and 36 deaths were people between 20 and 29 years old. A Washington Post investigation identified nine people under 20 who died from COVID-19. The newspaper found 45 deaths of people in their 20s. All told, death remains rare for young, otherwise healthy people, but these numbers show it can and has happened. Relatively few children with COVID-19 are hospitalized, and they often exhibit milder symptoms, health experts say. Like adults, they can unknowingly spread the disease to others. DeSantis claimed that the novel coronavirus hasn’t killed anyone under the age of 25 in the United States. That’s wrong, according to the CDC, contemporaneous news reports and the counts of state health officials in places like New York. While we don’t have precise numbers, we can say with certainty that deaths in people 25 and under do exist."
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2042
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"Science sense"" list trashes celebrity health tips."
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Science campaigners laid bare some of the most dubious celebrity-endorsed health tips on Wednesday, rubbishing ideas such as reabsorbing sperm and wearing silicone bracelets to boost energy.
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true
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Science News
|
Model Naomi Campbell attends the presentation of the Louis Vuitton luxury travelling case for the World Cup trophy in Paris in this June 1, 2010 file photo. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen In an annual list of what it sees as the year’s worst abuses against science, the Sense About Science (SAS) campaign group debunked diet and exercise suggestions made by actors, pop stars and others in the public eye in an effort “to help the celebrities realize where they are going wrong and to help the public make sense of celebrity claims.” In the health and fitness section, SAS noted that soccer player David Beckham and Prince William’s fiancee Kate Middleton have both been spotted wearing hologram-embedded silicone bracelets which makers claim can improve energy and fitness. It also listed a diet reportedly used by supermodel Naomi Campbell and actors Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore in which followers survive on maple syrup, lemon and pepper alone for up to two weeks. Campbell told U.S. TV host Oprah Winfrey in an interview in May: “It’s good to clean out your body once in a while.” But SAS said in a statement: “Many of these claims promote theories, therapies and campaigns that make no scientific sense.” Pop star Sarah Harding told Now magazine in April that she crumbles charcoal over her food, saying: “It’s doesn’t taste of anything and apparently absorbs all the bad damaging stuff in the body.” Dr John Elmsley, a chemical scientist and writer asked by SAS to comment on this idea, said charcoal is known to absorb toxic molecules when used in gas masks and sewage treatment, but is “unnecessary when it comes to diet become the body is already quite capable of removing any ‘bad damaging stuff’.” One of the highlights for SAS was a tip from cage fighter Alex Reid, who told The Sun tabloid newspaper in April that he “reabsorbs” his sperm to prepare for a big fight. “It’s actually very good for a man to have unprotected sex as long as he doesn’t ejaculate. Because I believe that all that semen has a lot of nutrition. A tablespoon of semen has your equivalent of steak, eggs, lemons and oranges. I am reabsorbing it into my body and it makes me go raaaaahh,” he said. John Aplin, a reproductive research scientist at the University of Manchester, said sperm cannot be reabsorbed once they have formed in the testes. “In fact sperm die after a few days, and the nutritional content of the ejaculate is really rather small,” he said in a comment on the SAS list. To try and counter the effects of some of the wildest health and fitness tips, SAS published its own “easy-to-remember pointers for celebrity commentators”:- * Nothing is chemical-free: everything is made of chemicals, it’s just a case of which ones * Detox is a marketing myth: our body does it without pricey potions and detox diets * There’s no need to boost: bodily functions occur without boosting * Energy and fitness come from...food and exercise: there are no shortcuts.
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37523
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A photograph proves the media is exaggerating the risks of COVID-19 by showing a reporter in personal protective equipment and a cameraman in everyday work clothing.
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‘I Wonder Why the Cameraman Didn’t Need Protective Clothing?’ Facebook Post
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false
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Disinformation, Fact Checks
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On March 19 2020, the following meme (“I wonder why the cameraman didn’t need protective clothing”) was shared to Facebook:A still photograph included the wording about the cameraman lacking any personal protective equipment (PPE), as a reporter just a few feet away appeared as though they had stepped out of a film like Contagion or Outbreak.The post did not elaborate further, but the implication was very clear: The media was lying about the risks of COVID-19 and novel coronavirus, obviously evidenced by whatever was going on in the photograph.One day earlier, video from which the still shot was apparently taken was shared to Twitter:Earlier in #Beirut: example of bad media coverage that contributes to panic and sets wrong example. 1. If your photographer doesn’t need that, then you definitely don’t. 2. Save masks and protective gear for medical workers who actually need it. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/RT7DQrkhKH— Michael Downey (@mgdowney) March 18, 2020In a tweet, Michael Downey (@mgdowney) criticized the media in general:Earlier in #Beirut: example of bad media coverage that contributes to panic and sets wrong example. 1. If your photographer doesn’t need that, then you definitely don’t. 2. Save masks and protective gear for medical workers who actually need it. #COVID19Downey characterized the nine-second clip as an “example of bad media,” claiming the disparity between the cameraman and reporter was of the sort that “contributes to panic” while setting a poor example for viewers. Downey informed the reporter they obviously didn’t require PPE since their crew didn’t, and chided the person to save PPE for essential medical staff.Unlike comments on the Facebook iteration linked above (mainly memes), Downey’s tweet received a response from Al Arabiya UK bureau chief Rima Maktabi. Maktabi provided context for the image, and chided Downey for spreading disinformation under the guise of sensibility:Your tweet is bad media too! @GhinwaYatim was filming a story at a factory that does these outfits for those who deal #Corona patients. Which she also explained on air! If only you heard her before writing this tweet. She has been doing a great job! #COVID19According to Maktabi, the reporter shown, Ghinwa Yatim, was not wearing PPE as part of her generalized reporting; instead, she was covering a factory that was producing protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing it herself as a demonstration to viewers. Downey then amended his position, going on to maintain it was unnecessary to demonstrate PPE to the audience watching a segment about the factory:The context is not an excuse. You don’t need to get dressed up in the gear simply because you’re doing a story on it, especially in the street. We know TV news is a visual medium and it provides drama. But it also raises fears and adds nothing to the story.Yatim also responded in Arabic, explaining that those watching her segment were well aware the PPE she was wearing in the segment was unnecessary, and there was explicitly no cause for panic.خلال المباشر أكدت انه لا شيئ يدعو للهلع في بيروت وان هذه البدلة كنت قبل ساعة اعد تقرير عن معمل يصنعها لمن يتعامل مع المرضى و لاحقا للمواطنين في حال طالت الأزمة.كان من الأفضل أن تعطيني النصيحة وجها لوجه بدلا من استراق الصور https://t.co/L3jPRchtGB— Ghinwa Yatim (@GhinwaYatim) March 18, 2020Although Downey’s tweet on Twitter was automatically threaded with a response from Maktabi debunking his claims, the Facebook post spread unchecked without that important contextual information — clearly leading more than 30,000 users not only to wonder why the cameraman didn’t need protective equipment, since the reporter was covered from head to toe. The image was used to further advance the claim that COVID-19 is not a serious threat, which continued to be spread by people attempting to advance that fallacious and dangerous falsehood.
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10502
|
Aspirin might reduce recurrence risk for breast cancer survivors, study finds
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"Appropriate discussion of possible limitations of the research. Good context. Appropriate warnings to women being treated for breast cancer NOT to start taking aspirin. As one expert said in the story, ""If true, it would certainly be a relatively easy, inexpensive, potentially safe intervention for women who have had breast cancer."" But the story made clear that’s a big IF."
|
true
|
"Cost of aspirin is not in question. Not applicable. Only relative risk reduction data were provided: ""They found that women who took aspirin two to five days per week were 60% less likely to have a recurrence and 71% less likely to die from breast cancer. Those taking it more frequently had a 43% lower risk of recurrence and a 64% lower risk of death."" 60% of what? 71% less likely than what? Etc. Please provide absolute data. The story cautioned that aspirin can interfere with breast cancer treatment, ""producing severe side effects."" Although the story didn’t specifically address the potential limitaitons of observational studies, it injected sufficient caveats, such as: ""The study’s authors described the findings as surprising and worthy of follow-up, but even they cautioned that survivors shouldn’t yet begin prophylactic aspirin use. The new results could be because the process of metastasis of breast cancer is different than that of initiation and could thus be susceptible to influence by aspirin. Or it could be simply that there is some other shared characteristic of women who took aspirin that produced the beneficial effect. … But, (one expert) added, researchers ""have been tricked by things like this before, especially in cancer epidemiology."" The most notorious example was a study that showed a clear statistical link between drinking coffee and developing lung cancer. ""The problem turned out to be that smokers drank a lot of coffee. When you controlled for smoking, everything disappeared."" No disease-mongering of breast cancer. One independent source was quoted. The story mentioned that there was no statistical suggestion of benefit from acetaminophen use – or from once a week aspirin use. Availability of aspirin is not in question. Not applicable. Good context was provided. For example:"
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38524
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It’s been reported that a 3,000 pound great white shark has been caught in Lake Michigan.
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Air pollution in New Delhi and surrounding towns reached the worst levels so far this year on Sunday, with authorities in the world’s most polluted capital city having already declared a public health emergency and ordered the closure of schools.
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false
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Animals
|
The air quality index, measuring levels of PM 2.5, tiny particulate matter in the air, deteriorated to above 900, way over the 500-level that qualifies as “severe-plus”. Aside from the harm it was doing to the lungs of some 40 million people living in the capital region, the smog was so bad more than 30 flights were diverted from Delhi airport due to poor visibility. Roads looked deserted as large numbers of people stayed home, rather than expose themselves to the noxious atmosphere outside. “Pollution has reached unbearable levels across north India,” Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s chief minister said in a message on twitter. The government environment monitoring agency SAFAR warned that no relief was expected for the next one to two days, as humidity resulting from unexpected light rains overnight had exacerbated pollution, already driven by higher the seasonal crop stubble burning by farmers in the surrounding states. “Wind speed is picking up and it could take 24 to 48 hours before the pollution level reduces to a level of around 500,” Mahesh Palawat, vice president of Skymet, a private weather forecasting agency, said. Anything above 400 on the AQI poses a risk for people with respiratory illness and can also affect even those with healthy lungs. Doctors were reporting a spike in patients with respiratory related issues, according to Sachin Taparia, head of Local Circles, a Delhi-based private consultancy that conducts surveys on government policies and programs. “Delhi has turned into a gas chamber as the pollution levels hit the ‘severe+’ category,” Taparia said. A survey of 17,000 people in the Delhi region by his consultancy found that 40% want to get out of the Delhi region because of the failure to control pollution. Authorities in Delhi on Friday declared a public health emergency and closed schools and all construction activity. From Monday, the city government will also restrict the use of private vehicles on the capital’s roads under an “odd-even” scheme based on license plates. “The temporary restrictions on private vehicles will have a negligible impact as we face the most hazardous situation,” said Skymet’s Palawat. Delhi’s Kejriwal, and the chief ministers from the neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana, urged the federal government to do more to combat the pollution. On Monday, according to a lawyer, the Supreme Court is likely to hear a petition on Monday from the environment agency, looking for ways to make state governments to take tougher action against farmers to curb the stubble-burning. Politicians have been reluctant to upset their farming constituencies. According to SAFAR, satellite pictures had captured more than 3,000 incidents of stubble burning last week in neighboring states, contributing to 44% of Delhi’s pollution.
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23175
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"Edwin Pacheco Says Christopher Little has ""a history of working against environmental protection by defending the worst types of corporate polluters"
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Pacheco says Little has 'a history of working against environmental protection by defending the worst types of corporate polluters'
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false
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Environment, Rhode Island, Candidate Biography, Elections, Legal Issues, Edwin Pacheco,
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"Christopher H. Little, the Moderate Party’s candidate for attorney general, has tried to position himself as the candidate with the best experience to clean up Rhode Island’s politics and environment. Among other credentials, he cites his past chairmanship of Common Cause of Rhode Island and his three years as president of Save the Bay, beginning in 1987. So it was no surprise that someone might try to sully his Mr. Clean persona. Earlier this month, state Democratic Party Chairman Edwin R. Pacheco said Little’s claim to being an environmental champion was contaminated by his private law work for polluters. ""Attorney general candidate Chris Little and his law firm have a history of working against environmental protection by defending the worst type of corporate polluters,"" Pacheco said in an Oct. 4 news release. Little dismissed Pacheco’s charges, saying ""Mr. Pacheco, you need to actually read these cases you’re citing. If you do you will find that I was actually trying to help preserve the environment."" An open invitation to look at the record. How could we refuse? Pacheco cites three instances in which he claims Little represented clients who were polluters: * Two Massachusetts towns that took the federal Environmental Protection Agency to court over a proposed sludge dump * A chemical company whose North Carolina facility was designated a hazardous waste site * A Massachusetts-based gasoline station operator that was fined for a gasoline spill in Brockton We’ll look at them one-by-one. The EPA suit Pacheco’s first claim involves the Massachusetts towns of Walpole and Norfolk, which challenged a 1989 federal Environmental Protection Agency study that said it was environmentally safe to build a landfill for dried sewage sludge in Walpole. Pacheco’s news release said the EPA found ""the towns violated water pollution laws. … Chris Little was on the side of polluters and lost."" That case stemmed from the 1980s effort to clean up Boston Harbor. New filtration plants were built to purify sewage effluent before it was discharged into the harbor. But the new plants generated sludge, which had to be dumped somewhere. In 1989, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority decided that somewhere was in Walpole, near the Norfolk town line. The towns objected and sued the EPA, claiming the EPA’s environmental impact study failed to address environmental threats the landfill would pose. Little — who was with Tillinghast, Collins & Graham at the time — said he joined the effort in 1989 or 1990 on Norfolk’s behalf, after he’d represented the Rhode Island town of Richmond in its successful fight to stop a 70-acre landfill from being built there. A federal district court judge ruled for the EPA, finding that the agency had considered the issues and met the federal standards for an impact study. In the end, the dump was never built. In 1993, after lobbying by the state, the EPA agreed to a plan to have the dried sludge trucked to dumps in Utah. Pacheco bases his criticism of Little on a summary of the suit on LexisNexis, an Internet data base, which said ""the EPA found that the towns had violated the Water Pollution Control Act..."" However, the judge’s decision shows that summary was inaccurate. Rather than violating water pollution control laws, the towns were trying to get them enforced more stringently. In fact, the ruling shows it was Little’s client who sought tougher environmental law enforcement. The North Carolina company Pacheco's news release said: In 1988, Little's law firm continued their quest against environmental protection when his firm defended a company that had a history of contaminating drinking water supplies."" That company was National Starch and Chemical, a North Carolina firm that makes chemicals for textile and furniture makers. Pacheco’s statement cites a 1980s case in which National Starch was cited for storing 350,000 gallons of liquid waste in unlined trenches on its property. Because of the threat to local drinking water wells, the EPA ordered it to clean up the site. Little did represent National Starch, but it was in a case in Rhode Island, not North Carolina. National Starch was among several companies that used a New Jersey company to dispose of their waste. The companies thought their waste was going to an incinerator in New Jersey, but instead it was taken to Rhode Island, where it was illegally dumped at the Davis site in Smithfield, later designated as a Superfund site. The company agreed to pay $5 million toward the cleanup; Little represented it in subsequent lawsuits to recover that money from the disposal company that misled it. Little maintains his work for National Starch wasn’t to defend a polluter but to make sure the real guilty party paid financially. The oil company Pacheco’s third claim involved legal work Little did for gasoline station owner Mutual Oil of Massachusetts. His news release says Mutual Oil was fined $50,000 by the state for spilling gasoline at a station it owned in Brockton, a claim we verified through the Massachusetts attorney general’s report for fiscal year 2002. Little did represent Mutual Oil, but not in that case. Instead, it was in a Rhode Island zoning dispute. In 1999 a developer wanted to build a gas station in a Stop & Shop shopping center on Mendon Road, in Cumberland, near the Blackstone River. A group of local gas station owners that wanted to stop a new competitor convinced the zoning board to reject the plan, in part because the gas station would have been built on a floodplain of the Blackstone River. Little said Mutual Oil financed his work on behalf of the local station owners. To summarize: Pacheco was wrong when he said Little ""was on the side of the polluters"" in the Massachusetts sludge case. He was correct when he said Little represented a North Carolina company that caused pollution problems in that state. But Little’s representation of the company had nothing to do with that case. He was correct when he said a Little client had been fined for a spill in Massachusetts. But again, Little’s representation of the company had nothing to do with that spill. Bottom line: None of the cases Pacheco cites supports his attack on Little."
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28752
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Luxottica controls 80 percent of eyewear brands, several major optometry chains, and the second-largest vision care insurer.
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What's true: Eyewear retail giant Luxottica owns a number of high-profile eyeglass and sunglass brands, as well as several optometry chains and the second-largest vision care insurer. What's undetermined: Whether Luxottica controls 80 percent of the entire eyeglass and sunglass market.
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mixture
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Business, adam ruins everything, Corporate Alliances, luxottica
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On 14 September 2016, the College Humor web site published a segment of popular truTV debunking show Adam Ruins Everything about “The Conspiracy Behind Your Glasses,” describing how the Luxottica conglomerate owns 80 percent of eyeglass brands, most optometry chains, and the second-largest vision care insurer in the United States: Products exist in the mind and brands live in the heart: Luxury brands conjure up lifestyle interpretations we want to buy into. More than 500 million people don Luxottica’s products and CEO Andrea Guerra insists that “customers have the brand choice for their lifestyle,” and that it’s prevalent in their offering: “Luxottica has been able to deliver eyewear collections faster, enriched with more sophisticated decorations and innovative materials, to stores.” If you owned 80% of the high-end eyewear market and were doing what any CMO desires — achieving brand growth, relevance and revenue — you’d say that too, right? Without additional documentation it was difficult to authenticate the claim that Luxottica controls “80 percent of glasses and sunglasses brands,” as both cited Forbes pieces were published by contributors and not the magazine itself. Variables such as the passage of time (four years between the claim’s first uncited appearance in Forbes and its reiteration in the September 2016 video), ongoing increases in e-commerce, and the difficulty of establishing a baseline against which to compare Luxottica’s market share versus those pf innumerable small competitors made verification problematic. Much of the interest in Luxottica’s retail dominance came from a segment aired on the CBS 60 Minutes news magazine program in 2012, but that segment also did not provide a number for the proportion of eyeglass and sunglass brands that fall under Luxottica’s umbrella (compared to those of competitors such as Walmart, Costco, Zenni Optical, or Warby Parker). In May 2015, Business of Fashion provided more recent figures for Luxottica’s European sales performance, contrasted with those of the next-largest competitor, the Safilo group: Luxottica, the dominant frame producer, owns a portfolio of eyewear brands that includes Persol and Ray-Ban, the latter of which is the biggest brand in the market. It holds the licenses to produce eyewear for global fashion brands such as Chanel, Armani, Prada and Michael Kors and manages the distribution of its products through 200,000 wholesale doors. In 2014, the Italian company generated over €7.6 billion (about $8.5 billion) in revenue. In addition, Luxottica owns the Sunglass Hut retail brand and is a retail company in its own right, with over 7,000 stores worldwide, giving it a majority share of the eyewear market. Rumblings of discontent about Luxottica’s increasingly firm grip on the eyewear market were not new in 2016. A 2013 Yahoo! Finance article examined whether the brand’s stranglehold on optometry chains inhibited patients from obtaining complete prescriptions and taking their business elsewhere: When California attorney Sylvia Chi wanted a new pair of glasses, she came across Warby Parker, an upstart online seller that features hip styles and low prices. She had her prescription but Warby Parker needed one more piece of information to make her glasses — the distance between her pupils. Chi called a Pearle Vision store where she’d bought her last pair but the store refused to give out the measurement. A local LensCrafters told her its pupil measuring machine was broken. Ultimately, Chi had to pay $25 at a local optometry clinic to get her pupillary distance, or PD. Turns out the giant of the $28 billion U.S. eyewear market, Luxottica (LUX), owns both store chains. And the Italian company, which also owns everything from brands like Oliver Peoples and Ray-Ban to the Sunglasses Hut chain, has cracked down on giving out the PD measurement. Optometrists “used to do it for free in optical shops and now they’re refusing to provide that service or charging for it,” says Warby Parker co-founder and co-CEO David Gilboa. “A lot of them work in stores owned by Luxottica.” “The reason Luxottica invested in all the physical retailers was precisely to create a closed system,” says Barry Lynn, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. The company did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Lynn brought interest into Luxottica’s market dominance to the fore in his 2011 book Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction: You’re at the mall, looking to buy a pair of prescription sunglasses. Which of the four eyeglass stores listed in the directory should you visit first? Don’t waste a lot of time deciding; it really doesn’t matter. A single, huge international corporation owns three of the four eyeglass stores listed. And the fourth? Out of business. Think you’ll try your luck at Sears? Don’t bother. The same company you’ve never heard of controls their eyewear department, too. What appears at first to be a fine example of competitive capitalism in action is, in fact, an immense monopoly in disguise. In May 2011, Luxottica made headlines in California for controversial business practices criticized as a bid to expand control of the eyewear market: Luxottica’s most renowned brands include Ray-Ban and Oakley, but it also makes sunglasses and prescription frames for designer brands such as Chanel, Prada, Burberry, Polo Ralph Lauren, Tiffany, Versace, Vogue, Donna Karan and many others. Besides LensCrafters, its retail subsidiaries include Sunglass Hut, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical, Target Optical, BJ’s Optical and Cole Vision Care. Barry Lynn, director of the New America Foundation’s Markets, Enterprise and Resiliency Initiative, said if you define a monopolistic company as one “big enough to determine the terms of business within its industry,” then Luxottica qualifies. “The consumer is not protected when you have this kind of consolidation.” A 2008 article in advocacy periodical Consumers Digest maintained a critical view of Luxottica, describing several mergers and buyouts and a less-than-flattering assessment of the Luxottica’s practices: The federal government barely blinked when Luxottica Group, the world’s largest frame manufacturer, extended its reach and influence beyond design. It now controls 20 percent of the retail market in the United States, including ownership of national chain stores, such as LensCrafters and Pearle Vision. On top of it all, you’re paying way too much. From the local doctor’s office to the well-known retail chain, these places mark up the price of your frames and lenses by about 250 percent. Over the past 5 years, Luxottica, the world’s largest corporate player in the eyeglasses industry, steadily bought up other companies. Today, the company owns 30 different brands of frames, including Anne Klein, Burberry, DKNY, Oakley, Polo, Ralph Lauren, Ray-Ban, Versace and Vogue. It also controls retail shops, including LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical and Target Optical. And it owns the EyeMed Vision Care group, a vision insurance company. It makes its frames in company-owned plants in China and Italy and sells them in about 130 countries, so it’s no surprise that Luxottica also owns China’s Modern Sight Optics, a leading Chinese optical retailer. To us, that’s quite a vertical integration that could present problems for consumers. To FTC, it appears to be business as usual. FTC investigated Luxottica’s acquisitions in 2004, after the company acquired Pearle Vision, says Michael Moiseyev, assistant director, mergers, in the Bureau of Competition. But the agency decided Luxottica’s takeovers did not constitute a monopoly, Moiseyev says, because “it only accounts for 20 percent of the market, so it’s not the kind of volume that gives us cause for concern.” In 2015, New York State Senator Chuck Schumer proposed changes to the FTC’s Eyeglass Rule of 1992, enacted to ensure that patients were not locked into purchasing overpriced glasses because of monopolies. In a 27 September 2015 press release, Schumer’s office cited the “80 percent” figure for Luxoticca’s market share: Standing at LensCrafters, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to modernize its “Eyeglass Rule” to allow for 21st-century competition by allowing patients to obtain a full copy of their eyeglass prescriptions so they can take that prescription anywhere they want—even online. Under current law, patients are not entitled to their full prescription, a situation that often forces them to pay more when buying glasses. Schumer explained that, while more than 200 million Americans are affected by vision loss, the average price for a pair of eyeglasses is a whopping $300 with no end in sight. Luxoticca, an Italian company, which owns LensCrafters and more than 80 percent of eyewear brands. For instance, Luxoticca makes frames for well-known brands like Burberry, Prada, and Tory Burch. In addition, Luxoticca owns several other popular American eyeglass chains such as Pearle Vision, Sears Optical and Target Optical. Schumer explained that Luxoticca has a monopoly-like hold over the eyewear industry and that this push, along with other actions, could help weaken this hold. Additionally, many health plans do not adequately cover eye care, while forces patients to pay out of pocket. On 30 September 2015, industry publication Optometry Times covered the same issue and suggested that Senator Schumer was “misinformed”: “I feel Senator Schumer maybe a little misinformed here,” says Optometry Times Chief Optometric Editor Ernie Bowling, OD, FAAO. “There are lots of online retailers available to the public. I really don’t see competition or consumer choice in eyewear to be an issue right now … When discussing the information needed to fill a prescription, we are really talking about the spectacle PD. I give the PD to every patient as part of his written prescription,” says Dr. Bowling. “I don’t think it’s worth alienating a patient over a PD. But we do educate the patient about their choices in eyewear. There is a huge service component that goes in to measuring and fitting spectacles that you’re not getting with an online retailer.” Luxottica provided a September 2015 statement to Optometry Times that reiterated the (less than) 20 percent market share figure cited by Consumers Digest: We were surprised to see how Senator Schumer presented our business and our industry in his public statement regarding the FTC’s eyeglass rule. The optical industry is highly competitive and fragmented today. Industry data has consistently shown that Luxottica’s share of eyeglass frame sales in the U.S. is below 20 percent. Moreover, the top 50 optical retailers combined account for only about a third of all U.S. eyeglasses sales. Luxottica themselves sent us the following statement: According to VisionWatch, almost 50% of eyeglasses in the U.S. are sold by independent optometrists and opticians. The other half is made up of chain retailers that include Costco, Walmart, Solstice and other non-Luxottica entities. According to Euromonitor International, the world’s leading independent provider of strategic market research, 954 million frames were sold worldwide last year. Only 93 million of those were produced by Luxottica — less than 10%. Of the hundreds of eyewear brands available to consumers, Luxottica only produces around 30 of them. This includes Luxottica’s proprietary brands such as Ray-Ban and Oakley as well as licensed brands such as Giorgio Armani, Burberry, Chanel, Dolce&Gabbana, Michael Kors and Prada, which make up the majority of the portfolio. Regardless of the actual figure, much of Adam Ruins Everything‘s assessment of Luxottica’s market dominance was accurate, including the conglomerate’s ownership of several prominent optometry chains and the second-largest vision care insurer in the United States. However, it is difficult to measure Luxottica’s relative dominance against the innumerable independent optometry practices, large-scale retailers such as Walmart and Costco, and popular online retailers such Zenni Optical and Warby Parker. It is true that avoiding Luxottica’s products can be difficult in mass retail environments, but patients with a complete eyeglass prescription are still able to obtain eyeglasses and sunglasses through other companies.
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1722
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Poll finds gaping chasm in views between U.S. public, scientists.
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American scientists and the general public hold vastly different views on key scientific issues including the role of people in causing climate change, the safety of genetically modified food, and evolution, a poll released on Thursday showed.
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true
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Science News
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Eighty-seven percent of scientists questioned by the Pew Research Center said human activity was the main cause of global climate change, compared with 50 percent of the public. Twenty-five percent of the public said there was no solid evidence the climate was warming, up from 11 percent in a similar 2009 survey. The issue has become increasing divisive, with some leading conservatives expressing doubt that human activity like the burning of fossils fuels that release greenhouse gases is driving a global warming trend. Scientists from two U.S. government agencies said this month that 2014 was the hottest year on record and blamed human activities for Earth’s warming trend. There was an even bigger chasm over genetically modified foods, with 88 percent of the scientists saying they were safe to eat, compared with 37 percent of the public. On evolution, 98 percent of scientists said humans had evolved over time, compared with 65 percent of the public. The findings were based on responses last August from 2,002 U.S. adults nationwide, with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. The results were compared with answers last September and October from 3,748 scientists who are members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a leading scientific organization that also publishes the journal Science. The research was conducted in collaboration with the association. Alan Leshner, the association’s chief executive, told reporters that “science is being trumped” by factors including political views on climate change, religious beliefs on evolution and lack of scientific understanding about genetically modified foods. “Speaking up for the importance of science to society is our only hope, and scientists must not shy away from engaging with the public, even on the most polarizing science-based topics,” Leshner wrote in an editorial in Science. Other areas with opinion gaps included: - whether childhood vaccines such as those for measles, mumps and rubella should be mandatory (86 percent of the scientists said yes, compared with 68 percent of the public). - using animals in biomedical research (89 percent of scientists favored it, compared with 47 percent of the public); - the safety of eating foods grown with pesticides (68 percent of scientists said it was safe, compared with 28 percent of the public).
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24538
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Every other democracy in the world has a health care system that covers everybody, and we don't.
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Dean says U.S. is only democracy without universal health care
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false
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National, Health Care, Howard Dean,
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"Supporters of health care reform have often said health coverage in the United States lags behind other countries. On the Sept. 13 edition of NBC's Meet the Press , former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said the United States should meet the standards of its international peers. Dean, who just stepped down after serving as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said that ""America can do anything. Every other democracy in the world has a health care system that covers everybody, and we don't. Of course we can do this. How ridiculous."" But is he right that the United States is alone among democracies? No. It is true that most, if not all, industrialized democracies in Western Europe have systems that experts consider universal coverage, as do wealthier countries such as Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. But other democracies fall short, according to international statistics and a half-dozen experts we spoke with. While dozens of countries are classified as democracies, we chose to examine a few that are large and have been politically stable in recent years. Here's the lowdown on their degree of health coverage: -- India. In the cities, and especially for families with means, the medical care ranks among the best in the world. But hundreds of millions of Indians are desperately poor, and about three-quarters live in rural villages. For these Indians, health care is sporadic and substandard. ""In theory, India has a publicly financed and publicly provided health care delivery system, aside from its large private sector, that is available at heavily subsidized rates to everyone,"" said Ajay Mahal, an international health economist at Harvard's School of Public Health. ""Thus, one could say that it does have a health system that 'covers' everybody. In practice, however, at least at primary health care facilities in rural areas, doctors and health workers are often absent from work. Drugs tend to be unavailable in many public facilities and there are long lines to contend with at public hospitals. This leads to lots of people opting for private care — and for that they have to pay out of pocket. In this sense you could say that the system does not cover everybody."" -- Mexico. The United States' southern neighbor has a constitution that guarantees universal health care, and observers credit the Mexican government with launching Seguro Popular, a federal program that targets the uninsured. For better-off Mexicans, health insurance and facilities are similar to what is found in richer nations. But in practice, the Mexican system falls short of universal coverage. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of wealthy countries that includes Mexico, reported that in 2007, 65.7 percent of Mexicans had either public or private health insurance. All other OECD countries — except for Turkey (see below) and the United States — either reached 100 percent or came very close to doing so. David C. Warner, a professor of health and social policy at the University of Texas who has studied health care in Mexico, said that ""in reality, I would say it falls short"" of universal coverage. Mexicans are ""guaranteed public health clinics and hospitals, but those tend to be fairly spotty."" -- Turkey. The other OECD nation besides the United States to fall short of full coverage is Turkey. The most recent statistics, from 2003, show that 67.2 percent of Turks were covered. A 2008 report by the U.S. Library of Congress found that ""the rural population is poorly served by the health care system"" and that ""workers in Turkey’s large informal economic sector generally lack health coverage."" For the past six years, the governing party has been implementing a plan to broaden coverage, so the number has likely risen. ""Turkey is in transition to make health care universal,"" said Mustafa Younis, a health economist at Jackson State University who has studied the Turkish system. A number of other large democratic countries have struggled with carrying out their stated promises to provide universal coverage. In South Africa and the Philippines, for instance, widespread poverty, insufficient health budgets and a shaky medical infrastructure — especially in rural areas — have posed steep challenges, experts say. We called Dean to ask about his comment. A spokeswoman said that the former governor ""simply misspoke. He meant to say, as he has for years, that every other industrialized democracy"" has universal coverage. If Dean had said that, he'd probably be right. But on Meet the Press , he didn't, so"
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34862
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"In November 2019, Duane Chapman, known as ""Dog the Bounty Hunter,"" died either by suicide or from a pulmonary embolism."
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“I just hope that I don’t live very much longer without her, because now she made the first step, she’s through the gate,” he added. “She paved a way for me. I want to take a [god damn] pain pill so bad. I feel like if I did something to myself right now and passed away suicidal and I got to heaven and was like, ‘Hi honey,’ and would she go, ‘You [dumb ass], why would you do that?’ Or would she go, ‘Wow, you’re here.’ I’ll be like ‘Of course I’m here. You left me. I’m here.’ So, am I obligated to do that?”
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false
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Junk News
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In late 2019, readers asked us about blog posts that were widely shared on social media and falsely claimed that the reality television star Duane Chapman, known as “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” had died either by suicide or from a pulmonary embolism. Those reports were false. Beginning on Nov. 20, admirers of Chapman and his late wife, Beth, who died in June after herself being the subject of death hoaxes, began posting tributes to him and sharing one of two blog posts. The first purported to be hosted by a website with the domain name whatnow.actual-events.com, but when internet users clicked on the story on social media, they were redirected to the domain newspanel.suzeraincollections.com. There, the story carried the headline “Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman Died of Pulmonary Embolism. He Didn’t Survive His Second Attack. He Was 66 — WGN.” The highly dubious website falsely attributed the claim about Chapman’s death to WGN America, a real U.S. television network that broadcast the Chapmans’ most recent reality show “Dog’s Most Wanted.” The hoax article also misleadingly used WGN America’s logo in a sharebait video that purported to be a television news report about Chapman’s death, but that paused after a few seconds and required users to share the article on social media in order to continue watching: In reality, WGN America had no connection to the story and did not report on Chapman’s death in November 2019, because Chapman did not die in November 2019. The specific claim that Chapman had died from a pulmonary embolism (a blocked artery in the lungs) was rather insidious. At first glance, it appeared especially plausible to many fans of the television star because he was in fact diagnosed with that very problem in September 2019. The second blog post shared by social media users was even more distasteful than the first. It falsely and misleadingly used the logo of BBC News, a highly reputable and widely trusted information source, to report that Chapman had taken his own life. In this instance, social media users shared an article that appeared to be hosted on the domain bbc-newsroom.actualeventstv.com, but which redirected to news-room.easystepsdiy.info. On social media, the post carried the headline “Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman Died of Suicide After Depression Attack on His Sickness — BBC News” but when users redirected to the source, the article’s headline proclaimed: “Breaking: (Actual Suicide Video) Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman Died of Suicide After Depression Attack on His Sickness — BBC News.” Despite the extremely distasteful claim that the video in the article contained footage of Chapman’s suicide, it contained nothing of the sort and, just as in the first article, the video stopped after a second or two and required viewers to share the post on social media in order to continue watching. The claim that Chapman had taken his own life was, like the claim he had died of a pulmonary embolism, particularly insidious. In the season finale of “Dog’s Most Wanted,” broadcast by WGN America on Nov. 6, Chapman spoke about the recent death of his wife from cancer, and the considerable difficulty he was experiencing in coping with her loss. At one moment in the episode, he reportedly discussed how he had contemplated taking his own life, such was his grief. People magazine quoted Chapman as saying:
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8888
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Arthritis pill cuts heart attack risk: study.
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A once-a-week pill to treat rheumatoid arthritis significantly reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke for people with the painful joint condition, an international team of researchers said on Thursday.
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true
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Health News
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A pharmacist counts pills in a pharmacy in Toronto, January 31, 2008. REUTERS/Mark Blinch The findings published in the journal Arthritis & Therapy provides further evidence of the benefits of the generic drug methotrexate and underscores the importance of prescribing it early on, the researchers said. “This shows that we are really making a difference in patients’ lives,” said Tuulikki Sokka, a researcher at Jyvaskyla Central Hospital in Finland, who worked on the study. About 20 million people worldwide have rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease caused when the body confuses healthy tissue for foreign substances and attacks itself. Some drugs used to treat it reduce inflammation directly while others tone down immune system response — leaving patients vulnerable to infections and cancer. Methotrexate was developed as a cancer drug and works by altering the body’s use of folic acid, which is needed for cell growth. It may begin to work as early as three to six weeks after treatment starts. The results are part of a long-term study of more than 4,300 people in 15 countries examining the causes and effects of rheumatoid arthritis and the potential benefits of medications. The team — which included researchers from Spain, Argentina and the United States — adjusted for traditional risk factors such as exercise, smoking and diabetes and found potential health benefits for people given methotrexate . Using methotrexate for one year cut the risk of heart attack by 18 percent and the risk of a stroke by 11 percent, the researchers said. Results also suggested that newer drugs that block an inflammatory protein called tumor necrosis factor, or TNF, were also effective at reducing heart attack and stroke risk, although more research is needed, Sokka said. This class of drugs includes Johnson & Johnson’s Remicade, Amgen Inc’s Enbrel, and Abbott Laboratories Inc’s Humira. The drugs are expensive, which is why people often do not get them right away.
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23926
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"John Cornyn Says the Arizona immigration law ""expressly bans racial profiling."
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Cornyn says the Arizona immigration law bans racial profiling
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mixture
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Immigration, Texas, John Cornyn,
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"Simmering over the immigration bill Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law in April, Mexico President Felipe Calderon told a joint session of Congress May 20 that the tough law invites racial profiling. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who has urged the federal government to increase border security, including sending unmanned aircrafts to survey the Texas-Mexico border, quickly took Calderon to task for lecturing Americans on their state laws. ""I wish that the president of the United States, the president of Mexico, the attorney general, and the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security would have done what anybody can do with Internet access, which is to download a copy of the Arizona bill and read it for themselves,"" Cornyn said on NBC's Meet the Press May 23. ""It expressly bans racial profiling."" Does it? Generally, the law makes being an illegal immigrant a state crime and requires legal immigrants to carry papers that confirm their legal status. Right away, though, whether the law encouraged police officers to choose who to stop based on race proved a provocative question. The law's phrasing — saying officers ""may not solely consider race"" — prompted critics to condemn the law for effectively permitting officers to single out racial or ethnic characteristics to justify interrogations. On April 30, Brewer reacted by signing into law the removal of ""solely"" from the provision, which now says: ""A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may not consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution."" In a news release, Brewer said that with the change, it's ""crystal clear and undeniable that racial profiling is illegal and will not be tolerated in Arizona."" Not necessarily, legal experts say, pointing out that what's permitted under the U.S. and Arizona constitutions — specifically, the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the federal document — has fed conflicting court rulings. The Fourth Amendment, which prohibits ""unreasonable searches and seizures"" was tested in a case in the 1970's concerning conditions the U.S. Border Patrol had to meet to ask motorists about their citizenship. A roving patrol unit had stopped a vehicle in California near the Mexican border and questioned its occupants about their immigration status. In 1975, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the questioning didn't violate the amendment. The court said that while ""the only ground for suspicion is that the occupants appear to be of Mexican ancestry ... because of the important governmental interest in preventing the illegal entry of aliens at the border, the minimal intrusion of a brief stop, and the absence of practical alternatives for policing the border, an officer ... may stop the car briefly, question the driver and passengers about their citizenship and immigration status, and ask them to explain suspicious circumstances."" Any further detention or search must be based on consent or probable cause, the court said. In the opinion, Justice Lewis Powell wrote: ""The likelihood that any given person of Mexican ancestry is an alien is high enough to make Mexican appearance a relevant factor,"" even though ""standing alone it does not justify stopping all Mexican-Americans to ask if they are aliens."" In other words, racial factors can be used in profiling, the court held, just as long as they are not the only factors — language reflected in the Arizona law's original wording. However, Daniel Capra, a professor of law at Fordham University, pointed to a later case (United States v. Whren in 1996). Here, plainclothes policeman patrolling a ""high-drug area"" in Washington observed two black men driving a truck turn suddenly without signaling and speed off. The officers stopped the truck and saw plastic bags of cocaine. Facing federal drug charges, the men sought to suppress the evidence, arguing the stop wasn't justified by either reasonable suspicion or probable cause they were engaged in illegal drug activity. The Supreme Court found that because the men violated traffic laws, the stop didn't violate the Fourth Amendment, and also spoke to their claim that allowing police officers to investigate other legal violations after a routine traffic stop could lead to stopping cars based only on a driver's race. The court noted that the ""Constitution prohibits selective enforcement of the law based on considerations such as race,"" citing the Fourteenth Amendment, which grants ""equal protection of the laws."" In 1997, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals noted that under the Fourteenth Amendment, ""citizens are entitled to equal protection of the laws at all times. If law enforcement adopts a policy, employs a practice, or in a given situation takes steps to initiate an investigation of a citizen based solely upon that citizen's race, without more, then a violation of the Equal Protection clause has occurred."" Here, the defendant had argued that airport officers in Cincinnati seized his carry-on bag — which contained cocaine — solely because of his race. And in 2000, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals — a federal court whose jurisdiction includes Arizona — ruled that stopping someone because of that person's Hispanic appearance is impermissible because ""the majority of people who pass through the checkpoint in question (in El Centro, Calif.) are Hispanic."" The Ninth Circuit acknowledged that its conclusion contradicted some language in the Brignoni-Ponce case. Yet, it said, in ""suggesting that ethnic appearance could be relevant, the (Supreme) Court relied heavily on now-outdated demographic information."" By 2000, the court said, there were so many more legal U.S. residents of Mexican ancestry, it was no longer reasonable to stop someone because they look Hispanic. Brewer said the latest changes to Arizona's immigration law ""lay to rest questions over the possibility of racial profiling."" Checking her statement, PolitiFact.com spoke with legal experts who said that, at a minimum, conflicts among the various court decisions needs to be resolved. Besides, while the revised Arizona law bans unconstitutional racial profiling, it still permits profiling based on cues such as clothing or behavior. Experts told PolitiFact the law draws a hazy, perhaps unenforceable line between permitted profiling and illegal approaches. Another concern: Kevin Johnson, dean of the law school at the University of California-Davis and a specialist on immigration law, said he worries that local police inadequately trained in immigration law could engage in racial profiling, intentionally or unwittingly. ""If Arizona state and local police considered 'Mexican appearance' as permitted by Brignoni-Ponce, some would say that is racial profiling,"" Johnson told us. PolitiFact concluded that the revised law has too much wiggle room to back up Brewer's statement that it lays ""to rest questions over the possibility of racial profiling."" Of course, Cornyn didn't venture as far as Brewer. He simply said the law expressly bans such profiling, and it does — though the law also expressly leaves room for profiling that passes constitutional muster, a significant and legally squishy factor that Cornyn's statement doesn't acknowledge. Experts expect the profiling topic to be thrashed out for years to come."
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9438
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Some opioid addiction drugs harder to start than others, study finds
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Stemming disability and deaths from opioid use disorder is a major public health challenge, and medication has become the treatment of choice to help people with addiction. The study reported in this CNN story compares two available drugs—buprenorphine/naloxone (Suboxone) and naltrexone (Vivitrol)—that can blunt or block cravings and reduce illicit opioid use. The clinical study found that people with opioid use disorder were far more likely to begin taking one (Suboxone) than the other (Vivitrol), principally because Vivitrol requires patients to have first gone through detoxification. That’s an important difference, the article notes, as effectiveness is more likely if a physician can choose a drug that fits her patient’s circumstances. The story does a nice job of making this point, although it gives less attention to another sobering pattern unearthed by the study: Among the subjects who started the drugs, fewer than half were still taking them six months later. Also, more needed to be said about the potential harms of the medications–both carry risks–as well as their general availability and cost. We wanted to point out two things with the story that don’t fall within the realm of our review criteria: We know that opioid agonist treatments (Suboxone and methadone) are the current gold standard for treatment of opioid use disorder. However, riding on a wave of marketing and lobbying, injectable Vivitrol has become a commonly prescribed medication for this disorder. Vivitrol does not induce physical dependence, as does methadone or Suboxone, so it is attractive to people and policymakers who dislike the notion of medications that are difficult to stop taking. This study is the first to address whether Vivitrol is as effective as Suboxone in a head-to-head randomized trial. Having a third medication that acts via a different mechanism than the other two would be an important addition to the arsenal. For readers coping with opioid use disorder in their lives, this story will help them understand important differences between the two drugs, at least in terms of starting treatment.
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mixture
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addiction,opioids,painkiller addiction
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Cost does not make an appearance. This is a problem for a comparative story, as the prices for these two drugs seem quite different, with Vivitrol looking by far the more expensive. The story describes duration of staying on the treatments and rates of relapse, reporting that the rates are roughly equal. The story is also clear that that those randomized to Vivitrol did not do nearly as well as those randomized to Suboxone–because over a quarter did not tolerate or receive the first dose of Vivitrol. If a person is hardy enough to tolerate detoxing in preparation for Vivitrol, then their likelihood of abstaining from opioids may be similar to those getting Suboxone (a little less than half of all people in the trial were still taking the drugs after six months). Both Vivitrol and Suboxone have side effects that are not compared—or even mentioned—in this story. The story offers some methodological detail about the clinical study, although we cannot tell if individuals were randomly assigned to conditions (they were), if the study was blinded (it was not). Also readers should have been informed of the major limitations of the study. One interesting thing to note: The study did not look at how many of the subjects used the very potent drug fentanyl, which is involved in over half of overdose fatalities currently. CDC death estimates from opioid overdose in the United States are included, and the story did not disease monger the problem. Although the sources are clearly identified, funding information is missing in action, as are any references to possible conflicts of interest. For example, lead author Dr. Joshua Lee has accepted grant money from Alkermes, the manufacturer of Vivitrol. This should have been disclosed. The story compares two treatment drugs, as well as methadone. That’s sufficient, although non-medication-assisted alternatives were not discussed. All three drugs mentioned in the story are available, though more could have been said about how accessible they are to people who are trying to overcome addiction. The lead touts the study as “the first large head-to-head comparison of two opioid treatment drugs.” The story includes reporting that’s independent from The Lancet’s news release. It is interesting to see the different framing of the study from the drug company that makes Vivitrol.
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1636
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Recycling -- fashion world's antidote to environmental concerns.
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Hennes & Mauritz, the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer, is launching a new effort to promote recycling as it seeks to cut its environmental impact, boost its ethical credentials and address looming shortages of raw materials.
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true
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Environment
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The move comes as critics point out the damage being caused by a throwaway culture fueled by cheap clothing that has seen a sharp rise in the number of garments sold annually around the world. Sweden’s H&M, which is launching a line of jeans containing recycled cotton next week, will offer an annual 1-million-euro ($1.16 million) prize for new techniques to recycle clothes, Chief Executive Karl-Johan Persson told Reuters. “No company, fast-fashion or not, can continue exactly like today,” Persson said. “The (prize’s) largest potential lies with finding new technology that means we can recycle the fibers with unchanged quality.” As population pressure mounts, retailers like H&M are concerned about potential future shortages of cotton, which is heavily water and pesticide dependent. Existing cotton recycling methods make poor-quality fibers, and there is no efficient way to recycle garments of mixed materials, so the vast majority of clothes end up in land fill. Johan Rockstrom, environmental science professor at Stockholm University and a jury member for the H&M prize, said the fashion industry needs to find new business models to respond to global resource shortages. “This is a great challenge for H&M whose trademark is cheap clothes at good quality ... The fact it’s cheap means there’s a risk people buy and throw away, or buy too much,” he said. H&M revenues have more than doubled since 2006, reaching 151 billion Swedish crowns ($18.3 billion) in the year to last November, making it the second biggest fashion retailer after Spain’s Inditex. The award is being launched by a foundation established by H&M that is funded by the retailer and the Persson family, its main owners. Bernstein analyst Anne-Charlotte Windal said the industry’s sustainability drive reflected the dilemma facing “fast-fashion” companies that constantly churn out new styles. “The model only works if they encourage very frequent purchases, but the consumers are aware of the increasing effect it has on the environment,” she said. Other companies are coming up with their own solutions. Mud Jeans is a Dutch company which leases its garments to consumers and then offers them a replacement each year, repairing and reselling the used ones or recycling the fabric. “This is the future: producers that are responsible for their own waste,” said Chief Executive Bert van Son. “Our company can do this because we are quite small: that it is why we can do these kinds of crazy things because we can keep cotton pure. If you are a big store chain it is very complicated if you mix cotton and polyester.” H&M joined forces earlier this year with Puma-owner Kering to support start-up Worn Again which is developing a technology for separating and extracting fibers in mixed-material garments. Meanwhile, a company called Re:newcell is developing a method to improve the quality of recycled cotton fibers and hopes to build a first factory in coming years. Currently, only about a maximum of 20 percent of recycled cotton can be used in a new pair of jeans because the fiber length is shortened in the shredding process, impacting quality, H&M says. H&M and Kering are not alone in beating the recycling drum. Like H&M, Britain’s Marks & Spencer and Italy’s Calzedonia collects used items in their stores for recycling. On a much smaller scale, Finnish entrepreneurs Pure Waste Textiles have managed to produce sweat shirts from 100 percent recycled cotton after improving existing recycling techniques and by recycling offcuts from clothes factories. However, others believe that recycling is just a distraction from the real challenge of the fashion industry: persuading customers to keep wearing their clothes for longer. To that end, British designer Tom Cridland is offering a 30-year guarantee on a range of T-shirts. “I don’t believe it is fair on customers to churn out plain white T-shirts that will only last a year or two,” he said. “I can’t compete on price so I have to do something different.”
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34498
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Muslim refugees desecrated a church with broken liquor bottles, urine and defecation.
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The church is a historic building, constructed in the 17th Century, and there is no indication that its congregation is “liberal.” There is also no proof that the vandals are Muslim — and, in fact, all the available evidence indicates otherwise. Observant Muslims do not drink alcohol, and the church itself says that the vandals are Swedes. However, according to Swedish news reports, the events happening around the church are frightening, regardless of the ethnicity or religious inclinations of their perpetrators. The church has been forced to hire security guards.
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unproven
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Politics, mad world news
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On 7 December 2016, Mad World News (a web site that regularly posts inaccurate, anti-Muslim content) reported that Muslim refugees had taken advantage of a Swedish church that took them in by vandalizing it (complete with the click-bait headline: “Liberal Church Houses Muslim Refugees, Horrified By What They Find In Pews”). The web site claims the “leftist church,” Church of the Holy Trinity in Kristianstad, allowed Muslim refugees to sleep inside, only to be appalled by their appalling behavior: After housing the refugees, who are mostly men between the ages of 35 and 45, the congregants walked in to discover that the Muslims they gave food, shelter, and love were not only destroying the church property but were relentlessly urinating, defecating, and masturbating in the pews. It’s unclear where the web site came up with the claim that Muslim people were committing these depraved acts (or what country they were purportedly from) as Swedish language news sources make no such claim. SVT News reports the perpetrators are “homeless and drug addicts,” men aged 35 to 45 years: It’s about people who urinated and defecated inside and outside the church…. People were screaming and smashing liquor bottles. Someone also tried to take children from priests or mothers during a baptism. Bloody used needles have been found in the church, and organs must be kept locked so the disturbing visitors do not play on them. People have also sat and masturbated in the pews. The church itself posted on its Facebook page that the perpetrators are Swedish, not Muslim migrants, according to SVT: It is described as new people and new groups that come to the church’s Swedish men aged 35-45 years with drug abuse problems. They come from other places in southern Sweden, including Malmö and Helsingborg. They come to Kristianstad, according to police, because there is a private center for heavy drug users there.
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11448
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Diet Drug Lorcaserin Safe, Effective, Study Finds
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This story reports on a new diet drug that works in much the same way as the discredited and dangerous fen-phen pill that was pulled from the market in 1997. The story reports that the drug appears to be safer than that drug and to be helping people lose weight. But it felt a bit boosterish – especially without the perspective of a truly independent expert – and could have done a better job evaluating the evidence. Drug companies want a diet pill that works and that doesn’t kill people in the process. If they can create one that does, they will make a mountain of money. People who fight weight the old fashioned way — through diet and exercise — but can’t seem to make any headway could stand to benefit from some pharmaceutical help. The story says the race is on for FDA approval among several new competitors. The evidence that this drug is a big improvement, though, is shaky.
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mixture
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There is no mention of costs. If the drug works similarly to fen-phen. Why not at least mention what that drug cost? If you have to take it twice a day for a year to see any results, what might that long term therapy add up to? See comments above about evaluating the evidence. We’ll rule this satisfactory because the story did a decent job of quantifying the likely magnitude of weight loss, both in terms of expected pounds lost, % who drop out, and % losing 5% or 10% body weight.
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9345
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Hepatitis-Infected Kidneys a Safe Option for Transplant: Study
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This story reported on a study that showed 20 dialysis patients who were transplanted with kidneys infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and subsequently treated for the virus fared as well as patients who received non-infected kidneys. The study concluded that kidneys from HCV-infected donors “may be a valuable transplant resource.” The story explained the novelty of using organs that might otherwise get thrown away. But it skipped over questions about availability, potential risks, and study limitations. Conflicts of interest also weren’t mentioned–and they were notable in this case. The idea of using HCV-infected kidneys to fill a gap in demand is a potential innovation that merits news coverage. A kidney transplant often offers better quality of life, lower risk of death, and lower costs compared with years of dialysis, in which a machine does the work of a healthy kidney by removing waste from the blood. But it’s important that the limitations of the emerging research on this topic are carefully communicated. New direct-acting antiviral drugs that treat HCV, as we’ve noted, carry risks and have uncertain benefits.
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mixture
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Hepatitis C,kidney donation
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The story quoted the lead researcher saying the “potential cost savings could be significant,” and the alternative — dialysis — “can cost more than $88,000 a year, according to the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.” But there was no data on the cost of a transplant or of HCV treatment–which is the intervention being studied. According to various online sources, kidney transplants in the U.S. average just over $400,000, with the cost of anti-rejection drugs at several hundred dollars a month. Anti-rejection drugs must be taken for life. The HCV treatment used in this study, Zepatier, has a list price of $54,600 for a 12-week treatment course and $72,800 for a 16-week course. Harvoni, which was listed as the best-selling HPV treatment in 2017, cost $63,000 for an eight-week course and $189,000 for a 24-week course. This means that in reality, the cost comparisons are complex, which the story didn’t convey. The story reported the main benefit of using infected kidneys, which is shorter wait time for a transplant. It said that the average wait time for a non-infected kidney is more than two years, compared to eight months for an HCV-infected kidney. The story also said transplanting infected kidneys and then treating recipients for HCV resulted in a “100 percent cure rate. Half were evaluated six months after their transplant and the others a year after.” It quoted the lead researcher, Peter Reese, M.D. : “And we found that these kidney transplants were working as well as kidney transplants from uninfected patients.” We’ll rate this as satisfactory. However, we’d note that the story didn’t point out that we don’t know much about long-term benefits or overall survival at this point. Do these patients live as long? Are their rates of liver problems the same as those who receive uninfected kidneys? It will take much more than one year of follow-up to learn the answers to these questions. The story acknowledged that “some patients might not want to take the risk associated with an infected kidney,” but we think the potential risks of this strategy warranted more discussion. Hepatitis C causes inflammation of the liver that can lead to diminished liver function or failure of that organ. According to the study, one patient in the study experienced a serious adverse event, protein in the urine, which indicated liver malfunction and could have been triggered by the HCV infection. The condition improved after treatment, according to the published study. Modern HCV treatments are not 100% effective at curing the disease and come with “black box warnings” for side effects such as low blood cell count, nausea, flulike symptoms, feeling tired, headache, and reduced appetite. The story didn’t mention any study limitations. For example, researchers said the results might not extend to other patient populations for a variety of reasons including the use of different HCV treatments and variations in adherence to a treatment regime or self-care. The researchers also said a larger trial that tracks patients over a longer time is needed to assess potential complications. That detail wasn’t in the story, which instead quoted a researcher who said the study “should prompt transplant centers to rethink use of HCV-infected kidneys.” The story said of the “roughly a half-million patients in the United States who were on dialysis for late-stage kidney disease in 2016, only 19,000 received kidney transplants.” The story quoted one source not involved in the study, Adnan Sharif, MD, a consultant transplant nephrologist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, who wrote an editorial that accompanied the study. More importantly, the story didn’t inform readers that the study was funded by Merck, maker of the HCV drug combination elbasvir/grazoprevir, which is marketed under the name Zepatier. (Merck stands to profit from HCV-infected kidney donations becoming more common.) It also didn’t mention that six of the study’s physician authors reported relationships with drug companies that make HCV treatments and/or transplant anti-rejection drugs. That included lead researcher Peter Reese, M.D., who is quoted extensively in the story. Reese reported grants from four companies including Merck and another HCV treatment maker, Bristol-Meyers Squibb. The story made it clear that the alternative to receiving an infected kidney is waiting more than a year on average for a healthy kidney or remaining on dialysis. The story could have done a better job of explaining what steps would need to be taken to make kidneys and other organs from infected donors available. Who would have to approve of this protocol? And what further evidence is required to confirm that it’s safe? Moreover, it’s not clear how much the wait would be shortened by making HCV-infected kidneys available to patients who don’t have the virus. According to data cited in an accompanying editorial, 3,562 kidneys from donors with HCV have been discarded in the U.S. since 1995; that number seems small compared to the number of people in need of a kidney. Also, given a rise in HCV-infected kidneys from young donors due to the opioid crisis, it seems that efforts to curb opioid misuse might diminish the availability of those organs. The story explained that more effective and safer treatments to rid the body of HCV — along with the availability of kidneys from younger donors — have made this a potentially viable strategy to increase the kidney pool. It also mentioned related research: “Another study, published in the same journal in July, reported similar success in transplants of HCV-infected kidneys into HCV-infected patients. About 15 percent of dialysis patients have HCV, the researchers said.” The story does not appear to rely on a news release.
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26730
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“With regard to the cost, let me be very clear: HHS has designated the coronavirus test as an essential health benefit. That means, by definition, it's covered in the private health insurance of every American, as well as covered by Medicare and Medicaid.
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The federal government has some tools at its disposal to broaden insurance coverage for coronavirus testing, specifically when it comes to Medicare, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplace plans. But Pence’s claim over simplifies what is involved in making this coverage assurance because a large swath of private health insurance falls beyond these categories. His statement fails to acknowledge the need for action at the state level and from the private sector. The vice president’s comments, however, were followed by steps by some insurers and states to cover the diagnostic test and waive cost sharing.
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mixture
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National, Health Care, Health Check, Coronavirus, Mike Pence,
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"Amid ongoing concern about the new coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence sought to assure Americans that their health insurance will cover the tests needed for diagnosis. ""With regard to the cost, let me be very clear: HHS has designated the coronavirus test as an essential health benefit. That means, by definition, it's covered in the private health insurance of every American, as well as covered by Medicare and Medicaid."" That got us wondering about Pence’s assurance. Can he really claim that this designation means that all Americans with private health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid will be covered? And, is there a difference between coverage and cost? First, what are ""essential benefits"" and why does that matter? We reached out to the vice president’s office for details about his comments but got no reply. However, we also consulted with a range of experts, who helped us fill in the blanks. ""There are many things wrong with the statement,"" said Christen Linke Young, a fellow with the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy. For one thing, many Americans’ insurance policies don’t have to include coverage of essential health benefits, but more on that later. Still, as Young and other experts helped us piece together the details, it became increasingly clear that this testing will ultimately be covered by most Americans’ health insurance. But, it is not a simple process ― the actual cost to patients is the biggest uncertainty ― and making it happen will require steps not only by the federal government, as Pence suggested, but also by state regulators and private insurers. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance plans covering individuals and small employers must provide coverage of 10 essential health benefits (EHBs), including prescription drugs, maternity care, hospital care and laboratory services. Lab services could include diagnostic tests for, say, influenza, strep throat or even coronavirus. But there isn’t a master list of all the tests covered. ""They don’t say we only cover these particular diagnostic tests,"" said Young. ""It’s a broad category of coverage."" So HHS probably does not have to designate the COVID-19 test as an EHB for it to be covered. HHS did not respond to a question from us about whether it had, indeed, designated coronavirus testing as an EHB. States, because they regulate insurers within their borders, are also weighing in to add clarity. New York and California, for example, have ordered insurers to cover coronavirus testing and waive patient costs. It also should be noted that Pence’s invoking of EHBs relies on the ACA, even as the administration has been a constant and staunch opponent of the law. ""The irony is great with this coming from an administration that has done everything it can to repeal the ACA, roll back essential health benefits and promote short-term plans that don’t cover much,"" said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. But there’s another, bigger catch: EHBs apply only to a limited number of insurance plans ― those ACA-compliant plans purchased by individuals and small employers, which are defined as businesses with fewer than 50 employees. The requirements don’t apply to many workplace plans (including those provided by large businesses and self-insured plans), even though most Americans ― about 157 million ― who have health insurance get it through their job. Most of these plans, though, do cover a wide range of benefits, including laboratory services, but they are not required by law to do so. Coronavirus testing would likely be lumped in, especially as ""employers likewise very much want COVID under control and do not want it spreading through their workforces,"" said James Gelfand, senior vice president at the ERISA Industry Committee, which represents large employers. Private insurers are beginning to move in this direction, too. America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s lobbying group, said in early March its members will cover diagnostic testing when ordered by a physician and will ""take action to ease network, referral, and prior authorization requirements and/or waive patient cost sharing."" And what about Americans who have purchased alternative forms of insurance? The ACA’s rules ― including those on essential benefits ― don’t apply to several types of insurance that the Trump administration has promoted, including short-term plans. Such plans have lower premiums than ACA plans, mainly because they don’t have to offer a wide range of benefits or meet other ACA rules. Consumers should ""read the fine print to see what is in and what is out,"" said Corlette. Short-term plans also can cap annual treatment payment amounts, reject people with medical conditions ― or review their medical records after they make a claim to see if they had a preexisting condition that could disqualify them for coverage. Meanwhile, EHB rules don’t apply to Medicare. But that federal health insurance program for seniors and the disabled has made clear on its website that it will cover the test, saying ""this test is covered when your doctor or other health care provider orders it, if you got the test on or after February 4, 2020."" The agency that oversees Medicaid, the state-federal low-income health insurance program, issued a release saying that ""testing and diagnostic services are commonly covered"" and that lab tests are a ""mandatory benefit."" No, coverage and cost are not the same. And that’s the key issue for policy and health experts. For those who have not yet hit their annual deductible, ""the full cost of diagnostic tests will fall on those who get them,"" said Nicholas Bagley, a professor at University of Michigan Law School. ""That will discourage some people from getting tested in the first place, which is a public health nightmare."" Many private plans, both those offered by employers and those purchased by individuals, include deductibles that enrollees must meet before full coverage kicks in. Even after a deductible is satisfied, many plans also require some sort of copayment ― be it $10, $25 or more ― when seeing a doctor or going for a lab test. For emergency room visits, the cost sharing is higher. If insurers don’t waive cost sharing for the test, it could be an issue for some consumers. Still, Bagley said, the federal government is limited in its ability to order insurers or employers to waive patient payments, at least in the short term. Longer term, federal officials could seek to declare the tests ""preventive services,"" like mammograms or vaccines, which are free for insured patients. But that process would take more than a year to implement. In the meantime, it’s mainly up to insurers and employers to decide what to do. Cigna has announced it will waive patient costs for testing ― and others may soon as well, given AHIP’s statement. Another group, the Alliance of Community Health Plans, which represents nonprofit plans, didn’t specifically say its members would waive fees but pledged to ""ensure affordability is not a barrier to the individuals who are recommended for testing by their doctor or a public health authority."" Pence said ""HHS has designated the coronavirus test as an essential health benefit. That means, by definition, it's covered in the private health insurance of every American, as well as covered by Medicare and Medicaid."" There are a number of moving parts to this statement, but it tends to leave out important details. For instance, many private and employer health plans have flexibility about what benefits they cover and what consumers will pay. In addition, coverage does not necessary mean low cost. Bottom line: Pence's comment is an overstatement. It fails to acknowledge the need for action at the state level and from the private sector, too."
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8307
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Trump administration weakens mercury rule for coal plants.
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The Trump administration on Thursday withdrew the legal justification for an Obama-era rule that forced coal-fired power plants to cut their mercury emissions, saying the cost of compliance far outweighed the public health benefits.
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true
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Environment
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The move, which was slammed by environmentalists and utility companies, leaves the so-called Mercury and Air Toxic Standards in place for now, but could pave the way for lawsuits from companies opposed to it and prevent similar regulations from being implemented in the future. “It’s honest accounting,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a conference call with reporters announcing the move. At issue is a 2016 conclusion by then-President Barack Obama’s EPA that forcing coal-fired power plants to slash mercury output was justified because savings to consumers on healthcare costs would exceed compliance costs. Mercury can harm pregnant women and put infants and children at risk of developmental problems. The calculations used at the time, however, accounted for how pollution-control equipment at coal plants would reduce emissions of particulate matter and other harmful substances that come out of smokestacks, in addition to mercury. Republican President Donald Trump’s EPA said in 2018 it had reviewed the justification for the rule and believed it was inappropriate to have included the benefits of reducing emissions other than mercury. It proposed withdrawing the justification. Thursday’s announcement finalized that proposal. The revised analysis of the rule estimated the cost to coal- and oil-fired power plants to be between $7.4 billion and $9.6 billion a year, compared with quantified health benefits of just $4 million to $6 million a year - accounting for mercury alone. “The more transparent we are about the science behind our regulations, and the costs and the benefits behind our regulations, the more acceptance we will see across the board from the American public,” Wheeler said. He emphasized that the rule’s requirements had not changed and said the EPA would defend it if challenged in court. But he added that the changes “foreshadow” the agency’s approach to an upcoming cost-benefit regulation. Environmentalists decried the move, saying it undermined clean air protections vital to protecting public health. “This is an absolute abomination,” former Natural Resources Defense Council President Gina McCarthy, who served as EPA administrator under Obama, said in a statement. “The only ones to benefit from this are powerful polluters - at the expense of our health, and our children’s health.” Electric utilities pushed back on the potential loosening of mercury requirements, saying they had invested billions to cut emissions of the dangerous pollutant, and had sought and secured rate increases from power consumers to cover the costs. “The repeal of the underlying legal basis for MATS introduces new uncertainty and risk for companies that still are recovering the costs for installing those control technologies,” Utility trade group Edison Electric Institute said in a statement. But the U.S. coal industry has railed against the mercury rule, and blamed it for putting hundreds of coal-fired power plants out of business in recent years. The National Mining Association, which represents coal-company interests, applauded the move. “While the coal-fueled plants that were forced out of operation by this illegal rule can’t be resurrected, it’s an important lesson for the future,” the trade group said in a statement. Trump made it a central promise of his 2016 campaign to revive the U.S. coal industry, which he said had been unfairly targeted by Obama’s climate and environmental policies.
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8601
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From filmmaker to medicine courier: volunteers helped Wuhan's virus fight.
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While most people in the Chinese city of Wuhan were hunkered down in their homes at the height of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, Lin Wenhua was out on the empty streets in his car, driving toward the next person or task on his list.
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true
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Health News
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Sometimes it would be a request to take a doctor to the hospital, the 38-year-old filmmaker recalled. Once, he was asked to help drive a pet-sitter to a friend’s house. Other times, he found himself delivering boxes of Kaletra, a drug usually used to treat HIV and AIDS, to coronavirus patients or their relatives, sent by an acquaintance who was giving them away for free. Residents say volunteers like Lin have been crucial to keeping Wuhan supplied and running after it became the epicenter of China’s outbreak, especially in the epidemic’s chaotic early days from late January to early February. Back then, surging cases strained government and medical services in the city of 11 million to the breaking point. With public transit shut down and taxis and ride-hailing operations suspended, thousands of volunteers have shuttled medical staff, delivered supplies and checked in on vulnerable residents. They have kept going throughout the outbreak, though some of the pressure has been alleviated in recent weeks as the city experiences a sharp fall in locally transmitted cases, giving way to the restart of services such as public transport. “The entire city was facing the danger of an epidemic,” he told Reuters in an interview, recounting how he decided to volunteer after the city was sealed off from the rest of China on Jan. 23. He estimates that he has driven about 4,000 kilometres since, adding that there were many other volunteers who more than doubled that. “Medical workers are very important and we needed to safeguard their ability to work,” he said. “If they were able to work normally, that would in turn safeguard our lives.” Lin documented his trips and life in locked-down Wuhan regularly on his Twitter-like Weibo account, ‘Spider Monkey Bread’, where he posted diary-style videos to 5 million followers. His most unique volunteer role, as a medicine courier, begun after a friend put him in touch with “Brother Squirrel”, one of several HIV patients who were inundated with requests for Kaletra after they offered to give pills away. China began testing the drug as a treatment for coronavirus symptoms in January. “When I first heard about sending medicine to patients, I did hesitate. But I thought to myself, to these patients this medicine represents a hope for survival,” he said. He ended up making deliveries to about 30 people, stopping after patients could get treatment directly from newly built makeshift hospitals in late February, when Wuhan started took further, aggressive steps to treat and quarantine stricken people. Demand for his other services has also fallen in recent weeks amid China’s improving epidemic situation, leaving him to focus more on his work as a freelance filmmaker, mostly for advertising agencies. Still, the experience has been an emotional rollercoaster. “This situation has gone on for way too long. During this very long period, we have gone through many types of feelings,” he said. March, however, was a turning point. “We finally saw the situation improve, victory’s light of dawn.”
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2250
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British start-up breeds high performance bugs for animal feed.
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After centuries of selective breeding of animals and plants to maximize yields in agriculture, bugs are getting the same treatment, as demand for insect protein grows.
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true
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Environment
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British start-up Beta Bugs is breeding high performance strains of black soldier fly for the insect feed sector, and is selecting traits like growth rate, protein content, fat composition and even temperature tolerance according to clients’ needs. Most animal feed is made from soy which is blamed by some for deforestation as farmers try to meet increasing global demand for the crop. This has led to the search for more sustainable sources of protein. “There are insect farms around Europe, around the UK, even elsewhere in the world which are using food waste and waste streams to rear insects such as the black soldier fly which they can then feed to fish, chickens and pigs.” “We’re looking at it from the genetic side. How do we make the best fly and the best bug possible for use in these farms?” founder and managing director of Beta Bugs, Thomas Farrugia told Reuters. The company breeds certain strains of fly, resulting in highly optimized insects. The feed is made from fly maggots. “You can cram decades worth of genetic progress that has been made in every other animal into a few years for insects,” said Farrugia. Beta Bugs says it wants to stimulate the growth of a new and environmentally beneficial industry by bringing real benefits directly to farms.
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8544
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Dubai to set up field hospitals to cope with any coronavirus surge: official.
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The emirate of Dubai is preparing field hospitals to handle any surge in cases of the new coronavirus, a health official said on Thursday, as the United Arab Emirates saw its infection count more than double in the last week.
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true
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Health News
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The UAE has reported 2,659 cases with 12 deaths, the second highest among six Gulf Arab states whose tally has passed 10,500 infections despite containment efforts, including halting passenger flights, imposing curfews and closing public venues. The UAE does not provide a breakdown in numbers for each of its seven emirates. Dubai, a tourism and business hub, is the only UAE emirate to have expanded a nationwide nightly curfew into a 24-hour one and has locked down two districts, Al Ras and Naif, which have a large population of low-wage foreign workers. Humaid Al Qutami, director general of the Dubai Health Authority, told a televised news conference the UAE had early on prepared scenario models on a federal level, including providing hospital and quarantine centre capacity to handle 10,000 COVID-19 cases or more if needed. “We will have more than two field hospitals ready in Dubai in the coming days to be ready for any situation,” he said, adding that the hospitals could offer between 4,000-5,000 beds. “In Dubai we are offering five-star hotels as quarantine centres,” he said in response to a question on capacity. Authorities in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi and in Dubai are also using idle hotels to monitor people with minor cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter have said. Other Gulf Arab states including Qatar, Oman and Kuwait have sealed off areas to contain the community spread among foreign workers, who make up the bulk of the labour force and often live in overcrowded accommodation, including labour camps. Oman has locked down Muscat governorate, which includes the capital. Millions of migrant workers, mainly from Asian countries, including Nepal, India, Pakistan and the Philippines, are among the region’s large expatriate population. Two diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity there had been an outbreak in Dubai’s Al Ras and Naif districts, with one estimating hundreds could be infected. Dubai government’s media office has not responded to Reuters’ emails about the extent of the outbreak in the emirate. Lieutenant General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, commander in chief of Dubai Police, told the news conference authorities had disinfected the two districts and conducted tests there, but gave no specific details.
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6665
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Hawaii officials confirm 3rd case of rat lungworm disease.
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Hawaii health officials say a resident on the Big Island’s east side has contracted rat lungworm disease.
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true
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Health, Kailua-Kona, Rats, Hawaii
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West Hawaii Today reports the state Department of Health confirmed the case through laboratory testing earlier this month, but the person might have become infected as early as February. Health officials say the person was hospitalized. Officials could not determine the exact location where the person contracted the disease. The case marks the third that state health officials have confirmed this year. The disease is caused by a parasitic roundworm. It can affect a person’s brain and spinal cord. The disease spreads through larvae that’s accidentally ingested when people eat raw freshwater shrimp, land crabs and snails or raw produce that contains infected slugs or snails. ___ Information from: West Hawaii Today, http://www.westhawaiitoday.com
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32479
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Director Stanley Kubrick wrote a profanity-laced letter to MGM executive James T. Aubrey warning him not to make a sequel to '2001: A Space Odyssey.'
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Are we alone in wishing this film had actually been made?
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false
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Junk News, glossy news
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Stanley Kubrick, who directed such iconic films as Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange, was also a notorious control freak whom Randy Kennedy of the New York Times described as “titanically exacting” and was highly protective of his work. When Kubrick died in 1999, he left behind a vast trove of production materials: notes, sketches, letters and other detritus, some of which has since found its way online. In 2014, a scan of a typewritten letter from Kubrick to MGM president James T. Aubrey dated Aug. 27, 1970, surfaced on the Internet and instantly went viral, for reasons that are obvious on a single reading: August 27, 1970 James T. Aubrey, Jr. Metro Goldwyn Mayer 245 N Beverly Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90210 Dear James, It has come to my attention that you and your studio are considering producing a sequel to “2001: A Space Odyssey” over my objections. My attorney informs me that you hold the option and, legally, there is little I can do to stop you. However, I’d like you to know that I own the tapir bone prop from 2001 – the one “Moonwatcher” throws into the sky. If you attempt to make a sequel, I will cram that femur up your so ass so far, it will take an undiscovered alien super-intelligence to figure out how to dislodge it. Seriously, don’t fuck with me. Best regards, Stanley MGM Studios Boreham Wood Herts As popular as the letter became on social media, readers familiar with Kubrick’s life and oeuvre were skeptical of its authenticity. For one thing, Kubrick wasn’t known to have taken such a vehement stand against any 2001 follow-up. In fact, when the actual sequel, 2010, went into production in the early 1980s, Kubrick gave the project and its director, Peter Hyams, his blessing. For another thing, the aggression and profanity that make the missive so funny are lacking in other specimens of his correspondence. The doubters were proved correct when the facsimile was traced back to its source, a satire website called Gloss News. It appeared in an article published on 31 May 2014 and titled “Corman Creates Catastrophe, Kubrick Cringes.” The premise of the article was that MGM was so determined to make a sequel to 2001 over Stanley Kubrick’s objections that studio executives went to extraordinary lengths to make it happen: Kubrick was dead-set against any sequel. He would not produce one himself, and he threatened legal action should MGM try to make one with a different director. Kubrick’s threats were essentially empty because MGM owned the rights, but studio executives found that, in a show of solidarity, no reputable director would touch the project. Finally, in desperation, they contacted low-budget film impresario Roger Corman, who agreed to direct the sequel so long as he was given absolute creative control. Fearing that momentum built up by the original film’s success would stall if they waited too long, the studio agreed to Corman’s demands and hired him to direct the film. Corman chose to write the film himself and, three days after signing the deal, presented the finished screenplay to MGM executives. The executives were unsure what to make of the script, which Corman had titled 2002: Another Space Odyssey. In Corman’s story, David Bowman returns to earth from the mysterious alien world that he inhabited at the end of the first film. In an attempt to reintegrate into society, he opens a car repair shop in Alabama with his pal Skeeter.
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10152
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‘Closed-heart’ a less-invasive alternative
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Minimally-invasive surgery, also known as percutaneous surgery, represents an important development in the treatment of aortic valve disease. Aortic valve disease typically occurs in adults over the age of 65 and is a common cause of heart failure. Risk factors include increasing age, obesity, and high blood pressure. Surgery to undergo aortic valve replacement is most often performed via ‘open heart’ surgery, a very invasive procedure in which the patient’s ribs are cracked open to access the heart. In this story, we learn of an experimental minimally-invasive procedure in which artificial valves are moved to the heart using image guidance through an incision in the femoral artery. The prevalence and seriousness of aortic valve disease are accurately described.The story clearly points out that this is a new, experimental procedure that is performed only in the context of research (so far only 19 Americans have undergone the procedure). We also learn that because of the experimental nature of the procedure, it should only be used in those patients who are too sick to endure open heart surgery. The story correctly describes the nature of the existing evidence, with research still in progress; we don’t know if this procedure will extend lives or improve quality of life. The story provides balanced information on harms by presenting the death rates for both the experimental treatment and conventional surgery. By quoting multiple sources, it is clear that the story did not rely solely on a press release for information. No costs are presented. Overall, this was a balanced and complete story.
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true
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The story does not mention costs. The story presents what is known about the death rates in artificial valve and conventional valve surgery. The story also points out that we don’t know whether the artificial valve will extend life or improve quality of life. It explained that it is still unknown how this would work in “less sick patients who could survive open-heart valve replacement but want to avoid its rigors.” The harms of artificial valve placement are potentially very serious and are well described. The chance of death for both the artificial valve and conventional valve replacement surgery are presented. The story accurately describes the nature of the existing evidence, which is still research in progress. The story correctly points out that we don’t know if the treatment will extend life or improve quality of life. The seriousness and prevalence of aortic valve disease are accurately depicted. Appropriately, the story emphasizes that the experiments are now limited to use on the aortic valve. The story includes quotes from multiple sources. The story mentions conventional open valve surgery as the alternative. The story correctly states that currently the only candidates for the experimental surgery are those who are too sick to undergo open surgery. It emphasizes that it is still unknown how this would work in “less sick patients who could survive open-heart valve replacement but want to avoid its rigors.” The story emphasizes that this is an experimental treatment that has only been used in the context of research and only in 19 patients in the U.S. The story does not make claims about future FDA approval, which is appropriate. It is clear in this story that this is a new treatment. Because multiple sources are quoted, it seems unlikely that the story relied solely on text from a press release.
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7542
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Trump extends virus guidelines, braces US for big death toll.
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Bracing the nation for a coronavirus death toll that could exceed 100,000 people, President Donald Trump extended restrictive social distancing guidelines through April, bowing to public health experts who presented him with even more dire projections for the expanding coronavirus pandemic.
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true
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AP Top News, Health, General News, Politics, Pandemics, Donald Trump, Virus Outbreak, Public health, Family medicine, United States
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It was a stark shift in tone by the Republican president, who only days ago mused about the country reopening in a few weeks. From the Rose Garden, he said his Easter revival hopes had only been “aspirational.” The initial 15-day period of social distancing urged by the federal government expires Monday, and Trump had expressed interest in relaxing the national guidelines at least in parts of the country less afflicted by the pandemic. He instead decided to extend them through April 30, a tacit acknowledgment he’d been too optimistic. Many states and local governments have stiffer controls in place on mobility and gatherings. Trump’s impulse to reopen the country met a sober reality check Sunday from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, who said the U.S. could experience more than 100,000 deaths and millions of infections from the pandemic. That warning hardened a recognition in Washington that the struggle against the coronavirus will not be resolved quickly even as Trump expressed a longing for normalcy. Trump told “Fox and Friends” in an interview Monday morning that “nobody” was “more worried” about the economic impact on the country than him, but said, “We want to do something where we have the least death.” Trump, who has largely avoided talk of potential death and infection rates, cited projection models that said potentially 2.2 million people or more could have died had social distancing measures not been put in place. And he said the country would be doing well if it “can hold” the number of deaths “down to 100,000.” He said the best case for the country would be for the death rate to peak in about two weeks. “It’s a horrible number,” Trump said, but added, “We all together have done a very good job.” Brought forward by Trump at the outdoor briefing, Fauci said his projection of a potential 100,000 to 200,000 deaths is “entirely conceivable” if not enough is done to mitigate the crisis. “It would not have been a good idea to pull back at a time when you really need to be pressing your foot on the pedal as opposed to on the brakes,” Fauci said on CNN on Monday, describing how he and others had convinced Trump to extend the restrictions. “We showed him the data. He looked at the data. He got it right away,” Fauci said. “It was a pretty clear picture. Dr. Debbie Birx and I went in to the Oval Office and leaned over the desk and said, ‘Here are the data. Take a look.’ He just shook his head and said, ‘I guess we got to do it.’” “His first goal is to prevent suffering and death,” Fauci added. “And we made it clear to him that if we pulled back on what we were doing ... there would be more avoidable suffering and avoidable death. So it was a pretty clear decision on his part.” Americans are now being called on to prepare for another 30 days of severe economic and social disruption, as schools and businesses are closed and public life is upended. One in 3 Americans remain under state or local government orders to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus. Trump acknowledged that he may be forced to extend the guidelines again at the end of April, but expressed hope that by June 1, “we should be well on our way to recovery.” The federal guidelines recommend against group gatherings larger than 10 and urge older people and anyone with existing health problems to stay home. People are urged to work at home when possible and avoid restaurants, bars, non-essential travel and shopping trips. For more than a week, Trump had been bombarded by calls from outside business leaders who urged him to begin re-opening the nation’s economy and warned of catastrophic consequences that could damage his re-election chances if it remained shuttered for much longer. “The president is right. The cure can’t be worse than the disease, and we’re going to have to make some difficult trade-offs,” Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow had said last Monday, reflecting the thinking of his economic team. That talk alarmed health experts, who urged Trump to keep encouraging people to stay home. The virus was still spreading, with the peak still weeks away, the experts warned. In the end, Trump, in the face of dire projections and increasingly alarming images out of New York, sided with his health experts and backed off the idea of loosening recommended restrictions on less impacted parts of the country. “They’re the best in the profession and they didn’t like that idea,” he said of Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, head of the White House coronavirus task force. Trump was clearly moved by the scenes from New York, particularly hard-hit Elmhurst Hospital in his native Queens. “I’ve been watching that for the last week on television,” he said. ”Body bags all over, in hallways. I’ve been watching them bring in trailer trucks — freezer trucks, they’re freezer trucks, because they can’t handle the bodies, there are so many of them. This is essentially in my community, in Queens, Queens, New York,” he continued. “I’ve seen things that I’ve never seen before.” Phasing out the recommendations would have been a symbolic nod to business and an affront to public health experts, but may have had little practical impact. States across the country already have their own restrictions in place that, in many cases, are far stricter than the administration’s, and those would have remained in place. Birx and Fauci said even those areas yet to face a significant outbreak must prepare for the eventuality that they will. “Certainly we’re hoping that there aren’t more New York cities and New York metro areas around the country, but we have to plan for that,” Birx said on CBS on Monday, calling on cities across the country to make preparations. “It’s critical that even if you don’t see it, it could be circulating in your community,” she said. Fauci said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that smaller U.S. cities are now ripe for the kind of acceleration that has occurred in New York. “If you look throughout the country there are a number of smaller cities that are sort of percolating along, couple hundred cases, the slope doesn’t look like it’s going up,” Fauci said. “It looks like it’s low level, it starts to accelerate, then it goes way up.” The U.S. had more than 140,000 COVID-19 cases reported by Monday morning, with more than 2,500 deaths. During the course of the Rose Garden briefing, reported deaths grew by several dozen and the number of cases by several thousand. Most people who contract COVID-19 have mild or moderate symptoms, which can include fever and cough but also milder cases of pneumonia, sometimes requiring hospitalization. The risk of death is greater for older adults and people with other health problems. Hospitals in the most afflicted areas are straining to handle patients and some are short of critical supplies. Fauci’s prediction would take the death toll well past that of the average seasonal flu. Trump repeatedly cited the flu’s comparatively much higher cost in lives in playing down the severity of this pandemic. Trump’s change in tone was previewed Saturday, when the president suggested then backed away from instituting an “enforceable” quarantine of hard-hit New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. Instead, the White House task force recommended a travel advisory for residents of those states to limit non-essential travel to slow the spread of the virus to other parts of the U.S. The quarantine notion was strongly opposed by the governors of those states, who argued it would cause panic. Even as he opted against the quarantine, Trump on Sunday suggested without evidence that hospitals and hospital systems were “hoarding” ventilators and other medical supplies that were needed in other areas of the state. He also encouraged the Food and Drug Administration to streamline approvals for companies seeking to sanitize badly needed respirators so they can be reused. For weeks, Trump minimized the gravity of the pandemic, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday accused Trump of “denial” in the crisis and called it “deadly.” Asked whether she believes that attitude cost American lives, Pelosi told CNN: “Yes, I am. I’m saying that.” Trump, asked about the comments on Fox Monday morning, lashed back. “She’s a sick puppy in my opinion,” Trump said. “I think it’s a disgrace to her country, her family” Former Vice President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, said he wouldn’t go so far as to lay the blame for deaths on the president. “I think that’s a little too harsh,” he told NBC. Trump nonetheless hit back. “If sleepy Joe was president,” he told Fox, “he wouldn’t even know what’s going on.”
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7767
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Tests show suspected Swedish Ebola patient not infected.
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Medical tests have shown a patient treated in isolation at Sweden’s Uppsala University Hospital for suspected Ebola is not infected with the virus after all, authorities said on Friday.
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true
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Health News
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The patient, whose identity was not disclosed, was isolated and transferred to the hospital north of Stockholm after originally being admitted to the emergency ward of the smaller Enkoping hospital. The young man had been in Burundi for around three weeks, and was exhibiting classic symptoms of haemorrhagic fever, including vomiting blood, the hospital’s chief medical officer said earlier on Friday. The regional authority said the man’s condition had improved over the course of the day and that while tests had also ruled out diseases such as Marburg and dengue fever, further examinations were needed to determine the nature of the illness. Patients at the emergency ward in Enkoping had also been kept isolated pending the test results, as were the man’s relatives, but all were now free to go home, it said. There is no known Ebola outbreak in Burundi, but it borders the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been fighting an outbreak for almost six months. The disease has killed 356 of the 585 people known to have been infected. The epidemic in a volatile part of Congo is the second worst ever, according to the World Health Organization. The largest outbreak was one in 2013-2016 in West Africa, where more than 28,000 cases were confirmed.
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3017
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As wildfires get worse, smoke spreads, stokes health worries.
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First came the flames, a raging firestorm propelled by 50 mph (80 kph) wind gusts that incinerated Kelsey Norton’s house and killed 85 people in her community.
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true
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Paradise, Health, California, Asia Pacific, Weekend Reads, General News, Wildfires, AP Top News, Fires, U.S. News
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Then came the smoke — not just from the forest but also from some 14,000 houses and their contents that burned, generating a thick plume that enshrouded portions of Northern California for weeks and left Norton gasping. And since the fire, more than a year now, it has been sickness: repeated respiratory infections that sap Norton’s strength, interfere with her work and leave the 30-year-old cardiac care nurse worried about future health problems. “I don’t want to have cancer in my 50s because I inhaled smoke in my 30s,” she said. The immediate toll of lives and property lost when a fire tore through the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Paradise, California in November 2018 is well documented. Still unknown is the long-term impact of the intense smoke exposure suffered by the tragedy’s survivors and the hundreds of thousands of people living in communities downwind of the blaze. Increasingly intense wildfires are scorching forests from across the Western U.S. to Australia and stoking concern among residents and health professionals about long-term health impacts from smoke exposure. The issue has far-reaching implications as climate change turns some regions of the globe drier and more prone to fires that send up smoke plumes that can travel thousands of miles and affect millions of people. The unprecedented fires burning across Australia offer the most recent example as they blanket major cities with dangerous air pollution. Smoke from those fires, which started burning in September, by this week had spread across more than 7.7 million square miles (20 million square kilometers) and drifted across the Pacific Ocean to reach South America, according to the United Nation’s meteorological agency and the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. Th e fires have torched more than 2,000 houses and killed at least 26 people. Authorities ordered new evacuations in New South Wales and the neighboring state of Victoria as rising temperatures and erratic winds on Friday threatened to fan dozens of blazes still burning out of control. Both states issued hazardous air quality warnings for affected areas and said people with health problems should consider relocating until the smoke clears. Compounding the danger, experts and firefighters say, is the proliferation of construction materials and household items made from petroleum-based plastics, ranging from plumbing pipes to exterior siding. Those burn hotter and generate smoke more toxic than wood does, exposing people to numerous hazardous chemicals. Researchers and health officials are confident more people will get sick and many will die as regions such as the U.S. West see bigger, more intense wildfires. An estimated 20,000 premature deaths now occur annually in the U.S. due to chronic wildfire smoke exposure. That’s expected to double by the end of the century, according to scientists funded by NASA, as tens of millions of people get exposed to massive “smoke waves” emanating from blazes in Western states. But while those forecasts help illustrate the profound impacts of a warming climate, they can’t predict which fires will prove deadly and which individuals will develop lung ailments or other illnesses. One of relatively few long-term studies on the issue is under way at the California National Primate Research Center. Fifty rhesus monkeys living in outdoor pens year-round were exposed to a prolonged period of wildfire smoke as infants in 2008. They’ve developed lungs 20% smaller than another group of monkeys born a year later, researchers found. “It’s the closest animal model to replicate what happens with kids,” said Lisa Miller, the center’s associate director of research. The difference first showed up when the animals were adolescents, and has continued as they’ve matured. It’s impossible for the untrained eye to distinguish the smoke-exposed monkeys from hundreds of others that share their pens, but Miller’s team next plans to investigate how the decreased lung function affects activity levels of the monkeys. As the animals age, any diseases they develop and how they die would give clues into the fate of humans heavily exposed to smoke. Studies of wildland firefighters also give insights into the risks of smoke inhalation. They’ve shown significantly higher rates of lung cancer and death from heart disease, said Michael Kleinman, who researches the health effects of air pollution and is a professor of environmental toxicology at the University of California, Irvine. Firefighters get much higher and more frequent doses of smoke, but Kleinman said a proportional increase in illnesses could be expected among the general public exposed to wildfire smoke across California and the West. “It’s safe to say there will probably more effects at the long-term level,” Kleinman said. “Especially if those events happened over a longer period of time or more repeatedly, there will be cumulative damage to the lung and heart which eventually will lead to chronic disease.” As she fled with her boyfriend ahead of the fire that destroyed Paradise on the morning of Nov. 8, 2018, Norton said the smoke was so thick “it was like midnight.” A few days later, she went back to work at a hospital in Chico, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) miles from Paradise. But smoke from the still-burning fire had made it inside the facility. There weren’t enough face masks to go around so Norton said she went without one for several days. Initially she felt just a bit wheezy, as she had during the last major fire in the area about a decade earlier. But two weeks later she came down with a respiratory infection that brought fever and severe congestion. When that finally cleared, she got another, then another — eight or nine infections in all over the past year. “I just want to break this cycle of sickness,” she said. Norton says she never smoked, nor did her parents, and never had any respiratory issues prior to the fire. She missed so much work in the months after the fire that she got a warning from a supervisor. To try to keep from getting sick, she rinses out her sinuses regularly and takes antihistamines to reduce inflammation in her airways. She also avoids large gatherings, including skipping office parties and two weddings, out of fear that she could pick up a virus. She tries to eat healthy and reduce stress by seeing a counselor. Norton has been to a pulmonologist and two ear nose and throat doctors to little avail, and has been referred to a sinus specialist at Stanford University for further testing. The pulmonologist who initially treated her, Dinesh Verma, said he sees a “direct correlation” between Norton’s smoke exposure and her subsequent health struggles. “The logical explanation definitely would be that intense smoke, basically chemical exposure, did damage the airways to the extent that they’re now more susceptible” to infection, Verma said. Verma said virtually all of his hundreds of patients from Chico and Paradise had complications after the fire that required them to be hospitalized or treated. Most had preexisting conditions such as asthma and needed only a trigger to send them into a downward spiral. Predicting what will happen with otherwise-healthy patients like Norton is more difficult, he said. Norton is among about 9,000 people who responded to a health survey as part of a long-term health study of smoke exposure in Paradise and other California communities. The work is led by researchers at the University of California, Davis, who plan to track the lung health of a small number of those respondents in coming years by measuring their breathing capacity. They’re also collaborating with Williams at the primate center to see if the decline seen in the rhesus monkeys has parallels for human infants. Dr. Nicholas Kenyon, a pulmonologist involved in the effort, said determining the health effects of smoke is increasingly urgent given the region’s burgeoning population and more frequent fires due to climate change. “We’ve got the population affected right now, but it’s not going to be isolated to us. This is going to be the entire West,” Kenyon said. “Nobody’s been really inhaling this kind of stuff from structures until now.” Another participant in the UC Davis study, 64-year-old Elizabeth Watling, lives in Chico and remained there through the fire so she could look after her 94-year-old aunt. She recalls smoke so thick that it left a layer of ash all over town, gray and light as snow. The air remained heavily polluted until it rained more than two weeks later. When she gardens or does other outdoor activities, Watling wears a mask because her throat has become so easily irritated by dust. She fiddles with it often, taking the mask on and off to talk, and wonders how effective it will be since she can fit her fingers through gaps along her cheeks. The health issues Watling blames on the smoke are less severe than Norton’s — a scratchy throat that won’t go away, coughs that linger, shortness of breath. She expected those to go away but they haven’t. Watling now figures that, given her age, she won’t ever fully recover and the smoke could shave years off her life. “I don’t think the news is good for me,” she said. ___ Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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2220
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As Chinese mountains get hotter, hunt for 'cure-all' fungus gets harder.
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For Ma Junxiao, an ethnic Hui Muslim farmer from remote western China, the daily climb up sheer mountain slopes to look for a tiny fungus is vital to his family’s subsistence.
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true
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Environment
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Each spring, Ma travels more than 600 kilometers (370 miles) by road from his impoverished village in Gansu to a jumbled knot of nameless peaks in neighboring Qinghai province. There, he joins an army of about 80 people hired by a local company to find and pick Ophiocordyceps sinensis, a fungus believed to possess aphrodisiac and medicinal powers. In recent years, cordyceps companies in Qinghai have been paying locals millions of yuan for the right to cordon off an entire mountain each season. (Click reut.rs/2NhjsdH to see a picture package about harvesting cordyceps.) But the cordyceps harvest has waned in Qinghai, the biggest producing region in China. In the last two years, Ma’s cordyceps income has more than halved to 7,000-8,000 yuan ($1,018-$1,164) per season as the fungus grew more scarce. One reason: higher temperatures, less seasonal snow, and receding glaciers have led to warmer mountains, making it less hospitable for the fungus, which thrives in soils that are cold but not frozen, about 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit). “The glaciers are gone, and so are the cordyceps,” said Ma, 49, who has been picking cordyceps in Qinghai for the past 14 years. Glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau have shrunk 15% in the past half a century as gains in local temperatures outstripped the global average by three-fold, Chinese state media reported last year. Some climate researchers attribute that to the loss of high-elevation snow needed to deflect the sun’s heat back into space. The dark rock beneath the snow, now exposed, absorbs the heat. At the same time, demand for the highly prized cordyceps has increased sharply in the last decade as an emerging Chinese middle class seeks it to cure everything from kidney disorders to impotence, despite a lack of scientific evidence. A global fad for plant-based superfoods has also stoked interest. Found in the Himalayas, Tibet and Qinghai’s high-altitude grasslands, the caterpillar fungus, as cordyceps is also known, has become the most important source of income for local communities, offering hundreds of seasonal jobs for the poor and a path to riches for commercial harvesters. At the market peak in 2010, the street price of cordyceps was more than $100,000 per kilogram, launching a craze and enticing herders and farmers like Ma to flock to the mountains. Some experts say the enthusiasm has led to overharvesting on top of a less-hospitable climate, despite official insistence on sustainable production. This year, with cordyceps harder to find, Ma has had to climb as high as 4,500 meters (15,000 feet) to find fungus for which he is paid 6 yuan per piece. “I have two sons, and they run a noodle shop in Jiangsu province on the coast. Almost all of my cordyceps income goes towards sustaining that shop,” Ma told Reuters. Grass-dwelling caterpillars deliver the fungus when they migrate, arriving as early as summer, after which the fungus lays dormant in its host through the frigid winter months. When spring arrives, the warmer weather awakens the fungus, which kills the caterpillar. It then develops a small brown stem from the desiccated body, poking out of the ground and eventually releasing spores that caterpillars eat, restarting the parasitic process. Global warming has led to a higher rate of evaporation, resulting in less soil moisture and poorer grass cover, said Shen Yongping, a Chinese scientist who has observed the weather patterns on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau since the 1980s. A shrinking permafrost layer will also lower the water table, further challenging the environment, Shen said. And more frequent extreme weather can cause cold snaps, hurting cordyceps, he added. An official tally of Qinghai’s cordyceps production is not available every year. At the provincial government’s bureau of agriculture and rural affairs, an official declined to give any output data for 2010-2013 and 2015, saying such statistics were “sensitive.” Output fell to 41,200 kg in 2018 from 43,500 kg a year earlier, a 5.2% slump, data from the bureau showed. That’s a fraction of the 150,000 kg reported by provincial media for 2010 and 2011. “Some years, production was good and some years it was poor. The demand this year is not too good,” said Ma Jingguang, a Guangdong-based merchant on a cordyceps inspection tour in Xinghai county. Like the big market-towns of Yushu and Golog in southern Qinghai, Xinghai has built its economy on the cordyceps trade. Each piece of the fungus is sold for at least 20 yuan to visiting buyers from Xining, Qinghai’s capital. When the commodity finally reaches a store in Guangdong, the price of the fungus will have multiplied many times. Despite the slower economy and softer prices, some high-quality cordyceps in Shenzhen still retails for around $72 per gram, or $2,016 per ounce, surpassing the price of gold, which is around $1,340 per ounce. Much is at stake for cordyceps barons like Ma Jingguang, who posted photos of himself on social media as he departed Qinghai on a private jet, enjoying a cigar after filming an ad for his company. Even a local driver in Ma’s entourage in Qinghai owns an Audi convertible. For those who actually gather the fungus, like 51-year-old cordyceps picker Zhi Bula, every piece he finds is crucial to getting by. Zhi can earn up to 20,000 yuan ($2,888) each season, easily eclipsing his family’s annual farm income of 10,000 yuan. “I’ve a son who is a second-year student at Nanjing University,” he said. “The cordyceps earnings help.”
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9663
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Baby Deadline Test: Beat Your Biological Clock
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Tourists visiting a world heritage site in mountains west of Sydney were forced to take photos of a billboard showing “The Three Sisters” rock formation on Friday as smoke from bushfires blanketed the attraction.
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false
|
biological clock,disease mongering,infertility,Pregnancy
|
“The Three Sisters” in the Blue Mountains represent three sisters who, according to Aboriginal legend, were turned to stone. “It’s unbelievable. We were really looking forward to seeing the view and I’ve always wanted to see the Blue Mountains. Such a shame that when we came...,” English tourist Lewis Casey told Reuters. The Blue Mountains bushfires, which have been burning for weeks, have led to a sharp drop in tourist numbers which is hurting local businesses. “We’re all affected by the lack of tourists,” said small business owner Lynne Curan in the Blue Mountains. “I am doing about a third of what I would normally do at this time of year,” Curan added. “And I think that’s the same for everyone. No matter whether it’s retail, hotel, AirB&B, whatever, we’re all way down. Everyone’s canceled, no one’s coming up here and yeah, everyone’s suffering.” Deadly bushfires have destroyed more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) in five states since September, dwarfing the terrain burned by fierce fires in California during 2019. Australia’s environment minister estimated on Friday up to 30% of koalas may have died from bushfires on the New South Wales state’s mid-north coast. Firefighters fighting more than 100 bushfires are bracing for more “extreme heatwave conditions” early next week.
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8357
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U.S. health officials urge Americans to prepare for spread of coronavirus.
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday alerted Americans to begin preparing for the spread of coronavirus in the United States after infections surfaced in several more countries.
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true
|
Health News
|
The announcement signaled a change in tone for the Atlanta-based U.S. health agency, which had largely been focused on efforts to stop the virus from entering the country and quarantining individuals traveling from China. “The data over the past week about the spread in other countries has raised our level of concern and expectation that we are going to have community spread here,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the CDC’s head of respiratory diseases, told reporters on a conference call. What is not known, she said, is when it will arrive and how severe a U.S. outbreak might be. “Disruption to everyday life might be severe” and businesses, schools and families should begin having discussions about the possible impact from the spread of the virus, Messonnier cautioned. In a teleconference later on Tuesday, Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC’s principal deputy director, said that while the immediate risk in the United States was low, the current global situation suggested a pandemic was likely. “It’s not a question of if. It’s a question of when and how many people will be infected,” Schuchat said. In San Francisco, California’s fourth-largest city, officials declared a local emergency, despite having no coronavirus cases, in an effort to raise public awareness of the virus’ risks and boost preparedness. Separately, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar told a Senate subcommittee there will likely be more cases in the United States, and he asked lawmakers to approve $2.5 billion in funding to fight the outbreak after proposing cuts to the department’s budget. “While the immediate risk to individual members of the American public remains low, there is now community transmission in a number of countries, including outside of Asia, which is deeply concerning,” Azar said, adding that recent outbreaks in Iran and Italy were particularly worrying. Believed to have originated from illegal wildlife sold in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, the new coronavirus has infected some 80,000 people and killed close to 2,700 in China. Although the World Health Organization says the epidemic has peaked in China, coronavirus cases have surfaced in about 30 other countries, with some three dozen deaths reported, according to a Reuters tally. Growing outbreaks in Iran, Italy and South Korea have raised concerns that coronavirus will surface in other nations and worsen in those that have already reported infections, further denting a global economy that had already been hit by a dependence on China. Global and U.S. stock markets fell sharply again on Tuesday, as investors feared the epidemic would further damage an already slowing world economy. The White House’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said the U.S. economy would be able to ride out any disruption from the global spread of coronavirus, adding that he did not expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to blunt the disease’s economic impact. U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, however, said Republican President Donald Trump and his administration had been caught “flat-footed” and lacked a comprehensive plan to deal with the coronavirus. He called for at least $3.1 billion in additional funding to fight it. “The Trump administration has shown towering and dangerous incompetence when it comes to the coronavirus,” said Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat. “Mr. President, you need to get your act together now. This is a crisis.” Trump defended his administration’s response. “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus, including the very early closing of our borders to certain areas of the world,” Trump said on Twitter. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it would be at least a year before a coronavirus vaccine could be made available to the public. But Fauci said testing Gilead Sciences’ (GILD.O) antiviral drug remdesivir for potential treatment of coronavirus could be done in a “reasonable amount of time.” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that Iran may have covered up information about the spread of coronavirus there, and he accused China of mishandling the epidemic through its “censorship” of media and medical professionals. “The United States is deeply concerned by information indicating the Iranian regime may have suppressed vital details about the outbreak in that country,” Pompeo told reporters as Iran’s coronavirus death toll rose to 16. “All nations, including Iran, should tell the truth about the coronavirus and cooperate with international aid organizations,” Pompeo said. His remarks, coming less than two months after a short-lived U.S.-Iranian military clash and the signing of a U.S.-China trade deal, could inflame tensions with Tehran and Beijing. Beijing last week revoked the credentials of three Wall Street Journal correspondents over a column China said was racist. The United States has said it was considering a range of responses to their expulsion. “Expelling our journalists exposes once again the government’s issue that led to SARS and now the coronavirus: namely censorship. It can have deadly consequences,” Pompeo said, referring to the 2002-2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which also emerged from China. “If China permitted its own and foreign journalists and medical personnel to speak and investigate freely, Chinese officials and other nations would have been far better prepared to address the challenge” of coronavirus, he added. Despite the coronavirus epidemic, Pompeo said the United States still planned to host a special meeting with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Las Vegas in March.
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19179
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"Laurie Monnes Anderson ""voted to let violent criminals out of jail early."
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Did Laurie Monnes Anderson vote to let violent criminals out of jail early?
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true
|
Oregon, Criminal Justice, Crime, Voting Record, Oregon Senate Republicans (The Leadership Fund),
|
"Some legislative bills are so controversial that two, three years later they still serve as meaty fodder for political campaigns. House Bill 3508 from 2009 is just that bill and it’s playing a role in the race between state Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, and her Republican opponent, Gresham dentist Scott Hansen. The Leadership Fund, known as Senate Republicans, recently sent a mailer to voters in east Multnomah County, describing Monnes Anderson as friendly to violent criminals. ""Would you have voted to let violent criminals out of jail early? Senator Laurie Monnes Anderson did …"" reads one side of the mailer, which features corrections bars. The flip side explains in some detail how she voted to give ""criminals, some of them violent, a chance to get out of jail before they served their full sentences."" Did Monnes Anderson -- and other Democrats -- vote for legislation that let ""violent criminals"" out of prison early? Before they finished their prison time? And is giving ""violent criminals"" a chance to get out of prison earlier the same as voting to let them out earlier? PolitiFact Oregon set off sleuthing. To do that, we need to explain House Bill 3508. The legislation temporarily suspended most provisions of Measure 57, a drug and property offense sentencing measure approved by voters in 2008. The bill was expected to save the state $50 million over the two-year budget period at a time when lawmakers were trying to save the public safety budget from more reductions. We should note that House Bill 3508 cleared the Legislature with a few Republican votes -- but most Republicans strenuously opposed it, along with district attorneys and other victims’ advocates. Democrats and their allies, on the other side, called the changes a smarter, more efficient way to address crime. The part that matters for this fact check is that the legislation ""also increased earned, good-time credit for some nonviolent offenders, saving about $6.5 million,"" according to a news report from The Oregonian at the time. In other words, inmates eligible for a 20 percent reduction in prison time could be eligible for a 30 percent reduction should a judge agree, saving bed space and incarceration costs. We reported that only nonviolent offenders would be eligible because that’s how it was billed. (See press statement from Rep. Chip Shields, D-Portland.) But a few months later, The Oregonian published another news report showing that criminals with violent backgrounds had been granted early releaseas allowed by the law. From the news report: ""They include Troy Lee Hischar, who fired a bullet so close to his ex-girlfriend's skull that it clipped off a tuft of hair; Raul Peña-Jimenez, who gave a 16-year-old girl drugs and alcohol before sexually assaulting her; and Joseph Duane Betts, a convicted child molester who exposed himself to two boys."" Awful, right? But here’s something worth emphasizing: House Bill 3508 didn’t create a new category of inmates eligible to get ""out of jail early."" These inmates were eligible for a 20 percent reduction on some aspect of their sentence anyway, regardless of the violent or abusive nature of the crimes on their record. Peña-Jimenez, for example, ""plied a 16-year-old Aloha girl with alcohol and marijuana and sexually assaulted her several times, court records show. He later pleaded guilty to giving drugs to a minor and second-degree sex abuse in exchange for a 2-year, 7-month prison term."" Despite objections by prosecutors, according to The Oregonian, Peña-Jimenez, who was already approved for early release, was approved for extra time off -- 18 days -- under the new law. Democrats admit they made a mistake in that they listed some offenses that would be ineligible for the extra 10 percent time off, but not others. When lawmakers convened in February 2010, they approved Senate Bill 1007, which made more offenders ineligible for a further 10 percent reduction. Monnes Anderson and Senate Democrats referred us to state Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, chairman of Senate Judiciary. He called the oversight inadvertent and emphasized that the bill set up the possibility of early release, but did not guarantee it. He said that they fixed the problem. Not surprisingly, Republicans find his remarks irrelevant. ""Legislators are responsible for the outcomes of the bills they vote on, whether something is inadvertent or not,"" said Michael Gay, spokesman for The Leadership Fund. ""Criminals were released early because of a bill passed by the Legislature. If my family had been hurt directly because of that bill, I'd want to hold someone accountable, whether it was inadvertent or not."" The Oregon Anti-Crime Alliance opposed the legislation. Doug Harcleroad, a senior policy adviser with the group, said it’s OK to target Monnes Anderson with the language we’re checking. ""They should take responsibility for their votes,"" he said. ""You don’t get to walk away from your vote like that, and it’s fair to say in the political realm that this is what they voted for."" But Shannon Wight, associate director of the Partnership for Safety and Justice, an advocacy group that stresses prevention, takes the opposite view. ""They didn’t vote for the early release of prisoners,"" she said. The legislation ""allowed for the possibility of some prisoners to become eligible -- only eligible -- for an earned time increase … but this was not automatic."" Obviously, legislators voted for the bill hoping some offenders would get out early and save the state money. To date, more than 5,300 inmates have earned a 30 percent reduction in their sentence time and been released, including people sentenced for the first time after the law went into effect. Nearly 900 inmates were denied extra time off. The average number of days ""saved"" is around 50. PolitiFact Oregon generally finds that scare tactics -- for example, accusing a candidate of voting to ""cut"" Medicare -- are misleading. But we’re also guided in our ruling by the principle that legislators are responsible for the votes they take, unintended consequences and all. Monnes Anderson and other Democrats voted for legislation that offered early release to inmates, some of whom had committed ""violent"" crimes against another person. Senate Republicans’ statement about Monnes Anderson is accurate, but it needs additional information and clarification. In this case, the legislators realized the error and fixed it. The law also applied to inmates already eligible to get out early. We rule the statement ."
|
11031
|
Acupuncture May Ease Hot Flashes
|
Shares many of the same fundamental flaws as its HealthDay competitor:
|
false
|
WebMD,women's health
|
No discussion of cost. 10 weeks of acupuncture treatment – the course given in the study – ain’t chump change. The story told us that a five-point scale was used to measure the severity of symptoms. That’s better than the HealthDay story did. But only slightly better because the story never went on to tell us how much the scores dropped on that scale. So the story didn’t give any sense of the scope of the benefit, using just vague, nonspecific language – “significantly lower scores.” By saying “significantly lower” and never providing real numbers, the story leads readers to believe the evidence is definitive. Some readers may never even reach the bottom of the story. They will see the headline and the lead and assume that acupuncture may be right for them. No discussion of potential harms – only of benefits. The story started in the right direction by ending: “Because the study was small, the researchers say more investigation is needed but….” – and here comes the unchallenged claim – “…that their results seem promising, suggesting traditional Chinese acupuncture could be an alternative for women who are unable or unwilling to use hormone replacement therapy in the pursuit of relief of menopausal symptoms.” Among other things, the researchers admit they didn’t monitor long term relief. Maybe if the story had turned to an independent expert, the story would have scrutinized the limitations of the evidence more closely. But it didn’t. No overt disease mongering. No one was quoted. No independent expert evaluation. No discussion of other research in this field, including lots on acupuncture. No discussion of the availability of acupuncture. Picture a woman who’s just begun experiencing menopause and has never had any reason to think about acupuncture. She reads this story about Turkish research on Chinese acupuncture. Even if she’s interested, she is not given any clue about the availability of the approach in the U.S. No mention of any of the other research that has looked at acupuncture for menopausal symptoms. Just last year a significant review of 106 previous papers on acupuncture and menopausal symptoms found exactly no benefit from the treatment. It does appear that the story relied solely on a news release. Some of the language is nearly identical. For example: News release: “They suggest that the explanation for the reduced severity of hot flushes might be that acupuncture boosts the production of endorphins, which may stabilise the body’s temperature controls. The authors caution that their study was small and that they did not monitor how long symptom relief lasted, but they suggest that traditional Chinese acupuncture could be an alternative for those women unable or unwilling to use hormone replacement therapy to ease troublesome menopausal symptoms” Story: “The researchers say reduced severity of hot flashes may have occurred because acupuncture boosts production of endorphins, which may stabilize the temperature control system of the body. Because the study was small, the researchers say more investigation is needed but that their results seem promising, suggesting traditional Chinese acupuncture could be an alternative for women who are unable or unwilling to use hormone replacement therapy in the pursuit of relief of menopausal symptoms.”
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2828
|
Pluristem stem cell trial to treat muscle injury meets main goal.
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Pluristem Therapeutics Inc said results from its early/mid-stage clinical trial indicated its placenta-derived stem cells for the treatment of muscle injury were safe and provided evidence the cells might be effective in treating orthopedic injuries.
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true
|
Health News
|
“Patients treated with PLX-PAD had a greater improved change of maximal voluntary muscle contraction force than the placebo group,” Israel-based Pluristem said in a statement on Tuesday. The trial was conducted at the Orthopedic Clinic of the Charite University Medical School under the auspices of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute, Germany’s health authority. “This was a very important study not only for Pluristem but for the cell therapy industry in general,” Pluristem chief executive Zami Aberman said. “Based on these results, we intend to move forward with implementing our strategy towards using PLX cells in orthopedic indications and muscle trauma.” The injured muscle studied was the gluteus medius muscle in the buttock. Total hip replacement surgery via the standard transgluteal approach necessitates injury of the gluteus medius muscle, and post-operative healing is crucial for joint stability and function. “The study showed that PLX-PAD cells were safe and well tolerated,” the statement said. The primary efficacy endpoint of the study was the change in maximal voluntary isometric contraction force of the gluteal muscle six months after surgery. Efficacy was shown in two groups treated with the cells, with one group receiving a 150 million cell dose displaying a 500 percent improvement over the placebo group. Patients treated with a 300 million cell dose showed a 300 percent improvement over the placebo. An analysis of the gluteal muscle indicated an increase in muscle volume in those patients treated with PLX-PAD cells versus the placebo group.
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