A drunk crop duster pilot dumped four tons of manure over parts of Kansas.

Explanation: Did a ‘Drunk Crop Duster’ Pilot Dump 4 Tons of Manure over Kansas?

In December 2019, myriad Facebook posts shared an article claiming that a “drunk crop duster” pilot spread four tons of manure across Kansas:El Dorado, Kansas | An agricultural airplane pilot made a serious mistake this morning while operating his aircraft under the influence of alcohol, accidentally dumping his cargo of manure over cars, houses, and residents.According to the police report, 51-year old Barry Wood had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.48% when he was arrested, six times the legal limit allowed to drive a motor vehicle and 12 times the legal limit allowed to operate a plane … Residents of the city were taken off guard as tons of liquid manure started raining over the city, causing several car accidents and totally ruining an outdoor wedding ceremony.However, the article’s headline wasn’t very journalistic:SHIT FALLS FROM THE SKY IN KANSAS: DRUNK “CROP DUSTER” PLANE PILOT SPREADS 4 TONS OF MANURE OVER CITYIn one Facebook group where the link was shared, some commenters reacted to the “news” as if it were legitimate:“Make him clean it up. That ought to cure him of drinking”“He’s been a danger flying drunk for years! And the officials knew it! Let it go til it came to this! Thank God he didn’t kill anybody”It seems that those commenters did not scroll down to the bottom of the article from World News Daily Report, a satire site that has the following text in the footer of each page:World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle.The claim that a drunk crop duster pilot showered parts of Kansas with manure was fabricated for humor and social media shares — as were previous claims from the same site that a man was arrested for dressing up as an alien and abducting people, that another man got extensive plastic surgery to circumvent a restraining order, that yet another man got extensive cosmetic procedures to look more like Jesus, that a woman was jailed for leaving her kids in a car outside a buffet, and that a feminist was lauded for her twenty-seventh abortion.


Inspirational Internet postings recount the high and low points in the life of KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders.

Explanation: False. Not to cast doubt on Sanders’ achievements — which were real — but the Colonel himself did not live to be a billionaire. He sold off the U.S. portion of the business in 1964 for $2 million, and, according to the Washington Post, held a personal fortune valued at $3.5 million when he died at the age of 90 in 1980. The business he singlehandedly built, however, is now worth billions.

Glurge Gallery, colonel sanders, glurge, kentucky fried chicken

It’s no mere figure of speech to say that Colonel Harland Sanders (1890-1980), founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) fast food empire, was a legend in his own time. Images of the bespectacled, impeccably tailored, elderly southern gentleman grinning behind a white mustache and chin whiskers rival those of Marilyn Monroe and Che Guevara as icons of 20th-century pop culture. Famously, Sanders’ life had more ups and downs than the hero of a Dickens novel, making his success story all the more improbable. Born into poverty, he went to work at a very young age, picking up meager paychecks as a farmhand, a blacksmith, a soldier, railroad fireman, buggy painter, streetcar conductor, janitor, lawyer, insurance salesman, ferry operator, and countless other jobs before it ever even occurred to him to go into the restaurant business. Sanders played an active role in the creation of his own myth, churning out two separate autobiographies, Life As I Have Known It Has Been Finger-Lickin’ Good (1974) and The Autobiography of the Original Celebrity Chef (written in 1966, published in 2012). As the Colonel told it, his life story was more one of self discovery than a rags-to-riches tale: He was at an advanced age when he realized that making food was his thing, and at an even later age, he finally figured out how to get rich doing it. Predictably, the Internet invented its own abbreviated version of Colonel Sanders’ life story — actually, several versions, each with its own omissions and inaccuracies — distilling it into a timeline of losses and failures paving the way for eventual world domination (plus a moral statement, e.g., “You’re never too old, don’t give up trying!” — as if the point could have somehow escaped us):  At age 5 his Father died. At age 16 he quit school. At age 17 he had already lost four jobs. At age 18 he got married. Between ages 18 and 22, he was a railroad conductor and failed. He joined the army and washed out there. He applied for law school he was rejected. He became an insurance sales man and failed again. At age 19 he became a father. At age 20 his wife left him and took their baby daughter. He became a cook and dishwasher in a small cafe. He failed in an attempt to kidnap his own daughter, and eventually he convinced his wife to return home. At age 65 he retired. On the 1st day of retirement he received a cheque from the Government for $105. He felt that the Government was saying that he couldn’t provide for himself. He decided to commit suicide, it wasn’t worth living anymore; he had failed so much. He sat under a tree writing his will, but instead, he wrote what he would have accomplished with his life. He realised there was much more that he hadn’t done. There was one thing he could do better than anyone he knew. And that was how to cook. So he borrowed $87 against his cheque and bought and fried up some chicken using his recipe, and went door to door to sell them to his neighbours in Kentucky. Remember at age 65 he was ready to commit suicide. But at age 88 Colonel Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Empire was a billionaire. Moral of the story: Attitude. It’s never too late to start all over. MOST IMPORTANLY, IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR ATTITUDE. NEVER GIVE UP NO MATTER HOW HARD IT GETS. You have what it takes to be successful. Go for it and make a difference. With the caveat that even now some of the details of the Colonel’s life are in dispute (and it appears he wasn’t always the most reliable witness to the events of his own life ), we’ll take our best shot at verifying the accuracy of one of the Internet’s favorite memes: The Life of Colonel Harland Sanders. At age 5 his Father died. True. Harland Sanders was born in 1890. His father, Wilbert D. Sanders, died in 1895 when Harland was only five years old. (Some published sources say he was six, but the year of Wilbert’s death is listed on his tombstone, presumably accurately, as 1895.) At age 16 he quit school. False. He quit before that. According to Sanders himself, he dropped out of school just two weeks into the seventh grade, at the age of 13. At age 17 he had already lost four jobs. Roughly true. By his own account, Sanders had already held at least half a dozen jobs by the time he was 17. He didn’t “lose” them all, however. He was fired from his first job working as a farmhand at the age of 10, and received such a harsh upbraiding from his mother that he resolved never to let it happen again. Between then and the age of 18, he worked at several more farms, as a carriage painter in Indianapolis, as a streetcar conductor in New Albany, Indiana, as a U.S. Army soldier in Cuba, and in various capacities for the Southern Railroad. At age 18 he got married. True. Sanders married the first woman he fell in love with, Josephine King of Jasper, Alabama, in 1908. He was 18 years old. Between ages 18 and 22, he was a railroad conductor and failed. Partly true. Sanders worked for various railroads during the early years of his marriage, all the while studying law by mail (“I had an idea that someday I’d be another Clarence Darrow,” he later wrote) and jumping from one job to the next to stay employed. We’ve read two different versions of how he came to leave that industry. As Sanders told it, he decided he’d worked his last day on the railroad when he realized he could make more money settling the cases of workers injured in a rail accident than he could stoking steam engines, and embarked on a law career. Another source holds that he was fired from the Rock Island line after getting in a fistfight with a co-worker. In any case, it’s not precisely accurate to say he was altogether a “failure” in the railroad business. He joined the army and washed out there. Partly true. As noted above, Sanders did join the Army, served in Cuba, and was honorably discharged after six months (albeit, according to some accounts, because it was discovered he was underage). He applied for law school and was rejected. False. As noted above, Sanders studied law, but it was via correspondence courses, not in a physical law school. Apart from that, it doesn’t appear that he applied to or was rejected from any law schools. Some sources claim he acquired a law degree, though by his own account he did not. However, while taking courses he did practice law (of a sort) in a Justice of the Peace court in Little Rock, Arkansas: That move to Little Rock was a milestone in my life. I was there for three years studying law, reading the material La Salle sent me, and reading in the office of Judge Iscreed. When any of my cases had to go to a higher court, a court above the Justice of the Peace Court, if I didn’t win in the J.P. Court, I turned them over to the judge. He’d take them from there on in and we’d split the fee. It was a slim living, but I was getting by. Then, I decided I didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore. He became an insurance salesman and failed again. Partly true. When he tired of being what amounted to a paralegal, he took a job as a salesman with Prudential Life Insurance Company, and was so successful during his first year that he was promoted to an executive position. He later wrote that he stayed in the insurance business “for quite awhile,” although, according to Josh Ozersky in Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, Sanders was fired from Prudential and moved on to another insurance company in Louisville. At age 19 he became a father. True. Sanders’ first child, Margaret, was born on 29 March 1910, when he was 19 years old. His second child, Harland Jr., was born in 1912, and his third, Mildred, in 1919. At age 20 his wife left him and took their baby daughter. Unclear. In his 1974 autobiography, Life As I Have Known It Has Been Finger Lickin’ Good, Sanders relates an incident that occurred while he was still working on the railroad, around the age of 20, involving the departure of his wife with “the kids” (although he had only had one child by that age). It was summarized on the Great Indoorsman blog as follows: Sanders married Josephine King and started a family, but after his boss fired him for insubordination while he was on a trip, Josie stopped writing him letters. He then learned that Josie had left him, given away all their furniture and household goods, and taken the kids back to her parents’s home. Josie’s brother wrote Sanders a letter saying, “She had no business marryin’ a no-good fellow like you who can’t hold a job.” He became a cook and dishwasher in a small cafe. Undetermined. Given all the various jobs Harland Sanders held, it’s certainly possible, even probable, that he accepted work as a cook and a dishwasher, though we didn’t find a specific reference to it. He failed in an attempt to kidnap his own daughter, and eventually he convinced his wife to return home. Apparently roughly true. This is Sanders’ account of the denouement of the episode in which his wife, Josephine, left him with one (or more) of the kids, as summarized in the Great Indoorsman blog: Sanders went to Jasper, Alabama, where the Kings lived, and hid in the woods near his in-law’s house, planning to kidnap his children when they came out to play. When the kids failed to come outside, Sanders came out of the woods and talked with his father-in-law on the porch, then went inside and made peace with his wife. At age 65 he retired. False. By age 65, Sanders was the successful owner of a combo service station, motel, and cafe in Corbin, Kentucky, but the business started tanking when the nearby interstate highway was rerouted, so Sanders was forced to sell it off at a loss. He did not regard himself as retired, however. On the 1st day of retirement he received a check from the Government for $105. Partly true. Retired or not, Sanders himself said he began receiving Social Security checks at age 65 in the amount of $105 a month. He felt that the Government was saying that he couldn’t provide for himself. He decided to commit suicide, it wasn’t worth living anymore; he had failed so much. False. This is the most egregious falsehood in the Internet version of Sanders’ life story. For all his ups and downs, there is no evidence that he ever considered suicide or even experienced suicidal feelings. True, he was in a tough spot after being forced to sell the business he had built over the previous decades for pennies on the dollar, but he was not despondent. “If I hadn’t been 66 years old and had a $105 Social Security check coming in every month, I don’t know what I would have done,” he later wrote. “But for me it wasn’t a matter of giving up. It was just a problem of what to do next.” He sat under a tree writing his will, but instead, he wrote what he would have accomplished with his life. He realized there was much more that he hadn’t done. There was one thing he could do better than anyone he knew. And that was how to cook. So he borrowed $87 against his check and bought and fried up some chicken using his recipe, and went door to door to sell them to his neighbors in Kentucky. Vaguely true. He had not only perfected his signature fried chicken recipe (with its “blend of 11 herbs and spices”) before age 65, but had started licensing it, on a very small scale, to other restaurateurs. The epiphany that turned his life around was the realization that the recipe itself might be a gold mine. And it very quickly turned out to be just that, according to the Washington Post: It was not until 1956 that Col. Sanders began selling franchises for the fried chicken that brought him fame and fortune. By 1960, he had 400 outlets. Four years later, there were 900 Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets in the United States, Canada, England and Japan. Remember at age 65 he was ready to commit suicide. False, as noted above. He was down and out, but feisty and resourceful as ever. But at age 88 Colonel Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Empire was a billionaire.


Evidence shows Zika virus turns fetus brains to liquid.

Global News Service, Public Health, Bloggers,

A claim moving on the Web paints a horrific image of how the Zika virus can damage a fetus. "Evidence Shows Zika Virus Turns Fetus Brains to Liquid" blared the headline on the website Weekly Observer, which is based in England. At least two other websites ran similar stories April 3 and 4, 2016. The claim is completely wrong, and has the barest connection to any actual research. Seeing as it showed up in quick succession in Australia and the United Kingdom, we thought we should move quickly to squash it. The Weekly Observer piece has the gloss of authentic reporting. A recent study published by the New England Journal of Medicine shows that the Zika virus kills developing fetal brain cells. According to the doctors, the study was performed on a woman who got infected by the virus while she was 3 months pregnant. Her fetus was monitored through blood tests and MRIs, and the doctors watched as the baby’s brain was basically liquefied within 9 weeks. The woman underwent an abortion at 21 weeks. The Australia Network website was equally somber. In a (sic) recent research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers tracked the development of a foetus whose mother contracted the virus on a trip to Central America, when she was 3 months pregnant. The blood tests and the magnetic resonance images showed that the virus was slowly turning the baby’s brain into liquid over a course of nine weeks. At 21 weeks the woman aborted the foetus. The New England Journal of Medicine did publish an article on March 30, 2016, about a 33-year-old Finnish woman who was with her husband in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize in November 2015 when she was 11 weeks pregnant. Ultrasound examinations up until the 17th week of the pregnancy showed no abnormalities. That changed by the 19th week. Basic structures in the cranium were not as they should be. That combined with proof that the mother was infected with the Zika virus and a more detailed view using MRI led the parents to terminate the pregnancy at 21 weeks. An autopsy found Zika virus in the fetal brain tissue. Areas of the brain had dead cells and some that had begun to break down. But did the researchers say that the brain had been liquefied? "This is absolutely NOT what we said," wrote Adre du Plessis, one of the lead authors and director of the Fetal Medicine Institute at the Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C. A second author, Rita Drigger, a professor of gynecology and obstetrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, called the description a "false interpretation" of  the case. A third author, Olli Vapalahti at the Department of Virology at the University of Helsinki, Finland, told us some reporter might have misunderstood him during an interview. "I may have tried to explain -- perhaps in too simple terms -- that there was thinning of the cortex and enlargement of the ventricles in the brain, meaning that some of the brain tissue had been replaced by cerebrospinal fluid," Vapalahti said. "I can now see that this has emerged to some hype message which certainly I have not intended to deliver." In other words, it wasn’t that brain tissue was turned to liquid. Rather, space where brain cells would normally be found contained fluid instead. In a conference call with reporters on March 30, du Plessis said the main point of the article was to caution doctors and parents that an extremely small head might not be the sole indicator of brain damage associated with the Zika virus. In this case, the brain was small but the head was still within the normal range. "What this says is that the current criteria may be falsely reassuring," du Plessis said. Further, while the presence of the Zika virus in fetal brain tissue strongly indicated that the virus caused the harm, the researchers stopped short of saying this case proved a causal connection. Several news organizations, including the Washington Post, NBC News and Reuters, reported the story accurately. We reached out to the Weekly Observer and so far have not heard back. Our ruling The Weekly Observer and other websites said that researchers had found that the Zika virus turned a fetal brain into liquid. The Observer referred to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The three lead researchers for that study declared the Observer's version was wholly inaccurate. They found signs of dead brain cells and cerebrospinal fluid where it shouldn’t be. They never said that the virus liquefied brain cells. We rate this claim . Update (April 5, 2016): After we published, we heard from the staff of the Weekly Observer. Elise Bou Malham, chief content officer, emailed us, apologized for the mistake and explained that she had first seen the article on another website. "In no way was it meant to 'stir fears' or promote any false claims," Malham said. "We assure you the article was deleted as soon as we received your email. I offer my sincere apologies on behalf of the entire editorial team." While the article was not deleted, it was eventually updated. The new version reads. "Claims about Zika Virus Turning Fetus Brains to ‘Liquid’ Completely FALSE" It then explains its original error. "Earlier this week, The Weekly Observer aggregated an article from various sources online, saying that Zika Virus is responsible for turning Fetus brain into liquid. "The original article on Uproxx.com  ‘New Data Shows That The Zika Virus Can Turn Fetal Brain Into Liquid’, as well as several others, turned out to contain false claims as the study was misinterpreted by various sources."


States with "the highest gun ownership rates also have the highest suicide rates.

Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., who was gravely wounded in a 2011 mass shooting near Tucson, recently visited Virginia’s Capitol to push for tougher gun laws. She and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, launched a coalition that will seek "common-sense solutions" to gun violence in the state. High on its list is convincing a resistant General Assembly to close loopholes in Virginia’s background check law for prospective gun buyers. About a dozen community leaders and law-enforcement experts met with Giffords and Kelly to help set strategies. Among them was Mira Signer, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. She said the availability of guns poses special risks to those with mental disorders. States "that have the highest gun ownership also have the highest suicide rates," she said. "The evidence is there. We know that." We wondered whether Signer’s statement is correct. Signer told us her claim is based in part on a report called "The Truth About Guns and Suicide," published in September 2015 by the Brady Center & Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit advocating gun control. The report says, "Studies examining firearm ownership and suicide rates at the national, state and regional levels provide further evidence of the firearm-suicide connection. They show that suicide rates, both overall and by firearm, are higher in areas where gun ownership is more widespread." Footnotes in the report say the Brady Center’s statement is based on a series of studies by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center in Massachusetts - the last published in 2008. Researchers compared data that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention kept from 2000 to 2002 on the number of suicides in each state and the percentage of households in each state where at least one firearm was held. "Among men, among women, and in every age group (including children), states with the higher rates of household gun ownership had higher rates of firearm suicides and overall suicides," the researchers wrote in an article published by The New England Journal of Medicine. Back then Why rely today on statistics that are more than decade old? Researchers say they’re still the best numbers available. Every year, the CDC conducts an extensive health-risk poll with more than 250,000 U.S. adults that ‘s called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. It used to ask participants whether they had guns in their homes. With its huge sample, the results could be broken down to statistically reliable percentages of households with a gun in each state. The CDC, under congressional demands to stop researching gun issues, removed the question from the survey after 2004. Since then, no other poll has offered a reliable, detailed look at gun ownership rates in each state. The CDC surveys showed that the top three states for percentage of household gun ownership - Wyoming, Montana and Alaska - often ranked as the three states with the highest suicide rates. Roughly 60 percent of households held firearms in those states, much higher than the national median of 40 percent. Their suicide rates, according to other CDC data, hovered around 20 people per 100,000 - nearly double the national average of about 11 per 100,000. Conversely, the nine states with the lowest per-household gun ownership from 2001 to 2004 also had the nine lowest suicide rates. They were Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, California, Illinois and Maryland. Overall, the statistics show a distinct correlation between gun ownership and suicide rates in states. There are, of course, anomalies. Nevada, for example, ranked 36th in the percentage of households with guns from 2001 to 2004 but had fourth-highest suicide rate. Virginia, if you’re wondering, ranked 32nd in the percentage of household with guns and 34th in suicide rate during that period. Today Signer’s statement was made in present tense, so there’s an issue of whether these old findings remain relevant. The ranking of states based on suicide rates barely has changed over the years, according CDC data for 2013 - the latest final statistics available. Wyoming, Alaska and Montana still had the highest rates. So that leaves the problem on quantifying household gun ownership in each state without updated, exhaustive surveys from the CDC. YouGov, an international market research firm, conducted an Internet poll in 2013 that asked 4,622 U.S. adults to participate in an online survey that asked whether they owned guns. YouGov broke the numbers down by state and got results that broadly resembled the CDC figures. Columbia University researchers used those figures in a 2013 paper on the gun culture in states and regions around the U.S. Bindu Kalesan, the lead researcher, told us in an email that the numbers for many states have a high margin of error. Many analysts, in exploring a variety of gun issues, still cite the CDC state figures. David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, told us the numbers still are relevant. "Gun ownership levels across states hardly change over time," he said. "For example, the best predictors of whether you will own a gun is whether you grew up with guns and whether your neighbors are gun owners or not." These indicators, Hemenway said, "don’t switch back and forth." Hemenway sent us four studies from other researchers that also connected the presence of guns to high suicide rates. "It all makes sense psychologically," he said, "since so many suicides are pretty spontaneous with little planning and people use whatever is handy. The urge passes and people who have survived even serious suicide attempts rarely go on to kill themselves. The case fatality rate for guns is 90 percent, while the case fatality rate for the two most common forms of suicide attempts - pills and cutting - is under 3 percent." Our ruling Signer said states that have "the highest gun ownership rates also have the highest suicide rates." Exhaustive data collected by the CDC at the start of the century supports her statement. The three states with the highest percentage of household gun ownership - Alaska, Wyoming and Montana - also had the three highest suicide rates. The correlation between the availability of guns and suicide rates, while not as exact across the nation, certainly existed in most other states. The nine states with the lowest household gun rates also had the lowest suicide rates. The ranking of states by their suicide rates barely has changed over the years. But the CDC has stopped surveying gun ownership in states, and nothing nearly as reliable has filled the void. A much smaller poll conducted in 2013 suggests the ranking of states by the percentage of  homes with guns hasn’t changed much either. And there’s no shortage of researchers, past and present, who have concluded there is a strong link between the presence of guns and suicides. Editor's Note: An earlier headline on this story misspelled Signer's first name.


If the new coronavirus gets into your mouth, drinking water or other liquids will wash them down through the oesophagus. Once they’re in the stomach, the acid will kill the virus. If you don't drink enough water more regularly, the virus can enter your windpipes and into the lungs. If you have a runny nose and sputum, you have a common cold, not Covid-19. These are the symptoms for the common cold, but they don’t rule out Covid-19. Coronavirus pneumonia is a dry cough with no runny nose. Some Covid-19 patients do get pneumonia, and one of the symptoms is a dry cough. A runny nose doesn’t rule out Covid-19. This new virus is not heat-resistant and will be killed by a temperature of just 26/27 degrees. It hates the Sun. There’s no evidence for this. There’s evidence that similar viruses transmit less well in the heat, but many countries with reported Covid-19 cases are experiencing temperatures higher than this. If someone with the new coronavirus sneezes, it travels about 10 feet before it drops to the ground and is no longer airborne. How far the droplets spread from a sneeze depends on environmental factors, but it is likely to be several metres. If it drops on a metal surface it will live for at least 12 hours - so if you come into contact with any metal surface - wash your hands as soon as you can with a bacterial soap. We don’t know how long the virus survives on surfaces yet—it may be between hours and days. On fabric it can survive for 6-12 hours. normal laundry detergent will kill it. There’s no evidence yet that the virus can survive in clothing and be transmitted this way. Any soiled clothing should be thoroughly washed. Drinking warm water is effective for all viruses. Try not to drink liquids with ice. There’s no evidence that the temperature of liquids consumed can either protect you from or cure diseases caused by viruses. Wash your hands frequently as the virus can only live on your hands for 5-10 minutes. We don’t know how long the virus can last on the skin, especially not down to the minute. But you should regularly wash your hands. You should also gargle as a prevention. A simple solution of salt in warm water will suffice. There’s no evidence that this works as a preventative or a cure for the virus. The symptoms of Covid-19 are a sore throat lasting 3 or 4 days. The virus then blends into nasal fluid, enters the trachea and then the lungs causing pneumonia. With pneumonia comes high fever and difficulty breathing. The nasal congestion feels like you're drowning This is a roughly accurate description of the most common symptoms, although not everyone with Covid-19 gets pneumonia, and the symptoms may not come in this exact order or at these times. The NHS does not mention nasal congestion that ‘feels like drowning’ as a specific symptom for Covid-19. Claim 1 of 12


“People are starting to enter ERs with fungal lung infections from wearing masks!!

Explanation: A Facebook post claims people are checking into ERs due to fungal lung infections caused by wearing masks meant to prevent COVID-19. Regional, statewide and national emergency physician groups say they haven't seen any reports to support this. Health experts say there’s no evidence that wearing standard masks, such as surgical masks or ones made of fabric, is harmful to the general public. Experts recommend wearing face coverings to slow the coronavirus. They also say it’s important to wash your hands and to wash reusable masks regularly.

Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, California, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,

A widely-circulated Facebook post claims people are checking into emergency rooms with fungal lung infections due to wearing masks to prevent COVID-19. "People are starting to enter ERs with fungal lung infections from wearing masks!! Take breaks from your masks." The claim, posted on July 2, had been shared 16,000 times and viewed nearly 700,000 times over the past 24 hours. It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about PolitiFact California’s partnership with Facebook). With more states requiring face coverings in public settings, and lots of  claims spreading about masks, we wanted to know whether there’s any truth to this provocative statement. We set out on a fact check. Misinformation About Masks This is far from the first social media post to claim that wearing masks is harmful to your health. In June, PolitiFact National debunked the multi-part allegation that claimed wearing masks for the coronavirus "decreases oxygen intake, increases toxin inhalation, shuts down immune system" and "increases virus risk." It rated the claim . In May, PolitiFact rated  a similar claim that wearing a mask causes health problems, particularly from breathing in too much exhaled carbon dioxide. It found there’s no credible data to back that up. "Experts say prolonged use of N95 respirator masks can increase blood CO2 levels for people with breathing problems, but those masks are not recommended for the general public, and using ordinary cloth or surgical masks poses little or no risk from CO2," PolitiFact reported. Fungal Infections? With those fact checks in mind, we examined whether people are truly showing up at ERs with fungal lung infections due to wearing masks. We reached out to regional, statewide and national experts and found no supporting evidence. "Neither the chair of our emergency department nor the head of our infectious diseases division have seen that type of condition in a patient after an individual has been using a face mask," a spokesperson for UC Davis Health in Sacramento wrote in an email. After looking into the claim, Elena Lopez-Gusman, executive director of the California chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, called it "as suspected, ." Finally, the national American College of Emergency Physicians told us they’ve seen no evidence supporting the claim. "While we’ve heard some folks complain about irritation, we have not heard of reports of fungal infections stemming from masks," Maggie McGillick, a spokesperson for ACEP wrote in an email. "There are several professions where people wear masks for hours on end without issue." The College released a statement last week encouraging people to cover their face when in public. ‘Recycled breathing’ not a real danger Taking a closer look at the Facebook post in question, some commenters wondered whether wearing a mask for hours on end might be harmful, while wearing it for just a short while might not be. In an email, McGillick of ACEP addressed that concern: "There is not a real danger to breathing in your own air or ‘recycled breathing,’ nor is the idea of low oxygen or carbon dioxide buildup a concern. However, there could be risk from someone’s mask getting contaminated from others and then transferring that to your mouth/eyes/etc. when you touch your own mask." The spokesperson stressed that it’s important to avoid touching your face and to wash your hands before and after touching your mask. Some commenters on the Facebook post in question said they worried about the health effects of wearing masks. Yet others said they were skeptical of the claim given that doctors, nurses, mechanics and others wear masks for a prolonged period and don’t come down with fungal lung infections. One medical professional jumped into the comments with her own fact check: "It isn’t happening. I’m an ER nurse. This is not true at all." Sanitary Tips For Mask Wearing Earlier this month, the health information website MedicalNewsToday fact-checked a similar claim and found there "is no evidence indicating that masks increase the wearer’s risk of developing pneumonia or other bacterial, viral, or fungal lung infections." It also included guidance from leading health organizations for how to safely handle your mask. It found the World Health Organization acknowledges "that if a person wears the same mask for a long time, microorganisms may grow on the fabric." "All masks should be changed if wet or visibly soiled; a wet mask should not be worn for an extended period of time. ... Either discard the mask or place it in a sealable bag where it is kept until it can be washed and cleaned," the WHO advises. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends "that a person removes the face covering once they return home and washes it before using it again," the MedicalNewsToday article also noted. Our ruling A popular Facebook post alleges people are checking into ERs with fungal lung infections due to wearing masks to prevent the coronavirus. Regional, statewide and national emergency physicians groups said there’s no evidence to back up this claim. Medical experts recommend wearing face coverings to slow the transmission of COVID-19 and say the effects of wearing the coverings are not harmful. They also encourage people to wash their hands and their masks on a regular basis to avoid contamination. This claim about mask-wearing leading to fungal lung infections is bogus. We rated it . – The statement is not accurate.


Actress Martha Raye entertained troops and tended to wounded soldiers in the field in Vietnam.

Explanation: Actress Martha Raye entertained troops and tended to wounded soldiers in the field in Vietnam?

Entertainment, martha raye, uso, vietnam

Born Margaret Teresa Yvonne Reed in 1916, singer/actress/comedienne Martha Raye embarked on a show business career in early childhood, according to All Movie Guide: Born to a peripatetic vaudeville couple, Maggie Reed joined her parents’ act as soon as she learned to walk, stopping the show with an energetic rendition of “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate.” After touring in a double act with her brother Bud, she made her Broadway debut in the 1934 revue Calling All Stars, where she was billed for the first time as Martha Raye. While appearing as a singer/comedienne at Hollywood’s Trocadero, she was selected to appear in Paramount’s Rhythm on the Range (1936), in which she introduced her trademark song, “Mr. Paganini.” For the next four years she was Paramount’s favorite soubrette, overemphasizing her big mouth and gorgeous legs in a series of zany comedy roles. She also proved to be a convincing romantic lead for Bob Hope (a lifelong friend). During World War II, Martha Raye joined with actresses Carole Landis, Kay Francis, and Mitzi Mayfair to form a United Service Organizations (USO) troupe, performing shows — often under difficult and dangerous conditions — for U.S. soldiers across Europe, the South Pacific, and North Africa. (All four women later starred in Four Jills in a Jeep, a cinematic account of their wartime USO experience. ): Example:   [Collected via e-mail, December 2010] Did you know that Martha Raye was a full bird Col in Army Reserve? Many may be too young to have known the comedian, Martha Raye. She was a loud mouth actress/comedian from several years ago, much unlike the foul mouthed four letter word spewing comics of today. This is a little known fact about what she did, but truly a patriotic, good American by any standards. For going to Vietnam, Col. Raye was considered a “hawk”. Hollywood blacklisted her for more then ten years. Most of the old time entertainers were made out of a lot sterner stuff than today’s crop of activists and whiners. The following is from an Army Aviator friend who takes another trip down memory lane: It was just before Thanksgiving ’67 and we were ferrying dead and wounded from a large GRF west of Pleiku, Vietnam. We had run out of body bags by noon, so the Hook (CH-47 CHINOOK) was pretty rough in the back. All of a sudden, we heard a ‘take-charge’ woman’s voice in the rear. There was the singer and actress, Martha Raye, with a SF (Special Forces) beret and jungle fatigues, with subdued markings, helping the wounded into the Chinook, and carrying the dead aboard. ‘Maggie’ had been visiting her SF ‘heroes’ out ‘west’. We took off, short of fuel, and headed to the USAF hospital pad at Pleiku. As we all started unloading our sad pax’s, a ‘Smart-Ass’ USAF Captain said to Martha…. Ms Ray, with all these dead and wounded to process, there would not be time for your show! To all of our surprise, she pulled on her right collar and said… Captain, see this eagle? I am a full ‘Bird’ Colonel in the US Army Reserve, and on this is a ‘Caduceus’ which means I am a Nurse, with a surgical specialty…. now, take me to your wounded. He said, yes ma’am…. Follow me. Several times at the Army Field Hospital in Pleiku, she would ‘cover’ a surgical shift, giving a nurse a well-deserved break. Martha is the only woman buried in the SF (Special Forces) cemetery at Ft. Bragg. Raye performed a similar service for G.I.s in two more wars, entertaining thousands and thousands of troops at U.S. military bases in Korea in the early 1950s and in Vietnam from 1965 to 1973. She is fondly remembered by generations of service members not just for her tireless efforts in staging shows for U.S. soldiers all over the world, but for uncomplainingly enduring the same conditions they did and for going far beyond the role of an entertainer by tending to troops in the field, including working with medivac units in Vietnam to pick up wounded Americans and assist in field hospitals. For example, an October 1966 Associated Press article reported the following account: Comedienne Martha Raye, a front-line trouper for 24 years, changed her routine last week. She donned fatigues and worked for two days in an Army field dispensary, cleansing wounds, changing bandages and comforting GIs wounded in a Mekong Delta battle. The twangy-voiced brunette, who has gone from outpost to tiny outpost throughout Viet Nam to entertain American servicemen, sang, danced and ribbed the men of two Army aviation helicopter companies stationed in the Mekong Delta town of Soc Trang. The next morning, the chopper pilots and their crews delivered Vietnamese soldiers to the paddy fields and marshlands of the delta to charge the entrenched Viet Cong. As the first helicopters settled into the landing zones, they were met by intense fire. The landing zones were in the stronghold of a Viet Cong battalion. Additional troops were brought in, and in the battle that followed four American helicopters were shot down and 20 were damaged. American casualties began arriving by 8 a.m., at the small Soc Trang dispensary. Miss Raye, a former nurse, arrived about the same time, dressed in Army fatigues and volunteering for duty. “She worked all day — until 9 that night — doing everything she could,” one corpsman said. One of the first things she did was donate a pint of blood to a badly wounded sergeant. Then it was hour after hour of scrubbing and preparing the wounded for surgery, helping the surgeons, changing bandages, and cheering up men awaiting evacuation to field hospitals in Vung Tau or Saigon. Miss Raye’s show did not go on that night. The next morning she was back at the hospital in her stained fatigues, helping one doctor and eight corpsmen care for the patients. Shortly before noon, when the work eased, Miss Raye flew 80 miles north to Vinh Long and performed that night for another unit of Army chopper crews who fly Vietnamese troops into battle. “She did a lot for the morale of the men who’d been shot up, and she did a lot for ours, too,” said a corpsman at the dispensary. As recognition of her efforts on behalf of U.S. service members, Martha Raye was given several honorary military designations, including the honorary ranks of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps (leading to her being dubbed “Colonel Maggie” by troops in Vietnam). In 1993 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton for her service to her country, with a citation reading as follows: A talented performer whose career spans the better part of a century, Martha Raye has delighted audiences and uplifted spirits around the globe. She brought her tremendous comedic and musical skills to her work in film, stage, and television, helping to shape American entertainment. the great courage, kindness, and patriotism she showed in her many tours during World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam Conflict earned her the nickname ‘Colonel Maggie.’ The American people honor Martha Raye, a woman who has tirelessly used her gifts to benefit the lives of her fellow Americans. Her service to U.S. troops was also commemorated after her death in 1994 via her burial with military honors in the Post Cemetery at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, a singular honor for a civilian: Martha Raye’s exemplary service to the Army — including trips to Vietnam to entertain the Green Berets — earned her a funeral with military honors. Raye, who died in Los Angeles at age 78, requested several years [earlier] to be buried at Fort Bragg, home of the Green Berets. [S]he was to get her wish after a ceremony with a flag-draped casket and military pallbearers. Raye entertained troops in Vietnam for nine straight years, four months a year, spending much of the time with isolated Special Forces detachments in camps all over the country. Normally, only active duty and retired Army personnel are buried on post, but the Defense Department granted an exception for Raye, who was made an honorary lieutenant colonel in the Special Forces in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Martha Raye maintained in the late 1970s that she had been “blacklisted” from film and television work for her role in supporting American military efforts in Vietnam, but others have questioned whether that was really the case, pointing out that her film career had largely ended long before (she appeared in only two theatrical movies between the end of World War II and the 1970s: 1947’s Monsieur Verdoux and 1962’s Jumbo), that she made dozens of television appearances (both as herself and in character roles) during and immediately after the Vietnam War, and that many other entertainers performed for U.S. military personnel in Vietnam but experienced no decline in their employment prospects, and citing an overall paucity of film and television roles for actresses in their mid-50s and beyond as the likely cause for her difficulty in finding work in Hollywood in her later years. Additional information:


Explanation: Despite an incorrect headline and some overly effusive quotes, this story outperformed the competition from Reuters in presenting the findings from a very small but promising study into a new treatment for the most prevalent form of leukemia. The story broke down the science behind the study in clear terms, explored the side effects of the treatment and painted a realistic picture of the difficulties in translating these initial findings into a clinical therapy. We wish the story had avoided phrases such as “amazing success” and “absolutely dramatic,” even in quotes. Some of these descriptors were over-the-top compared to most of the content of the story. It declares “Gene Therapy Cures Adult Leukemia,” while in the story itself it says, “Doctors hate to declare a cure until patients have been cancer-free for at least five years.” As noted by both of the stories we reviewed, researchers have been trying to find a way to use genetically engineered cells to fight cancer for 20 years, making even a small study like this interesting news. Both stories sounded some cautionary notes, but WebMD did a better job overall of helping readers see that the study’s findings were promising but not proof that a cure for leukemia is around the corner. This makes the WebMD headline all the more unfortunate because the body of the story is full of much more specific and relevant information.

Unlike the Reuters story, this story did not discuss costs. The story described very well the specific experiences of the patients who were involved in the study. It showed how two were in full remission and one was in partial remission. But someone at WebMD has to take responsibility for that headline and the repeated reference to “cure”  that is bothersome. Even when the story finally comes around to asking “Is he cured?” it still fails to directly address the unknowns and uncertainties. “Cure” is such a loaded term – it is almost unhelpful in discussing such research. Even if investigators choose to use that term, journalists have an obligation to tackle the age-old baggage and consumer confusion that comes with it. This story started to try to do this, but fell short in our eyes. In a three-person study, it’s difficult to quantify harms or benefits beyond just describing what happened to each patient. The WebMD story, though, did a better job of presenting the very real side effects of the study, even showing that the treatments for the side effects may have hampered the effectiveness of the cancer therapy. “The treatment was not a walk in the park for patients. One of the three patients became so ill from the treatment that steroids were needed to relieve his symptoms. The steroid rescue may be why this patient had only a partial remission.” This story was superior to the Reuters story in evaluating the quality of the evidence. For example, it said right in lead that the study was only on three patients. It also provided more qualifiers for the findings than the Reuters story. It said, for example, “Although the CAR T cells in the study were designed to fight CLL, there’s good reason to hope they can be effective in other forms of cancer. The catch is that it can work only on tumor cells that carry markers flagging them for destruction. Normal cells that carry the same markers will also be destroyed.” Both stories could have used more outside sources. In each case, only one outside source was quoted. In the WebMD case, the outside source was overly effusive. In the Reuters case, the outside source did a better job tempering some of the enthusiasm of the authors with a realistic assessment of the treatment’s prospects. The story talked about bone marrow transplants, while the Reuters story made no mention of them. This was an important comparison for readers. “Cure is possible, but it requires a risky bone marrow transplant. About 20% of patients don’t survive this treatment — and even when they do, there’s only a 50-50 chance of a cure.” This story did a great job placing the findings into context and showing exactly why they have been found so promising by the study’s authors and other researchers. “All this has been done before. These genetically engineered cells are called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. They kill cancer in the test tube. But in humans, they die away before they do much damage to tumors. What’s new about the current treatment is the addition of a special signaling molecule called 4-1BB. This signal does several things: it gives CAR T cells more potent anti-tumor activity, and it somehow allows the cells to persist and multiply in patients’ bodies. Moreover, the signal does not call down the deadly all-out immune attack — the feared “cytokine storm” — that can do more harm than good.” The story went well beyond any news release, but one could argue that the extensive use of patient quotes taken from a university news release is not the best journalistic practice.


Chicago officials urge flu vaccine before peak season.

Explanation: Health officials in Chicago say it’s not too late to get a flu shot.

The Chicago Department of Public Health is hosting four flu clinics this week, offering free vaccines. The events are on Monday, Tuesday and Saturday. Details about the clinic locations and hours are available on the department’s web site. The department has a separate web page to find other flu clinics throughout the city. Acting commissioner Alison Arwady says the flu season typically peaks in January and February. She says getting a vaccine is the best protection against the flu. Officials recommend that everyone older than six months get a flu shot. The most vulnerable are pregnant women, young children, elderly adults and anyone with an existing health condition including asthma, diabetes and heart disease.


Study: New blood thinner works as well as Coumadin

Explanation: The story is based on a preliminary report presented at a scientific meeting. The results of the study in question have not been analyzed completely and have not been subjected to peer review. Although the study results appear to be good news, we really won’t know until the entire study is published. Sometimes journalists on deadline at a scientific conference with hundreds and hundreds of papers being presented may forget to remind readers that there are limitations to the conclusions that can be drawn from talks presented at meetings because they have not been published, the full data have not been released, and the work has not undergone the kind of full review that a journal would employ before publishing. These are all important caveats

The story provides some information on the cost of Coumadin and the recently approved Pradaxa. Although the price for Xarelto has not been set in the US, a quick check of the price in Canadian pharmacies could have been done easily. The cost to the consumer in Canada is about $9 a day as compared to about $0.50 a day for brand name Coumadin. (It took us seconds to find this online.) The story notes that rivaroxaban appeared to reduce the risk of stroke as well as did warfarin. While mentioning several harms that were not observed in this study of rivaroxaban reported on, the story neglected to inform us about any specific harms that were observed during the study of this drug. Although providing readers with the actual data comparing the risk of stroke or blood clot for coumadin and rivaroxaban, the story did not point out that the results of the study were presented at a meeting and have not yet been peer-reviewed. The important take-home message is that there are limitations about the conclusions that can be drawn from such meeting presentations. The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. The story quotes unaffiliated experts without apparent links to the company who provided useful information for readers. The story compared the new medication, rivaroxaban, with coumadin. It mentioned another blood thinner, Praddax, which has already won approval by the FDA. The story accurately indicated that rivaroxaban is currently not available in the US but is already in use in other countries. The story was clear about this being a second new drug that may be a suitable substitute for coumadin for certain people in certain situations. The story did not rely on a news release.


Blood-Pressure Drugs Linked to Birth Defects

Explanation: This article reports recent research results that indicate that the use of popular high blood pressure drugs called ACE inhibitors may, during the first trimester of pregnancy, increase the rate of birth defects from 2.6 per 100 to 7.1 per 100. Although ACE inhibitors have been used for 25 years, the potential risk to human fetuses during the first third of pregnancy had not been explicitly studied. The article would have been improved if it had included the fact that there may also be risks associated with not using ACE inhibitors for some women, such as those with congestive heart failure or diabetes. Overall, this story was very well written and reported.

There was no cost comparison for ACE inhibitors and the other medications that might be used in the management of hypertension. However, since the point of the story was to point out risks, not to promote further use, costs are less of an issue in this story. There was no quanitification of possible benefits to the mother for using this drug during the first trimester of pregnancy. In some women the risks of taking the drug may be less than the risk of undertreatment. The harms to the fetus of treating a mother with an ACE inhibitor during the first trimester of pregnancy are plainly mentioned. However the risks of NOT using ACE inhibitors in some women (congestive heart failure, diabetes) are not mentioned. This study was not done in a high risk group and the risks of undertreatment may be greater in some populations. So, for example, women with diabetes and renal dysfunction or those with congestive heart failure would have gotten an incomplete picture from the article. The article referred to the original retrospective study and where it could be found (New England Journal of Medicine). This article does not appear to disease monger. Although it does mention that these drugs ‘nearly tripled’ the rate of birth defects, it also attempted to lay out the numbers for what this really meant. But it botched the percentages. The story presents the rate of birth defects for women not taking blood pressure medication as 2.6%, though the data in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that there were 4 out of 202 infants born with birth defects in this group – which is 1.98%. The story mentioned that the rate of birth defects for those who had taken ACE inhibitors during the first trimester of pregnancy was 7.1%, though the journal article reported that there were 18 out of 209 in this group or a birth defect rate of 8.6%. The article did not note that the data reported on the rate of birth defects after ACE inhibitor use during the first trimester only. The sources of information appear to be the journal article, an author of the study and spokespersons from the FDA and its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. The article included a list of other medications that may be used to to lower blood pressure. However these suffer from the same lack of clinical testing of their safety for use in pregnant women. The story discussed the impact of pregnancy on blood pressure – lowering it for some women and raising it in others. It is clear from the story that ACE inhibitors are a class of drugs available since the early 1980s; they are commonly prescribed. It is clear from the story that ACE inhibitors have been used by pregnant women, and that “The number of women taking them early in pregnancy is unknown but probably is small, the study suggests.” There is no evidence that this story relied on a news release.


Explanation: This article looked at this issue through the positive short-term experiences of six individuals who opted for joint replacement in mid-life. They all seemed to be exuberantly active and have splendid outcomes after emerging from post-operative rehabilitation. The six recipients of artificial knees and hips were collectively able to engage in long-distance cycling, kite-boarding, motorcycling, yoga, pilates, strength training and basketball. One woman reported that her pain and limitations were completely gone. “I never imagined my life could be so wonderful,” she commented. Although several of the subjects were pushing the envelope in terms of stressing their implanted joints with high-impact activities, not a single one reported a problem, a complication, or a functional limitation when they returned to normal activity. In a country where more than half of adults are overweight, and almost half are completely sedentary, the joint replacement patients in the Wall St. Journal article are far from the norm. It is hard to imagine that these six individuals are representative of patients who opt for joint replacement in middle age across the United States. The story did attempt to balance the idealized view of joint replacement in the patient vignettes with cautionary notes from several surgeons. These invited experts pointed out that artificial joint recipients should avoid high-impact sports and that the durability of joints implanted in mid-life remains uncertain. Given the views of these experts, some tough questioning of the patients could have shown the reader that these individuals may be experiencing short-term benefits at the expense of long-term misery—if their implants ultimately fail. More references to scientific studies would have been welcome. The article never reported the overall success rate of knee and hip replacement in younger patients. Or the degree to which these procedures lead to an increased level of activity. It gave short shrift to one of the key questions about joint replacement in middle-age. In terms of pain, function, and adverse advents, what are the projected outcomes of the revision procedures that appear to be inevitable for surgeries performed at this age? And the article never got into the thorny question as to whether the surge in knee and hip replacement in younger patients might represent over-utilization of these surgical procedures—or at least premature use. A recent commentary in Arthritis Care & Research suggested that patients and their doctors in the United States rely excessively on analgesics and joint replacement to treat osteoarthritis of the knee and hip—and are under-utilizing evidence-based treatments, such as weight loss and exercise programs, that might delay these operations. (See Hunter et al., 2011). Reference: Hunter DJ et al., Quality of osteoarthritis management and the need for reform in the U.S., Arthritis Care & Research, 2011; 63(1): 31-38. Although knee and hip replacement have traditionally been employed in patients 65 and older, there has been a recent expansion in their utilization in younger patients, particularly those in their 40s and 50s. Since patients this age will likely require one or more revision procedures over the course of their lifetimes, this creates uncertainty about the long-term outcomes of knee and hip replacement in this population. There is also evidence that healthcare practitioners in the United States are not following evidence-based guidelines in the treatment of painful osteoarthritis of the knee and hip, particularly in its early stages. As a result, some patients may be undergoing joint replacement unnecessarily. (See Hunter et al., 2011). Given the “graying” of the general population, and the rising prevalence of painful OA, these are huge public health issues. The aging of the population means that society will have trouble paying for these procedures in older individuals. Paying for expanded use in large numbers of younger patients who will then face more expensive reoperations later in life is a daunting prospect.

The story specified the costs of both primary and revision knee replacement operations. The article did not adequately quantify the benefits of knee and hip replacement in terms of pain relief, function, or quality of life. It would have been useful, for instance, for readers to learn that in older patients roughly 90% of primary knee and hip replacement procedures result in significant pain relief and functional improvement—with low levels of complications. Younger patients might expect similar short-term outcomes but their long-term outcomes would be less predictable. (The story cited studies showing 85-90% of implants “still functioning well after 20 years” but that’s not a comment on pain relief and peoples’ functional improvement.) The article included only general references to the harms associated with knee and hip replacement. It did not specify rates of mortality, blood clotting, infection, and other potential adverse events associated with primary and revision knee and hip replacement operations. These are important issues in this age group since early joint replacement will likely involve more problematic revision procedures down the road. Detailing the complications and adverse events that can be expected in revision procedures would have helped balance the article. The article did not present specific outcome data on knee and hip replacement in younger patients—or discuss the quality of the studies in those age groups. The closest the article gets is the following: “Still, there are no long-term data on how any of the latest implants will fare in actual patients.” The key point that is missing is a detailed explanation that the data quoted on long-term outcomes come from studies of much older individuals. There is the distinct possibility that when implanted in the younger and more active individuals featured in the article, these devices won’t last nearly as long as the patients may have expected. This point needed more teeth to overcome the overly optimistic patient vignettes. The article discussed the expanding indications for knee and hip replacement. But there is no indication that this represents disease-mongering. The article included comments from several independent sources. It was not clear, however, whether any of the expert sources had conflicts of interest with implant manufacturers. Information on financial conflicts would have aided in the interpretation of their comments. Though several of the experts made comments that were intended to curb the enthusiasm expressed by the patients, it would have been helpful to know whether any of the physicians receive payments from device manufacturers—given the widespread conflicts-of-interest that have affected this field in recent years. The article did not discuss potential alternative treatments. This is a key question, since joint replacement has not traditionally been employed in this age group. Alternative therapies might include weight loss and other lifestyle interventions, exercise programs, activity modification, various medications, and other forms of surgery. This is where the article could have been much tougher. Are these younger individuals exchanging short-term benefits for long-term problems with failed joint replacements? Some tough questioning of the patients would have been interesting. Were they even aware that they had other treatment options? Many individuals employ lifestyle changes and exercise to cope with knee problems for many years—and preserve a reasonable quality of life. They might not experience the level of athletic performance demanded by the patients in this article. But in delaying joint replacement they may have better long-term treatment results. It’s clear from the story that knee and hip replacement are widely available across the United States. The article explained that the indications for joint replacement have been gradually expanding to include younger patients, among whom knee and hip replacement might previously have been a “novel” procedure. This story did not appear to rely on a press release.


Bread a culprit in Americans eating too much salt.

Explanation: Nine out of 10 American adults consume too much salt and the leading culprit is not potato chips or popcorn but slices of bread and dinner rolls, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

Bread basket is photographed in a shop in Warsaw February 7, 2012. REUTERS/Peter Andrews Forty-four percent of salt consumed can be linked to 10 types of foods, CDC said. Bread and rolls lead the list followed by cold cuts and cured meat, pizza, poultry, soups, sandwiches, cheese, pasta dishes, meat dishes and snacks such as pretzels and potato chips. Bread may not have much salt in a single serving, but when eaten several times a day can raise daily salt intake. A single slice of white bread could contain as many as 230 milligrams of salt, according to the CDC. High salt intake can raise blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease and stroke, the CDC said. The average American consumes 3,266 milligrams of salt daily, not counting salt added at the table, which is far above the recommended 2,300 milligrams, the CDC said. For six out of 10 Americans, including those who are over age 51 or have high blood pressure or diabetes, 1,500 milligrams is the recommended daily salt limit. Even foods that seem healthy such as cottage cheese may be high in salt, the agency reported. Even raw chicken and pork is often injected with salt. The CDC recommended eating more fruits and vegetables and carefully reading the labels on food products to find those with the lowest salt content. “Heart disease and stroke are leading causes of death in the United States and are largely dependent on the high rate of high blood pressure,” CDC Director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden told reporters in a telephone news conference Tuesday. One in three American adults has high blood pressure, he added. “One of the things that is driving blood pressure up is that most adults in this country eat or drink about twice the amount of sodium as is recommended,” Frieden said. “Most of that extra sodium comes from common grocery store and restaurant items and a very small proportion from the salt shaker at the table.”   Nearly two-thirds of the salt consumed by Americans is found in store products, 24.8 percent from restaurants and the remainder from other sources such as vending machines and the home salt shaker, the study found. Salt per calorie of food consumed was much higher at restaurants than from store-bought food, the CDC said. Frieden recommended that food producers and restaurants voluntarily reduce the amount of salt in their food. A 25-percent drop in the salt content of the top 10 sodium sources would save 28,000 lives a year, he added. It would also give consumers more choice, he said. “People can choose how much food to add at the table,” he said. “They can’t take it out once it’s there.”   The Grocery Manufacturer’s Association said that the food industry has been trying to reduce the salt content of thousands of products while keeping it tasty for consumers. “While progress is being made, reducing sodium in products without affecting the taste or consumer acceptance of products is no easy task,” the industry group said in a statement emailed to Reuters. The group said that challenges of reducing salt include finding substitutes for it that maintain the taste, and making sure that food safety standards are met because salt is a major preservative in many foods.


Jury Still Out on Radiation for Early Prostate Cancer

Explanation: This 750 word story provided readers with a good synopsis of the study results and did so in plain and straightforward terms providing definitions for the average reader. We liked the fact that the story linked the study results to a reasonable set of recommendations for men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer. News stories in recent years have so often breathlesslly promoted new radiation therapy approaches such as proton beam therapy and intensity modulated radiation therapy. It is important to bring the public reviews of the evidence that show “currently available evidence is insufficient to draw definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of radiation treatments for localized prostate cancer compared with no treatment or no initial treatment.”

The only discussion of cost was one phrase deep in the story – ” proton beam therapy in particular is expensive” – but that was it. Proton beam therapy and a related approach – intensity modulated radiation therapy – are being used more commonly and both are very expensive. Within a story that discusses the lack of evidence, cost certainly deserved more attention. The lack of evidence of benefit was clear in the story. The story did state: “Retrospective studies, however, found that radiation treatments were associated with increased urinary or bowel problems, compared with no treatment or no initial treatment.”  We wish it had provided more detail, but we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. The story made it clear that it was based on a systematic review of the literature. No disease mongering of prostate cancer. The story turned to Dr. Durado Brooks of the American Cancer Society for an independent perspective. The entire story was about a systematic review of studies comparing different doses of radiation and different types of radiation therapy – and whether any has been shown to be a better option than “watchful waiting.” Not applicable. The story didn’t explicitly address the availability of radiation facilities, but that wasn’t necessary. The story made clear that this is one in a series of federally funded studies on prostate cancer treatment options. The story did not rely solely on a news release.


Claims made in a widely-shared 2018 meme about the personal and family history of Congressman Beto O'Rourke are accurate.

Explanation: However, his part ownership of the Peppertree Square property (which does not appear to entail any management function in any of the businesses located there) did not accrue until 31 December 2012, more than six years after the conclusion of the I.R.S. reporting violations at Charlotte’s.

Democratic congressman Beto O’Rourke of Texas came to national prominence in 2018 through his high-profile campaign to unseat incumbent Republican U.S. senator Ted Cruz. During the course of his campaign, the Democratic candidate has been confronted with various claims and allegations about himself and his family. One such meme, entitled “‘Beto’ Reality Check,” was shared widely on Facebook in August 2018:  A spokesperson for O’Rourke’s campaign described the meme as “factually incorrect in countless ways” and largely referred us to several existing news reports about the allegations. The following is our breakdown of the five sections contained in the meme. The meme claimed: NOT HISPANIC “Robert O’Rourke” became “Beto” for his political campaigns and on the ballot, a tactic that gives the false impression he’s Latino, misleading voters in a state with many Hispanics. In fact, O’Rourke was known as “Beto” long before he entered political life, although his birth name is Robert and he appears to use both first names interchangeably. (For example, his July 2018 Federal Election Commission “Statement of Candidacy” lists his name as “Robert Beto O’Rourke.”) O’Rourke told CNN that his parents referred to him as Beto “from day one,” and that it “just stuck.” Others have noted that the name is likely derived from a pronunciation of the Spanish “Roberto,” and O’Rourke himself described it as “a nickname for Robert in El Paso.” (According to the U.S. Census Bureau, around 78 percent of El Paso county residents listed themselves as being of Mexican heritage in 2016.) O’Rourke’s family is of Irish heritage. According to the New York Times, his family “came over from Ireland four generations ago to work on the railroad.” His father Pat O’Rourke was a prominent El Paso County official during the 1980s. A 1986 article about Pat O’Rourke in the El Paso Times referred to his then 14-year-old son as “Beto O’Rourke.” In 1999, six years before O’Rourke ran for El Paso city council, the same newspaper referred to “web site designer Beto O’Rourke” in a short article about his I.T. business Stanton Street Design. After checking the archives of the El Paso Times, we found multiple references to “Beto O’Rourke” between 1986 and 2004, when O’Rourk was either a child or a businessman and had never run for political office. In March, the campaign of O’Rourke’s Republican opponent, Ted Cruz, launched a radio jingle that poked fun at the name “Beto” and included the following lyrics: “I remember reading stories/Liberal Robert wanted to fit in/So he changed his name to ‘Beto’/And hid it with a grin …”: FIRST LISTEN: our new 60-second statewide radio ad introducing our liberal opponent, Congressman Robert O’Rourke, to Texas voters. Help #KeepTexasRed: https://t.co/PVsiCtbbyL #CruzCrew #TXSen pic.twitter.com/OxK61gZ0ek — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 7, 2018  The next day, O’Rourke posted a photograph of himself as a young boy, wearing a sweater with the nickname “Beto” stitched into it, establishing that, contrary to false accusation, he did not “change his name” for political reasons: pic.twitter.com/1IO1dgmCkv — Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) March 7, 2018  The meme claimed: FELONY ARREST RECORD As an adult in his mid-20s, O’Rourke was caught breaking into the University of Texas El Paso. Charged with breaking and entering and burglary, he mysteriously avoided trial. A few years later, arrested for drunk driving, he again walked with a “deal.” Being the song of a powerful, politically connected County Judge apparently has benefits. O’Rourke dismisses his felony convictions as “youthful pranks” and “mistakes”; it’s old news, move along, nothing to see here. O’Rourke has indeed been arrested for burglary and drunk driving, a history which he has discussed several times over the course of his political career, as his spokesperson told us: “While charges were dismissed, this is something that Beto has always publicly addressed — during his initial run for the city council, his run for Congress, in profiles written about him, during dozens of interviews, and at town halls across the state during this campaign.” In a 27 August 2018 op-ed for the Houston Chronicle and  San Antonio Express-News, O’Rourke himself wrote: Twenty-three years ago I was arrested for attempted forcible entry after jumping a fence at the University of Texas at El Paso. I spent a night in the El Paso County Jail, was able to make bail the next day, and was released. Three years later, I was arrested for drunk driving — a far more serious mistake for which there is no excuse. According to El Paso county jail records, O’Rourke was arrested for attempted burglary on 19 May 1995, when he was 22 years old. He was released from custody the same day. Court records show that the prosecutor dropped the charge in February 1996. O’Rourke was also arrested for driving while intoxicated on 27 September 1998, the day after his 26th birthday. He completed a “misdemeanor diversion program” (namely “DWI school”) in October 1999, and the charge was dropped. In August 2018, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News cited police reports, including a witness account, which suggested that the incident leading to O’Rourke’s DWI arrest was relatively serious and involved a collision with another vehicle and a possible attempt by O’Rourke to leave the scene: State and local police reports obtained by the Chronicle and Express-News show that O’Rourke was driving drunk at what a witness called “a high rate of speed” in a 75 mph zone on Interstate 10 about a mile from the New Mexico border. He lost control and hit a truck, sending his car careening across the center median into oncoming lanes. The witness, who stopped at the scene, later told police that O’Rourke had tried to drive away from the scene. O’Rourke recorded a 0.136 and 0.134 on police breathalyzers, above a blood-alcohol level of 0.10, the state legal limit at the time. In the case of his DWI arrest, O’Rourke did not face prison time because he completed an alternative adjudication program. It’s not clear why the attempted burglary charge was dropped in 1996 (we asked the O’Rourke campaign about this but didn’t receive a response to that particular question in time for publication). However, we could find no evidence that O’Rourke’s father had any role in either case, nor did the meme offer any evidence. Congressman O’Rourke’s father Pat was the El Paso County judge until 1986 — a kind of chief executive of the county’s governing body, the Commissioners Court — so he had not held office for nine years by the time of his son’s attempted burglary arrest. The meme claimed: INSIDER TRADING VIOLATIONS After being sent a memo specifically prohibiting investment in Twitter’s IPO [initial public offering], O’Rourke made a tidy one-day profit on it. When uncovered by a government watchdog, he quickly turned himself in. This violation of the STOCK Act (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) is apparently a habit, as there are several other instances of this behavior; he characterizes them as mistakes. Despite the meme’s claim, O’Rourke has never been charged with, or convicted of, violating any laws related to insider trading, including the STOCK Act, which bars members of the U.S. Congress from benefiting from financial transactions made on the basis of information they received in their capacity as members of Congress. But this section of the meme does contain elements of truth in that — after the matter was brought to light by a third party — O’Rourke reported his potential violation of rules to the House Ethics Committee (for stock transactions he maintained were executed by his broker without his knowledge), and the matter was resolved without any charges being brought against him: U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke alerted the House Ethics Committee that he might have violated a new law restricting members of Congress from engaging in certain stock transactions. It is the first case to come before the committee involving a 2012 law that prohibits members of Congress from participating in initial public offerings, or IPOs, “other than what is available to members of the public generally,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Committee for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, a watchdog group. O’Rourke, a Democrat whose district covers a portion of western Texas, reported the possible violation after Legistorm, an online news site that tracks congressional issues, informed him that his Nov. 15 disclosure saying he participated in the Twitter IPO earlier in the month might indicate a violation of a 2012 law called the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act. The freshman congressman also reported that, through his stockbroker, he participated in six other initial public offerings this year. In an interview, O’Rourke said he didn’t see a Nov. 5 memo from the House Ethics Committee warning members of Congress about participating in IPOs. On 27 November 2013, O’Rourke wrote on Facebook that the ethics committee had informed him they would consider the issue resolved once he sold off any remaining shares that he bought during any IPOs, and sent the U.S. Treasury a check equal to the amount he earned in profits from those IPO-related shares: Upon receiving the letter from the Committee today I instructed my broker to sell all remaining shares, which he did. I then sent a check for the full amount of the profit from all IPO trades this year to the U.S. Treasury by overnight mail. Copies of the trades and the check have been sent to the Ethics Committee. I apologize to the House of Representatives and to the people I represent for not exercising due diligence. I will be much more thorough in the future concerning financial transactions and do my best to ensure that I am in full compliance with all rules covering members of Congress. Records filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives show that O’Rourke bought between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of shares in Twitter on 7 November 2013 (the first day the company was traded on the stock market), before selling off between $1,000 and $15,000 in shares later that day. Records also indicate that on 27 November 2013, O’Rourke again sold off between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of Twitter shares “pursuant to the recommendations made by House Ethics Committee in a letter from 11/27/13.” The meme claimed: FATHER’S DRUG SCANDAL O’Rourke’s father, while county judge, had a 2-way radio installed in his Jeep. Installers discovered a condom packed with a “white powder” concealed in his vehicle and called police. Much to the dismay of investigating officers, the Captain on duty, a friend and political ally of O’Rourke, flushed the evidence down the toilet and dropped the charges. The Captain was subsequently suspended and tried for tampering with evidence. This section of the meme relates to incidents which took place in 1983, when Beto O’Rourke was 10 years old, and which had absolutely nothing to do with him. Nevertheless, it’s true that in February 1983, El Paso County Sheriff’s Captain Willie Hill told two police officers to get rid of a condom full of white powder which they had found in Pat O’Rourke’s car while they were installing a radio in it. The officers suspected the powder to be heroin or cocaine, but the substance was never tested to determine its true nature. Hill was temporarily suspended but was reinstated after being acquitted on a misdemeanor charge of evidence tampering. (The prosecutor had earlier dropped a charge of misconduct against him.) Hill testified that he made a snap decision about the discovery of the powder, which he strongly suspected had been planted there to embarrass or undermine either O’Rourke or one of the officers installing the radio. O’Rourke and Hill were friends, as O’Rourke (then county judge) told the El Paso Times: “Because he’s a good man, it would be an injustice if Willie were to suffer grievous consequences from this whole episode. You have an honest and honorable man implicated by pure fluke. And that’s just damn right not fair.” The meme claimed: FAMILY BUSINESS FEDERALLY PROSECUTED O’Rourke’s family business “Charlotte’s Furniture,” a store “Beto,” his mother and sister are involved with, was charged in 2010 with altering records to avoid IRS reporting. Investigators found they accepted cash payments, in one instance over $630,000 from an unnamed individual (that’s a LOT of furniture)! Found guilty on 15 counts, the sentence was a $250,000 fine and 5 years’ probation. Around the time O’Rourke announced as a senate candidate, the business was shuttered and its records became unavailable. O’Rourke passes the prosecution off as a “mistake”; it’s been covered, move along, nothing to see here. The meme got the basic facts right about the federal tax case against Charlotte’s, but it falsely claimed that Congressman O’Rourke was personally “involved” in the company. He was not. In 2010, Charlotte’s Inc., an El Paso furniture store company started by O’Rourke’s grandmother in 1951, was convicted of “structuring transactions to evade reporting requirements, a tax-related felony. The company was charged as a corporate entity, but the Congressman’s mother, Melissa O’Rourke, acted as its authorized representative. The company pled guilty to accusations that it had restructured transactions in order to present relatively large cash payments as having been made in installments of less than $10,000. Anti-money laundering provisions of U.S. law require that a business reveal the identity of any individual who makes a cash payment above that threshold. In total, Charlotte’s and its employees illegally restructured $630,000 in payments, all from one customer, in this way between May 2005 and October 2006. The identity of that customer is not known. U.S. District Court judge Kathleen Cardone gave a sentence of five years’ probation and a $500,000 fine, with $250,000 of that suspended. In 2017, Melissa O’Rourke announced that she intended to close down the business but denied the decision was connected to her son’s U.S. Senate campaign or the 2010 conviction. According to Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts records for 2017, Congressman O’Rourke had no formal role with Charlotte’s Inc., whose directors were Melissa O’Rourke and the Congressman’s sister Charlotte O’Rourke. Records for 2005 and 2006 (when the I.R.S. reporting violations took place) as well as 2010 (when the conviction happened) show that Congressman O’Rourke had no formal role with the company at those times, either. The Congressman is part owner of the property where Charlotte’s was located. According to O’Rourke’s 2013 congressional financial disclosure, his mother gifted him an ownership stake worth between $1 million and $5 million in Peppertree Square, a shopping center on North Mesa St. in El Paso.


A major part" of the climate change bill sponsored by Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman "was essentially written by BP.

Explanation: McConnell says that Kerry-Lieberman climate bill 'essentially written by BP'

Environment, National, Climate Change, Corporations, Energy, Oil Spill, Mitch McConnell,

The ongoing oil spill caused by a damaged BP well in the Gulf of Mexico is bringing attention to the relationship between the oil conglomerate and politicians. On June 9, 2010, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., used a floor speech to link BP and a climate-change bill sponsored by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.  "The problem for Democrats is that debating the Democrat cap-and-trade bill might not fit neatly into the White House messaging plan, since it’s been widely reported that a major part of the Kerry-Lieberman bill was essentially written by BP. This is clearly an inconvenient fact: an administration that seems to spend most of its time coming up with new ways to show how angry it is with BP is pushing a proposal that BP helped write." McConnell touched on a lot of points in this excerpt, but the one that most interested us was whether "a major part of the Kerry-Lieberman bill was essentially written by BP." When we asked McConnell's office for evidence to support this charge, a spokesman provided us with links to several news reports. These stories -- published over the past few months in the Washington Post, in the Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill, and in the energy-and-environment trade publication Greenwire -- offer ample evidence that BP was involved in the long-running negotiations over the bill, and that the company spoke favorably about the measure as it was being drafted. The articles indicated that BP, along with Shell, ConocoPhillips and the Edison Electric Institute, would ultimately endorse the measure. In fact, one article specifically noted that BP CEO Tony Hayward -- not yet the internationally known face of the disaster -- gave a speech at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in March in which he "indicated he was encouraged" by the Kerry-Lieberman effort. Aides to Kerry and Lieberman do not dispute that BP was involved in the negotiations, along with many other parties. "The senators met with more than 60 of their colleagues and all involved stakeholders, including environmentalists, religious leaders and the business community," said Whitney Smith, a spokeswoman for Kerry. "The senators worked with a diverse set of colleagues and stakeholders to develop their discussion draft," added Lieberman spokesman Marshall Wittmann. "They met with the CEOs of Shell, BP and Conoco because their industry will be regulated under the bill and it was important to ensure that the bill's approach to transportation emissions would reduce oil dependence. They also met with members of the business and environmental community in an effort to ensure that the bill met all of their goals: to grow the economy, create jobs and clean our air." But it's one thing for a company's representatives to meet with Congressional aides, make the company's case and suggest that they may endorse a bill. It's another to actually write legislation. On this point, Kerry and Lieberman's offices are clear: "Senators, not any industry, wrote this proposal, and any suggestion to the contrary is  and politically motivated," said Smith, the spokeswoman for Kerry. Let's delve into the evidence. On March 24, Houston Chronicle energy blogger Tom Fowler reprinted a "discussion draft" by BP that advocated several policy positions related to hydraulic fracking. That's a technique that allows energy companies to unlock natural gas by injecting chemicals into underground reservoirs. Critics have suggested that the procedure risks tainting adjoining water supplies, and they have urged lawmakers to establish tight controls on the process. As reprinted in Fowler's blog, the "discussion draft" argued that "governments and industry have critical roles toward continuing to assure the public that hydraulic fracturing operations are effectively managed and regulated and that human health and the environment are protected." Among other things, the draft sought to maintain "the confidentiality of trade secret information." However, this language was not included in the draft bill that Kerry and Lieberman released a month later. Quite the opposite: The bill draft said that "a hydraulic fracturing service company shall disclose all chemical constituents used in a hydraulic fracturing operation to the public on the Internet in order to provide adequate information for the public and state and local authorities" -- a much more stringent standard than that sought by BP. It's also worth noting that the BP "discussion draft" was not even intended to be actual language in the bill. Rather, it was intended as language for a "Sense of the Senate" resolution, which, unlike the law itself, is not binding. BP also sought a federal pre-emption for automobile tailpipe emissions, said Jeremy Symons, senior vice president at the National Wildlife Federation. That means that BP wanted the federal government to set a universal standard for emissions, rather than having states set their own levels, which could allow some states -- especially California -- to set stricter limits. Such a policy has been a longstanding item on the industry's agenda for climate change regulation. In this case, too, the Kerry-Lieberman draft bill specifically maintained the right of states to set emissions limits, leaving BP's idea on the cutting-room floor. And BP and other players in the industry proposed increasing gasoline taxes at the pump rather than curbing vehicular emissions through a direct cap, said John Coqueyt, a legislative specialist with the Sierra Club, an environmental group. After making progress initially, this idea was abandoned in the Kerry-Lieberman draft, Coqueyt said. "On the one hand, BP did have substantial input into the Kerry bill," said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign at the Center for Auto Safety. BP, other oil companies, the Edison Electric Institute and other industry groups "submitted much language and many ideas. Some are probably recognizable in the current bill. ... But I don't think it is accurate to say that BP essentially wrote a major part of the bill." We agree. There's no question that BP, by taking a cooperative stance with Kerry and Lieberman rather than an adversarial one, had the opportunity to float its ideas during the legislative drafting process. And by dangling the possibility that the company might back the bill -- which would provide the senators with politically valuable support on a complicated and contentious bill -- BP and other energy companies wielded some leverage in the drafting process. In fact, many on the left -- not just conservatives like McConnell-- are disappointed that Kerry and other Democratic supporters of climate change legislation worked with oil companies, including BP, while crafting the bill. But saying that the senators listened to BP's case is not the same as saying that "a major part" of the bill "was essentially written by BP." In fact, looking at three BP-pushed initiatives that have come to light shows that none were included in the current draft of the bill, which suggests that the senators and their aides were hardly captive to BP. It may be revealing that one day after the statement we're checking, McConnell had toned down his description of BP's role. In a floor speech on June 10, 2010, McConnell said, "Some favor the Kerry-Lieberman cap-and-trade bill, a significant portion of which, by the way, has been pushed by the oil company BP." If he'd simply said "pushed" the day before, he would have been pretty close to being accurate. But McConnell went much further when he said that BP had "essentially written" a "major part" of the bill. We rule that claim by McConnell .


Hepatitis A confirmed at Redfield, Arkansas, diner.

Explanation: Health officials are again warning of a possible hepatitis A exposure after an employee at a central Arkansas diner tested positive for the disease.

Health, General News, Arkansas, Liver disease, Hepatitis

Arkansas Department of Health spokeswoman Meg Mirivel said Thursday that anyone who ate at the J Mart Diner in Redfield, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Little Rock, between July 17 and August 2 should seek vaccination for the virus. The health department will have free vaccinations available Friday at the Grant and Jefferson County local health units until 6 p.m. Northeast Arkansas has been battling an unusually severe hepatitis A outbreak with 393 cases reported in that part of the state since February 2018. Hepatitis A is a contagious and potentially fatal, but treatable, liver disease. Symptoms include fever, nausea, fatigue, and jaundice.