Several major brands of lipstick contain dangerous levels of cancer-causing lead which can be detected with a gold ring.

Explanation: Lipstick and Lead: Questions and Answers (U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Medical, beauty products, Contaminated Products, cosmetics

This terrifying warning about danger lurking in lipstick began frightening the makeup-wearing public in May 2003, even as it apparently offered them a way to protect themselves from dangerous products via a simple test which could supposedly identify a threat to their wellbeing: Example: [Collected via e-mail, July 2003] This is how to test Lipstick for “Lead”, lead is a chemical which causes cancer. Recently a brand called, “Red Earth” decreased their prices from HK$67 to HK$9.90. It contains lead.Brands which contain Lead 1. Christian Dior 4 2. LANCOME 2 3. CLINIQUE 2 4. Y.S.L 5 5. ESTEE LAUDER 3 6. SHISEIDO 2 7. RED EARTH (Lip Gloss) 2 8. CHANEL (Lip Conditioner) 2 9. Market America-Motives lipstick 0 The higher the number of lead the higher the content which means a greater chance of causing Cancer. After doing this test, we found Y.S.L. lipstick to contain the most lead. It is not easy to “REMOVE” because of the lead. Watch out for those lipsticks which are suppose to stay longer Here is the test you can do yourself: 1. Put some lipstick on your hand, 2. Use a 24k-14k Gold ring to scratch on the lipstick. 3. If the lipstick color changes to black then you know the lipstick contains lead. Please send this information to all your girl friends. Lead may not necessarily cause cancer, but it most assuredly is an element dangerous to humans; one they should make every effort to distance themselves from. Exposure to lead can cause a range of deleterious health effects, from behavioral problems and learning disabilities to seizures and death. Children 6 years old and under are most at risk because their bodies are growing quickly, thus additional care has to be taken to protect them from exposure to this common element. In the past, many house paints were lead-based and the solder commonly used on plumbing joints contained lead, bringing this killer into numerous unsuspecting households. But lead awareness has improved in recent years, as have regulations restricting the use of lead in goods or products average consumers might have contact with. In this respect, our houses today are far safer than those of our parents and grandparents. But what about the presence of lead in cosmetics? Although many dangerous substances (including lead) have been utilized as ingredients at various times in the history of makeup, and some women of earlier days caused themselves life-long health problems (or even managed to kill themselves) with beautifiers that amounted to death in a jar, what goes into cosmetics these days is much more regulated, controlled, and fully understood. While in the past anything and everything got tossed into the paintbox without anyone’s knowing what could cause harm and what was safe to use, our modern world at least has safer cosmetics going for it. We spoke with a compliance officer at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about the possibility of lead being present in lipsticks. All dyes used in foodstuffs or cosmetics have to be vetted by the FDA for safety, and although some of the colorants the FDA grants approval to do contain lead, it is present in such miniscule amounts that it has no adverse effects on consumers. Manufacturers who wish to do business in the USA are restricted to the use of FDA-certifiable colors only; otherwise their products will not be allowed in the country or onto the shelves of American stores. Each of these approved dyes has its own rigid set of specifications which must be adhered to. For instance, F&C Red #6 cannot contain more than 20 parts per million of lead (also not more than 3 parts per million of arsenic or 1 part per million of mercury). As for how stringent these requirements are, every time a manufacturer prepares a batch of dye for use in its products, it has to submit a sample from that batch to the FDA for certification. The FDA’s certification process is exhaustive and exhausting. And only the FDA can certify colors as safe — no one else has that authority. The FDA further regulates the selection of dyes manufacturers can incorporate into their products according to the proposed end uses of the items in question. Thus, products intended for use on mucous membranes can contain only certain FDA-approved dyes rather than drawing from the full spectrum of approved dyes. Because the lips are considered mucous membranes, lipstick manufacturers may make their colorant selections only from this reduced pool. Occasionally, small-scale studies (such as one in 2006 and another in 2007) report detecting amounts of lead that exceed the FDA limits for candy (0.1 PPM) in some brands of lipstick, resulting in news reports with alarming headlines such as “Lipstick Found to Contain Hazardous Levels of Lead!” The comparison with candy is made because the FDA has not yet issued specific standards for lead content in lipstick (and so news or consumer watchdog associations choose sweets as a comparison product), but this match up is not an apt one: people eat whole pieces of candy; they don’t merely smear their lips with thin coatings of it. Also, unlike candy, lipstick is rarely eaten by the bagful. It therefore goes without saying that regulatory standards governing the lead content of items we eat (sometimes in great quantity) must be far more restrictive than those governing items that take us years to go through. (And no, there’s no truth to the old saw about the average woman’s swallowing six pounds of lipstick during her lifetime.) A December 2011 study conducted by the FDA found the average lead concentration in the 400 lipsticks it tested for that substance was 1.11 ppm, with results ranging from the detection limit of 0.026 ppm to the highest value of 7.19 ppm. The FDA said regarding safety concerns about the lead levels it found in lipsticks: “We have assessed the potential for harm to consumers from use of lipstick containing lead at the levels found in both rounds of testing. Lipstick, as a product intended for topical use with limited absorption, is ingested only in very small quantities. We do not consider the lead levels we found in the lipsticks to be a safety concern. The lead levels we found are within the limits recommended by other public health authorities for lead in cosmetics, including lipstick.” Likewise, a research study conducted in 2013 by UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health found that lead was present in 24 of the 32 lipstick samples they tested, but at levels that were within safety guidelines (estimated lead intake for the product with the highest lead concentration was between 3% and 12% of the acceptable daily intake). The cited FDA limit of 0.1 ppm is for lead in “candy likely to be consumed frequently by small children,” but lipstick is rarely used by small children (who are much more susceptible to contaminants such as lead) at all, let alone frequently. Finally, until very recently the FDA limits for lead in candy were five times higher than they are now. This puts the amounts of lead found in that 2007 examination of lipsticks into a bit better perspective: In 2006 the FDA limit on lead in candy meant for children was 0.5 ppm, and the highest amounts of lead in lipstick uncovered by The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in 2007 were 0.65 ppm, followed by 0.58 ppm and 0.56 ppm, with all other lipsticks it examined falling well below the 0.5 ppm mark (4th in line was 0.28 ppm). The FDA said about the reasonableness of comparing lead levels found in lipstick to the limit established for candy that: ” The FDA-recommended upper limit for lead in candy is 0.1 ppm. It is not scientifically valid to equate the risk to consumers presented by lead levels in candy, a product intended for ingestion, with that associated with lead levels in lipstick, a product intended for topical use and ingested in much smaller quantities than candy.” As to what the limit on lead in lipstick should be, a 25 July 1990 Cosmetics, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association memo about the use of “carbon black” in cosmetics noted: “CTFA has proposed that residues of lead and arsenic be limited to a maximum of 20 ppm and 2 ppm, respectively,” which is 100 to 50 times the level discovered in reports about lead found in lipstick. (Now, granted, that CTFA proposal had to do with a particular component of the cosmetic rather than the whole of the product itself. But even so, it’s reasonable to conclude the amount of lead in those lead-bearing lipsticks fell well within the broad range of what the FDA considers innocuous.) Despite initial inability to see the resultant streaks, further tests conducted under strong light by rubbing various metals across lipstick smears made on sheets of white paper produced dark brown marks. Rubs of pewter, copper, silver, and gold across samples drawn from three Revlon Colorstay Lipcolors left dark streaks in their wakes; rubs of stainless steel did not. Even coins produced reactions, with dimes and nickels leaving discernable streaks, although pennies did not. (Which is not all that surprising, given the reaction to copper noted above. Pennies are 2.5% copper and 97.5% zinc; nickels are 75% copper and 25% nickel, and dimes are 91.67% copper and 8.33% nickel.) All reactions were more noticeable against streaks of lighter-colored lipstick. Yet the interests of science carried me further, especially after a call to Revlon failed to yield anything that would help explain what component of the cosmetic was reacting to those metals. Remembering that lipstick is (at its most basic) oil, wax, and color, I rubbed the four metals across swipes of wax made on white paper, and again saw dark streaks, albeit gray ones. Curiosity then inspired me to make yet another test with the four metals, this time against plain white paper. And once again, the gray streaks were there. The streaks that supposedly herald the presence of lead in one’s lipstick are in reality dark marks produced by the testing agents themselves. Gold, silver, copper, and pewter leave these trails no matter what they’re rubbed against, in the same way that pencils make marks on whatever surfaces they are trailed along. That these marks appear more prominent against a lipstick backdrop is attributable to contrast — streaks that look gray against a white background seem brown against a reddish background, and brown is a color more readily discerned by the eye. The bottom line is that U.S. medical literature has yet to record a single case of anyone’s coming down with lead poisoning through lipstick use. (And, in any case, contrary to what is claimed in the alarming e-mail quoted above, contracting cancer is not one of the recorded adverse health effects one is likely to suffer through excessive exposure to lead.) Of course, all of this information applies to lipstick legally produced and sold in the U.S. When it comes to unauthorized imports and counterfeit cosmetics that evade the scrutiny of government regulatory agencies, all bets are off. Additional information: Tips to Prevent Lead Exposure (Center for Disease Control)


Beijing quarantines returning residents as China struggles to pick up economy.

Explanation: People returning to the Chinese capital Beijing from extended holidays on Friday were ordered to undergo a 14-day self-quarantine to help prevent spread of the new coronavirus, as hard-hit Hubei province reported more than 2,400 new cases.

The official Beijing Daily newspaper said people failing to obey would be punished but it was not immediately clear how that would be enforced, or whether the restrictions would apply to non-residents of Beijing or foreigners arriving from abroad. “From now on, all those who have returned to Beijing should stay at home or submit to group observation for 14 days after arriving,” read the notice from Beijing’s virus prevention working group cited by the Beijing Daily. “Those who refuse to accept home or centralized observation and other prevention and control measures will be held accountable under law,” it said. Stricter containment measures were planned elsewhere as well. Honghu city in Hubei province imposed a “wartime” lock-down beginning on Friday, with strict management of entry into housing compounds and villages, according to an official social media account of the local police, China’s CCTV reported. Hubei officials said there were 2,420 new cases on Friday and 139 more deaths. A top Chinese official, in an interview with Reuters, acknowledged that coronavirus was a huge challenge, but defended Beijing’s management of the epidemic and lashed out at the “overreaction” of some countries. State Councillor Wang Yi, who also serves as China’s foreign minister, said China has taken decisive measures to fight the epidemic, many going beyond international health regulations and World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. “Through our efforts the epidemic is overall under control,” he said. China is struggling to get the world’s second largest economy going after the annual Lunar New Year holiday, which was extended by 10 days to help contain the highly contagious virus. Including the latest numbers from Hubei at the epicenter of the outbreak, the total number of cases in mainland China now exceeds 66,000, with more than 1,500 deaths. The figures show no sign that the outbreak is nearing a peak, said Adam Kamradt-Scott, an infectious diseases expert at the Center for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney. With 500 million people already affected by movement and travel restrictions, President Xi Jinping warned top officials last week that efforts to contain the virus had gone too far and were threatening the economy, sources said. In Beijing and the business hub Shanghai, streets and subways remain largely deserted with many shops and restaurants empty or shut. Government employee Jin Yang, 28, made it to his Beijing office and found it “anything but normal.”  Canteen lunches are banned in favor of boxed meals eaten at desks. Meetings are held online, not in person. Employees must wear masks all day and report their temperature twice a day as fever is one of the virus’ main symptoms. Outside mainland China, there have been nearly 450 cases in some 24 countries and territories, and three deaths. Japan confirmed its first coronavirus death on Thursday. One person has died in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines. WUHAN’S SELF-HELP  Wuhan, the central Chinese city of 11 million people where the outbreak began, has been hardest hit by the virus. With all public transport, taxis and ride-hailing services shut down in the city, volunteer drivers are responding to requests on ad hoc messaging groups to ferry medical staff and others in vital jobs to and from work, risking their own health. Others work round the clock to find accommodation for medical workers in hotels that have volunteered rooms. Graphic: Comparing new coronavirus to SARS and MERS - here  “Everyone in our group has such a strong sense of mission,” said 53-year-old Chen Hui, who runs one of the ad hoc ride services. The virus is killing around 2% of those infected, but has spread faster than other respiratory viruses that emerged this century. A WHO-led joint mission with China will start its outbreak investigation work this weekend, focusing on how the new coronavirus is spreading and its severity, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. The mission will also seek more details on how, where and when the more than 1,700 healthworkers infected contracted the new virus, WHO officials said. The mission will also look into what “information is needed so that the world can use this window of opportunity to prepare health systems and workers for possible outbreaks,” Tedros said. Economists polled by Reuters said China’s economic downturn would be short-lived if the outbreak was contained, but expected this quarter would show China’s slowest growth rate since the global financial crisis. The Chinese carmakers’ association said auto sales in China were likely to slide more than 10% in the first half of the year because of the epidemic. Vietnam has imposed a 20-day quarantine on Son Loi, a rural community outside Hanoi where 11 of the country’s 16 coronavirus cases are located, two local officials said. The virus is taking its toll on the $46 billion global ocean cruise industry. The biggest cluster of infections outside China has been on a cruise liner quarantined in a Japanese port, with 218 people on board infected and taken to hospital. On Friday, some passengers were allowed to disembark to complete their quarantine on shore.


In 2009's H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic, 1.4 billion people were sickened globally, and nearly 600,000 died.

Explanation: Did H1N1 Infect 1.4 Billion People and Kill Nearly 600,000 Worldwide?

Under “tweets that didn’t age well,” on April 2 2020 pundit Bill Mitchell criticized measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 — claiming that the 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic infected 1.4 billion people worldwide and killed almost 600,000:BREAKING NEWS:COVID-19 just surpassed 1 million cases worldwide. Only 1,399,000,000 cases to go until it matches the 1.4 billion cases of H1N1 in 2009. 51,560 deaths and only 525,000 to go to match H1N1.I am sure am glad we wrecked the economy over this, aren't you?— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) April 2, 2020Mitchell tacked on a claim that “we wrecked the economy” over COVID-19, implying that economic downturns were avoidable without social distancing — which is an opinion that is not necessarily grounded in any facts.The TweetHe said:BREAKING NEWS:COVID-19 just surpassed 1 million cases worldwide. Only 1,399,000,000 cases to go until it matches the 1.4 billion cases of H1N1 in 2009. 51,560 deaths and only 525,000 to go to match H1N1.I am sure am glad we wrecked the economy over this, aren’t you?According to Mitchell, a total 1.4 billion people were infected during the H1N1 pandemic, and 576,560 (525,000 + 51,560) people died globally during the swine flu pandemic.Actual NumbersMitchell didn’t provide a citation for his sources in the April 2 2020 tweet above, but the 1.4 billion statistic (and a similar mortality figure) appeared in a March 18 2020 LiveScience article:It’s been a little over a decade since the world experienced its last pandemic, the 2009 H1N1 swine flu. Between the spring of 2009 and the spring of 2010, the virus infected as many as 1.4 billion people across the globe and killed between 151,700 and 575,400 people, according to the Centers for Disease Protection and Control. Now, the world is in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by a novel coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2.The context of that reporting was relevant. Although Mitchell claimed that there were “1.4 billion cases of H1N1 in 2009” and just under 600,000 deaths, LiveScience included ranges for both:Reference to “as many as” and “between” alluded to a range of estimates, and Mitchell sifted out the absolute highest numbers to attempt to make his point.But even that short excerpt contained additional context — namely, that those figures were compiled well after the H1N1 pandemic had ended. Comparing rates of infections and deaths at the beginning of a pandemic versus years after one ends is obviously going to yield misleading and unsteady comparisons, since as of April 2 2020, a large number of people had yet to fall ill with or die from COVID-19.LiveScience.com cited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its statistic, and linked to this page (“2009 H1N1 Pandemic.”) The number 1.4 billion does not appear anywhere on that page, and the statistic appears to have been extrapolated from either this portion:Though the 2009 flu pandemic primarily affected children and young and middle-aged adults, the impact of the (H1N1)pdm09 virus on the global population during the first year was less severe than that of previous pandemics. Estimates of pandemic influenza mortality ranged from 0.03 percent of the world’s population during the 1968 H3N2 pandemic to 1 percent to 3 percent of the world’s population during the 1918 H1N1 pandemic. It is estimated that 0.001 percent to 0.007 percent of the world’s population died of respiratory complications associated with (H1N1)pdm09 virus infection during the first 12 months the virus circulated.Or from 2013 estimates that one in five people globally had contracted H1N1 in 2009 and 2010:The study, which used data from 19 countries, collated results from more than 24 studies involving some 90,000 blood samples collected before, during and after the pandemic. The results, published in the journal Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, showed 20 to 27 percent of people studied were infected during the first year of the pandemic.Once again, those figures were the high end of a range, and estimated.Interim COVID-19 Infections and DeathsIncidentally, 22 days after Mitchell’s tweet, on April 24 2020, nearly 200,000 people worldwide had died of COVID-19 (and more than 50 thousand of those deaths were in the United States):Does the United States Have 4 Percent of the World’s Population and 25 Percent of the Deaths from COVID-19?Cherry picking in the same fashion Mitchell did could, for instance, support the argument that as of April 24 2020, more people died of COVID-19 early in the pandemic than had died in the lower range of estimates for the totality of the H1N1/swine flu pandemic (151,700).Pandemics and Wide Estimated RangesOn April 23 2020, we examined a different pandemic comparison on Twitter, and noted that even the modern attempts to piece together exact figures were inexact:Did the Second Wave of the 1918 Spanish Flu Kill 20 to 30 Million, While the First Wave Killed 3 to 5 Million?Figures on the high ended tended to included guesses or estimates about those mildly sickened or otherwise not counted officially, and researchers created such tallies in a variety of ways in order to better quantify the long-term effects of pandemics. Although research and medical study have advanced by leaps and bounds since the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, limitations in counting unreported cases continued to clearly hinder researchers’ ability to hammer down extremely precise numbers — leaving ranges as wide as between “151,700 and 575,400” deaths during a 2009-2010 pandemic.In SummationMitchell claimed that 1.4 billion people were infected during the 2009-2010 H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic, and over 575,000 people died. Mitchell seemed to deliberately select the absolute highest end of very wide ranges, figures assessed years after that pandemic had come and gone. Mitchell’s tweet also appeared at the beginning of the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic, and within a few weeks, there had been more deaths globally (194,000) than the lowest range for the totality of the H1N1 pandemic (157,000). In short, not only was the premise flawed and dishonestly presented, but the claims were Not True.Comments


Troubled Texas anti-abortion group seeks federal grant money.

Explanation: An anti-abortion group hired by Texas to bolster women’s health services is seeking federal family planning funding after the state cancelled $6 million in troubled contracts with the evangelical nonprofit last year.

Planned Parenthood, Health, Abortion, Womens health, Texas

The Round Rock-based Heidi Group has applied with two other Texas health providers for tens of millions of dollars in grant funding under the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ Title X program, the Houston Chronicle reported. The program makes family-planning services available to low-income individuals for free or at low cost. The groups’ collaborative funding application calls for the grant money to be managed by the Obria Group, a Catholic organization that’s vying to become a national alternative to Planned Parenthood. The group requested nearly $8 million annually for three years, and medical duties would be split among the three health providers to serve about 15,000 patients each year. Obria has been denied Title X funding in the past because it doesn’t support the use of condoms or other kinds of birth control. If approved, the Obria Group could see a major expansion in the state with the country’s highest rate of uninsured residents. There are roughly 1.8 million women in need of publicly-funded family planning services in Texas. It would also help the Heidi Group re-surface after Texas health officials cut ties with the nonprofit last year. The Heidi Group was hired in 2016 to help strengthen small clinics that specialize in women’s health like Planned Parenthood but don’t offer abortions. The intention was that the Heidi Group would help the clinics boost their patient rolls to show there wouldn’t be a gap in services after Republican lawmakers cut off Planned Parenthood. A 2017 investigation by The Associated Press found the anti-abortion nonprofit didn’t even get close to serving 50,000 women, as promised. Texas cancelled $6 million in contracts in October, and health officials said more than $1 million in billings are under investigation. “We believe our involvement will significantly improve the availability and access to these important services,” said the Heidi Group’s founder Carol Everett in a letter submitted with the grant application. Everett, who’s an influential conservative activist in the Texas Legislature, declined to comment further. Texas currently receives about $13 million a year from the Title X program, which is at the center of a lawsuit from two groups seeking to block a new rule from President Donald Trump’s administration. The rule announced last month would prohibit family planning clinics funded by Title X from making abortion referrals. Obria is competing for funding with the Women’s Health and Family Planning Association of Texas, which served 195,000 patients last year. The state Health and Human Services Commission has also requested $16 million in federal family planning funding to serve 53,000 patients. Grant decisions are expected soon. The program’s next fiscal year begins April 1. ___ Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com


Visitors to prisons in Virginia are prohibited from wearing tampons or menstrual cups.

Explanation: What's true: A ban prohibiting prison visitors in Virginia from wearing tampons was announced in September 2018 and would have taken effect on 6 October 2018. What's false: After public criticism by activist groups, the ban was "suspended" and has gone unenforced.

In September 2018, corrections officials in Virginia briefly implemented new limits on female visitors to prisons, citing concerns over incoming contraband. But after activist groups highlighted the policy, it was dropped before it actually went into effect. David Robinson, chief of operations for the state Department of Corrections (DOC), announced the controversial policy on 17 September 2018, telling staffers in a memo that “As a result of recent inquiries about feminine hygiene products being an ideal way to conceal contraband … offender visitors shall be notified that the use of tampons or menstrual cup products are no longer permitted to be worn during visitation.” On 22 September 2018, the activist group the Prison Reform Movement brought the change to light, posting a similar memo to employees of the Nottoway Correctional Center issued by warden David Call: VA is now NOT allowing visitors to wear a tampon or menstrual cup during visits….this is way over the line….. pic.twitter.com/9JxzWrT6cS — PrisonReformMovement (@PrisonReformMvt) September 23, 2018  DOC spokesperson Lisa Kinney said at the time that employees would be exempt from the ban, which was to have taken effect on 6 October 2018. According to Kinney, prison visitors accounted for 58 of 62 instances of contraband smuggling between 1 February 2018 and 31 August 2018, and the policy change would cut down on prisoner overdoses. “There have been many instances in which visitors have attempted to smuggle drugs into our prisons by concealing those drugs in a body cavity, including the vagina,” Kinney said. Besides the Prison Reform Movement, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia also condemned the policy. The latter group’s executive director, Claire Gastañega, said in a statement that: Helping people who are housed in jail or prison stay connected to friends, families, and communities is critical to rehabilitation and eventual, successful re-entry to society. Any policy that discourages visitors is, therefore, one that should be subject to the most exacting and careful review. In addition, a policy like this one that requires those who wish to visit people who are incarcerated to set aside their dignity and health is simply unacceptable. On 25 September 2018, Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran announced that he would suspend the ban “until a more thorough review of its implementation and potential consequences are considered.”


The Healthy Skeptic: Probiotics could help in cold and flu season

Explanation: The marketing message of “improving overall immune health” deserves to be scrutinized whenever and wherever it appears. We’ve reviewed more than a half dozen stories on probiotics in recent years. Hype lives on. So there’s room for healthy skepticism, as in this LA Times column.

The story includes the cost of several of the products mentioned. The story reported: “A September 2011 Cochrane Review of 14 studies found “weak” evidence that probiotics could help prevent the common cold and other upper respiratory infections in infants, children and younger adults. And an April 2011 study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found a Lactobacillus probiotic seemed to improve the immune system’s response following a flu vaccination.” We would have preferred to read some of the actual data about “how weak” (in the Cochrane Review) and how much improvement in the other study. But we liked that the story quantified, via an independent expert, how many people might expect to avoid a cold by taking probiotics, if these “weak” studies are correct: “perhaps as few as 1 in 30.”  The “generally safe” line is too vague for us. There are side effects and risks associated with probiotic use. The article quotes Paul Forsythe, a respiratory specialist and assistant professor of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. “… as Forsythe noted in an April 2011 issue of the journal Chest, most of the research on probiotics has been conducted in mice, and the real-world immunity benefits for humans are uncertain. Companies “are taking evidence from animal studies and stretching their claims,” he says” No disease mongering. Independent sources contributed perspectives to this story. The story’s second paragraph briefly mentions some options: “Avoiding germs entirely would require something like solitary confinement or a head-to-toe application of Purell. As an alternative, many people try to do what they can to strengthen their immune systems. Vitamin C is old news, and echinacea and other herbs haven’t really panned out. “ The availability of these products is clear from the story. Not applicable; no overt claims of novelty were made. It’s clear that the story did not rely on a news release.


Explanation: Kooyenga said: "Today, it is more difficult to enlist in the U.S. military than it is to enroll in college." There isn’t definitive evidence to prove the claim, given that it mixes apples and oranges: The military and college are entirely different pursuits with different sets of minimum standards for getting in, and among colleges, the entrance requirements vary widely. At the same time, there are credible estimates saying that roughly 75 percent of young adults in America wouldn’t be eligible to enlist if they tried, while roughly two out of three high school graduates go on to a two- or four-year college. For a statement that is partially accurate.

Education, Military, Public Health, Wisconsin, Dale Kooyenga,

So, if three out of every four young adults are not eligible for the military, but two out of every three high school graduates go onto college, what does that say? To Wisconsin state Rep. Dale Kooyenga, a military intelligence officer in the Army Reserves and a veteran of the Iraq War, it says this: "Today, it is more difficult to enlist in the United States military than it is to enroll in college." That’s a broad claim from Kooyenga, a suburban Milwaukee Republican who made the statement in his April 1, 2016 constituent newsletter. He was asserting that "if we are going to continue to be the world’s military leader, we must also become a leader in education." Kooyenga seems to have a compelling talking point. But, as defense manpower specialist Beth Asch told us, it’s also "a mashup of a lot of ideas in one sentence." Post-high school Both the military and college are post-high school pursuits that require a high school diploma. But the similarities more or less end there. The military is looking for soldiers; colleges are looking for students. The minimum requirements to get into the military are pretty standard, even if they vary somewhat by branch. But the entrance requirements to get into Harvard are much different than those for getting into a community college. The military will pay you; but most students need to pay for college. So, in terms of Kooyenga’s claim: More difficult for whom? It’s more difficult for an overweight person with good grades to get into the military; but it’s more difficult for a fit person with bad grades to get into college. All that being said, Kooyenga does have some numbers on his side. The statistics Asch, an economist with the RAND Corp. think tank, said statistics Kooyenga cited to us to back his claim are generally on target. Military: Defense Department estimates dating back to at least 2009 say roughly 75 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 would not qualify to enlist in the military. One reason is being overweight. Indeed, when first lady Michelle Obama said in 2011 that more than one-quarter of America’s young adults are too fat to serve in the U.S. military, PolitiFact Georgia rated her claim True. Other common reasons for being barred from the military, besides lacking a high school diploma: Conviction of a felony or serious misdemeanor; prior drug or alcohol abuse; and current prescription-drug use for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). College: Federal statistics, including one Kooyenga cited, show that roughly 66 percent of people who graduate from high school go onto college. (For 2015 high school graduates, 69 percent had enrolled in colleges or universities by October 2015, according to a federal report.) But, the two sets of figures reinforce the point that, while Kooyenga’s claim was broad, it really comes down to individual characteristics as to whether it’s more difficult for a person to get into the military versus college. Our rating Kooyenga said: "Today, it is more difficult to enlist in the U.S. military than it is to enroll in college." There isn’t definitive evidence to prove the claim, given that it mixes apples and oranges: The military and college are entirely different pursuits with different sets of minimum standards for getting in, and among colleges, the entrance requirements vary widely. At the same time, there are credible estimates saying that roughly 75 percent of young adults in America wouldn’t be eligible to enlist if they tried, while roughly two out of three high school graduates go on to a two- or four-year college. For a statement that is partially accurate, our rating is .


Indiana: Harmful algae blooms detected on Ohio River.

Explanation: Indiana officials are warning people about harmful algae blooms on the Ohio River near Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky.

Cincinnati, General News, Kentucky, Environment, Ohio, Indiana, Algae

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Indiana State Department of Health issued the warning on Friday, cautioning swimmers and boaters to be careful in all recreational waters this time of the year. The agencies advised boaters and swimmers to avoid contact with visible algae and swallowing water and to bathe with warm, soapy water after coming in contact with water, especially before preparing or consuming food. Pets and livestock should also not be allowed to swim in or drink untreated water. Exposure to the algae blooms can lead to rashes, eye irritation, nausea, and other symptoms. More information is available online.


A cryptic blog called "Two Droplets" told the story of the catastrophic effect of two droplets of drain cleaner on a family's life.

Explanation: On 18 February 2016, the author of the above-embedded Facebook post contacted us about the claim. We responded to that individual and received a reply from the blog’s purported author, including a photo of the injury. However, that reply included no verified or verifiable information helpful to documenting this report as true.

Fauxtography, drain cleaner, triplets, two droplets

On 16 February 2016, a blog called Two Droplets appeared and became a social media sensation. Its author claimed to be the wife of a man who had unwittingly fallen victim to a bizarre and unexpected medical anomaly stemming from two droplets of drain cleaner. The blog’s writer was anonymous (as was her spouse), and her story began: In June of 2010 my husband was a perfectly healthy 26 year old man. We were living life with our almost 3 year old daughter and our one year old triplets (two boys and girl). Life was as normal as it could be for a family with that sort of dynamic. On another one of our ordinary days, the bathroom sink became clogged. My husband used a widely sold drain cleaner in an attempt to fix the issue. He poured the chemical into a funnel placed in the pipe under the sink and that’s when it happened. Two droplets. The funnel burped and two droplets of the chemical hit the back of his hand. We had no clue at that moment our lives would never be the same. The chemical began to eat away at the skin. We lived 5 minutes from a local hospital, so I snapped a photo of the ingredients on the bottle and we headed off to the emergency room. The hospital called poison control and proceeded to follow protocol in treating the chemical burn. He ended up having a skin graft performed to cover the wound area which was not much larger than a quarter. Done, right? End of story? Not even close. It was only the beginning. The narrative advanced to describe an escalation of unexpected damage due to the “two droplets” incident: To keep a story so long I could create a page count to rival War & Peace short, he ended up having 27 surgeries in total to try and remedy the issue. He had grafts and flaps and even had his hand sewn into his stomach for three weeks. None of it worked. His body has served as harvesting ground for his hand. Both of his upper legs, an upper arm, his groin area, and his abdomen are covered with scars from donor sites. Oddly, those sites have all healed and never experienced the dreaded necrosis. His hand, however, kept relentlessly dying. It got to the point that he was spending as much time in the hospital as he was at home. The flares were getting closer together and more aggressive. According to the author, the condition progressed so severely that amputation was the only available choice. Even then, she said, her husband failed to improve: On December 15, 2015 my husband made the difficult decision to have an amputation performed. It had been suggested by a few doctors in the last couple of years and was considered the heavy end game to the awful journey of trying to save the limb. He decided that he had done everything and couldn’t take it anymore. He decided he was through suffering, and he was through watching his wife and children suffer. It became clear that quality of life with one hand would be superior to the quality of life that came with a dead, diseased, and painful hand. It was time … On February 12, 2016, just shy of 2 months post-amputation, the familiar, awful, life shattering ache returned. Shortly thereafter, so had the mysterious necrosis, spreading across the end of his newly healed stump. That stump represented the fact that he literally gave his right hand in exchange for a better life, and now the end of it wears a taunting badge of the dead flesh we thought had been removed from our lives for good. What a tremendous slap in the face. This “thing” with no face and no name has returned to destroy our lives and our dreams of a normal future without constant pain and suffering. The single post on the blog concluded with three objectives: First, to remind readers to be grateful for what they had in life, lest a chance encounter with drain cleaner slowly rob them of their health and sanity. The second was a plea for anyone with medical expertise to contact the anonymous family in the hopes of resolving the persistent health issue. The third was an apparent attempt at humor, urging people with plumbing problems to call a plumber rather than use chemical drain cleaners. The ambiguity and lack of clear purpose presented by the post was puzzling. The author stated outright that she sought no “handouts” for her family’s troubles. The only visible comment on the post was attributed to the original author, and she stated her resolve not to name the chemical by which her spouse was purportedly injured (despite the value such a disclosure would present to anyone interested in helping with the medical mystery): I want to go ahead and leave a comment here to address the most common questions/suggestions I am receiving: No, I do not want to put out the name of the drain cleaner due to the fact that the statute of limitations for product liability has passed. We have not sued and that ship has sailed. I am no legal expert, but I fear blasting the company on the internet would land me in some legal trouble so I will keep the brand name to myself. Next, it is not necrotizing faciitis. That was ruled out. We have also explored the possibility of pyoderma gangrenosum at length with no success. My husband has been to wound care centers and has undergone a ton of hyberbaric chamber treatments, so our answer does not lie there. I have received an enormous response, far beyond what I ever dreamed, and I appreciate the kindness of every single person that has taken the time to pray for us and offer suggestions. I will spend the coming days sorting through e-mails and comments and get back to everyone I feel will be of help to us. If you are sharing this and/or taking the time to offer resources and suggestions I thank you from the depths of my heart. I am humbled beyond words. Please keep sharing. ♥ The blog post had seven images, none of which led to a hit on a reverse image search engine. If the photographs (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) appeared on the internet prior to the “Two Droplets” blog, they were neither widely distributed nor associated with any other injury or accident. A Facebook and Twitter user shared a link to the post multiple times alongside a claim that the poster was a personal friend, but that user also provided no identifying information: // <! [CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]> Shamelessly sharing this again. The WordPress page has already received over 160,000+ views in just one day. My friend… Posted by Marlana Weber on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 It wasn’t long before the post was shared Reddit’s r/medicine (a subreddit for medical professionals). One poster pointed out that the story felt incomplete: None of the story adds up. He had far more than a few drops of a chemical agent on his skin, either has underlying vascular issues to that hand, had an infected skin graft that wasn’t treated properly, delayed treatment far beyond what she described, etc. Another observed that help would be unlikely to materialize, given the vagueness of the claim: I’m highly skeptical of this story, but I’ll take it at face value. It seems fairly apparent to me that the best chance at finding some answers would of been to send the bottle of drain-cleaner to a laboratory for analysis; either A) those chemicals were not your standard drain-cleaners, or B) the bottle had been contaminated with something. After that, a biopsy of the diseased tissue to look for any hints as to the underlying mechanisms actually inducing the necrosis. Honestly, if she wants real help, she’ll have to post as much relevant information for the public to see as possible. Prior to the appearance of Two Droplets, we were unable to find any previous reports of this incident. If either the affected husband or worried wife sought help, their odd tale didn’t receive much attention prior to the blog’s creation.


Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis symptoms curbed by bariatric surgery

Explanation: This is a chart review study which shows that losing excess weight by undergoing bariatric surgery could lessen the pain and inflammation experienced by psoriasis sufferers. While the treatment sounds hopeful, important information about the other (overall) benefits of bariatric surgery, its risks, alternatives and costs, including costs of treating complications, were all missing from this news release. This news release comes from a poster presented at a national meeting, which has not yet undergone peer review. Many key elements were not well described or sufficiently highlighted. The fact that this research comes from observational data (chart review) is important since we cannot infer causation from this type of research, and it is possible that some other factor stemming from the surgery besides the weight loss (for example, changes in diet or absorption of key nutrients) was responsible for the remission in psoriasis symptoms, rather than the weight loss itself. Psoriasis affects millions of Americans, and many people with moderate to severe psoriasis develop psoriatic arthritis in their lifetimes. If obesity contributes to the development of this painful condition, then weight loss methods such as bariatric surgery may reduce those symptoms. Psoriasis sufferers may have few options to treat what is a lifetime of inflammation and pain, so if safe and effective methods to reduce those symptoms are available, many people could benefit. However, it needs to be pointed out that bariatric surgery is indicated only for morbid obesity, and it is not clear whether other weight loss therapies would result in the same benefit.

Academic medical center news release,psoriasis,Weight loss

The release contained no cost information related to bariatric surgery and its potential complications. Bariatric surgery has become commonplace but it is costly and carries risk. The release should have also mentioned the theoretical costs related to better symptom control for psoriasis sufferers who have undergone bariatric surgery. These could include a possible reduction in costs of anti-inflammatory drugs or other therapies. Although it is hard for a reader to picture what a severity score of 5.6 for psoriasis would actually look like, the news release at least gives us the range of possible scores (0-10) and the absolute reduction in scores for disease severity. It would have been helpful to know if such a reduction would allow a psoriasis patient to stop using one of their medications or need fewer interventions. We assume that these are the averages of the scores of the 86 patients who underwent surgery (the “significant reductions in their “disease severity scores dropping from 5.6 to 4.4, and scores falling from 6.4 to 4.5 for those with psoriatic arthritis.”) The study monitored patients on average for more than six years, “with an average excess weight loss of 46.2 percent body weight.”  It would have been helpful to also include the average pre-surgery starting weight of the volunteers. Sadly, no harms related to bariatric surgery were mentioned, nor were the likelihood of complications due to the surgery and the rate of reversals that are often necessary. Psoriasis is an important problem but clearly bariatric surgery would not be a first-line treatment for the condition. The trade-offs in terms of risks of complications and required lifestyle changes after bariatric surgery are critical considerations for a patient hoping to reduce their psoriasis symptoms. The release relates that this is an analysis of existing data and how many subjects were included in the analysis, as well as the rating scale. However, the release never cautions readers that this was an observational study subject to a variety of limitations, and the language used in the release strongly suggests a cause-and-effect relationship between bariatric surgery and symptom reductions. Examples: It would have been more appropriate to state that surgery and weight loss were associated with symptom improvement, rather than that they “improve” or “reduce” symptoms. We’d also liked to have been provided with information on how the patients (outside the 55 percent of patients with psoriasis and 62 percent of patients with psoriatic arthritis who reported improvements in their disease) fared in relation to the bariatric surgery. No evidence of disease mongering here. The story cites accurate numbers for psoriasis in the United States. As a caution, we’d like to add that anytime bariatric surgery is mentioned as a treatment option, it should be stressed that it is a procedure of last resort, only offered to those who are severely obese, have additional health problems such as cardiovascular disease, and for whom other, safer weight-loss options have not worked. The news release discloses that the patient histories that were reviewed came from bariatric surgery patients of NYU Langone, the institution that issued the news release. It states, “For the study, Reddy and colleagues reviewed the medical charts of 9,073 weight-loss surgery patients who were treated between 2002 and 2013 at NYU Langone’s Weight Management Program.” It would have been nice to know how other patients losing weight in the conventional sense compared to these patients. Alternatives to bariatric surgery exist and should have been mentioned. Two alternatives to bariatric surgery for reduction of psoriasis symptoms —  conventional weight loss and other treatments for psoriasis (topical agents, medications, and UV treatment) — that would reduce symptoms at least as much as surgery should have been discussed here. Presumably patients who lost weight through non-surgical means would have also benefited from having their psoriasis symptoms reduced. Bariatric surgery is widely available and most people with internet access (or any access to medical care) can figure that out fairly quickly in their area. One could easily come away from this release thinking that these researchers are the first to report psoriasis symptom reduction in those undergoing bariatric surgery (with resultant weight loss). However, such findings have been reported before, and the release does not acknowledge this. The language is generally appropriate, and hasn’t exaggerated the effects of the bariatric surgery.


A viral image shows Tamla Horsford, the only black woman at an all-white adult sleepover, hours before she was found dead in a yard under contested circumstances.

On June 14 2020, a Facebook user shared the following post about the death of Tamla Horsford:Viral Posts about Tamla Horsford in June 2020An appended image of eight women — seven white and one black — was captioned “This picture literally gives me the chills.” In a text post, Steele wrote:Never forget how they all helped kill the only black woman at this sleep over!!! #TamlaHorsford“On November 4th 2018, 40 year old Tamla Horsford attended an adult sleepover with 7 white women who were supposedly her friends. The “all women” sleepover was eventually crashed by 3 white men. At 7:30 am the next morning, Tamla’s badly bruised and beaten body was found in the yard by the homeowner’s aunt. Police were eventually called at 9:30am. Out of the 10 people who attended the party, no one could offer the police any answers as to how Tamla passed away. A murder investigation was never conducted, the news refused to cover the story AND her family never received Tamla’s autopsy report. The families involved have tight political ties and lots of money. Tamla’s family believe they are covering up the murder. The case was eventually closed in 2019. SAY HER NAME- Tamla Horsford. May we never forget.In that context, the image of Horsford in what the post claimed were her final hours was indeed chilling. But many commenters responded that they’d never heard Horsford’s name, nor were they aware of the circumstances of her death.Another post about the image was shared to Twitter on June 5 2020, to subsequent massive engagement:REOPEN THIS CASE TOO pic.twitter.com/a9V6RQOG2t— amanda delgadillo (@a_delgs) June 5, 2020A day later, Kim Kardashian retweeted the tweet. All of the posts included a screenshot of a June 1 2020 Instagram post by @brujeriagirl:#NeverForget —> #TamlaHorsford, 40, a mother of five children, went to an all-adult sleepover to watch the game and party. She was joined by other “football moms” at the sleepover, which included seven White women and three men at a home in Forsyth County, Georgia. The next morning, Horsford was found dead in the backyard and now her case is receiving new scrutiny after Black Twitter spawned #TamlaHorsford and is asking federal law enforcement officials to get involved. Horsford was found face down in the backyard by the homeowner’s aunt at 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 4, 2018, but police were not called to the scene until 9:30 a.m. It was initially reported that Horsford suffered injuries to her head and face. The case becomes even stranger when another person at the party, Jose Barrera, a former probation officer for Forsyth County Court, lost his job because of improper use of the county database. Barrera is the boyfriend of the woman who owned the house where Horsford’s body was found and is also considered a witness in the investigation into Horsford’s death.A post shared by  Brujeria Girl 🌻🇸🇻 (@brujeriagirl) on Jun 1, 2020 at 1:39pm PDTIn a caption similar to the one on Facebook, @brujeriagirl wrote:#NeverForget —> #TamlaHorsford, 40, a mother of five children, went to an all-adult sleepover to watch the game and party. She was joined by other “football moms” at the sleepover, which included seven White women and three men at a home in Forsyth County, Georgia. The next morning, Horsford was found dead in the backyard and now her case is receiving new scrutiny after Black Twitter spawned #TamlaHorsford and is asking federal law enforcement officials to get involved. Horsford was found face down in the backyard by the homeowner’s aunt at 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 4, 2018, but police were not called to the scene until 9:30 a.m. It was initially reported that Horsford suffered injuries to her head and face. The case becomes even stranger when another person at the party, Jose Barrera, a former probation officer for Forsyth County Court, lost his job because of improper use of the county database.Barrera is the boyfriend of the woman who owned the house where Horsford’s body was found and is also considered a witness in the investigation into Horsford’s death.The Death of Tamla HorsfordOn November 4 2018, Tamla Horsford was found dead in the yard at the house where the party she attended was hosted. As interest in the case increased in February 2020, Horsford’s friends and loved ones pleaded with the public for further investigation into the circumstances of her death:The coroner’s death certificate listed Horsford’s death as an accident. The report said that a fall from a deck caused multiple blunt force injuries and “acute ethanol intoxication” was a contributing factor.But Michelle Graves says she believes something else happened to her best friend and the family hired another medical examiner who found extensive injuries all over her body.“It’s impossible to get the injuries that she had from one fall,” she said.Thousands on social media have called for further investigation into Horsford’s death with hashtags #TamlaHorsford and #JusticeForTamlaHorsford.“We’re glad we’re not the only ones who feel there’s something awry with the story and with how she lost her life,” Graves told Petchenik.The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office said they just got back the toxicology reports this week [of February 20 2020] and plan to have answers soon.That article mentioned in passing that Forsyth County employee Jose Barrera had at that point recently been fired for allegedly improperly accessing documents related to the investigation into Horsford’s death. WSB-TV also reported that the party was held “at Barrera’s girlfriend house,” that “Barrera found Horsford lying face down in the backyard unresponsive, according to police reports,” and that Barrera said in a 911 call on the morning Horsford’s body was found:“I’m noticing a small cut on her right wrist. She’s not breathing whatsoever. I don’t know if this cut was self-inflicted.”On February 20 2020, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office in Forsyth County, Georgia issued a press release regarding the findings of the medical examiner in an investigation into Horsford’s death, and indicated that the office had closed the investigation:February 20, 2019 On November 4th, 2018, at 8:59 AM, the Forsyth County 911 Center received a call of an unresponsive person in the 4000 block of Woodlet Ct in Cumming, Georgia. First responders were dispatched and the Sheriff’s Deputies arrived at 9:07 AM. Deputies discovered the clothed body of a deceased female lying in the backyard of the residence. The deceased female was later identified as 40-year-old Tamala Horsford of Cumming Georgia. Mrs. Horsford had been attending an overnight party at the residence. […]While the injuries sustained by Mrs. Horsford appeared to likely be received in a fall, Detectives awaited results from both the toxicology and the Medical Examiner reports to verify their findings. On February 6th, 2019, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office received the final Medical Examiner’s report regarding Mrs. Horsford. The State of Georgia Medical Examiner has ruled the death accidental and consistent with a fall. Detectives have spent the following weeks reviewing the medical findings with those found at the scene by the Major Crimes Unit and the Crime Scene Investigation Unit. No evidence or injury patterns indicative of an assault or foul play were noted by Forsyth County Sheriff’s Detectives or in the Forsyth County Coroner’s Office or GBI Medical Examiner’s reports. During the course of this investigation, Detectives have conducted approximately 30 interviews, and spent well over 300-man hours conducting this investigation. With a finding of an accidental death resulting from a fall as recorded by the GBI Medical Examiner’s Office, along with the extensive findings from the investigation of the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s office has closed this death investigation.The PictureNearly all versions of the heavily shared posts about Horsford’s death were accompanied by the “adult sleepover party” image seen above. That photograph was part of the initial reporting by Atlanta-area outlet WGCL-TV on February 20 2019:On November 3, 2018 the 40-year-old mother of five was found dead in the backyard of a friend’s house. According to investigators, [Tamla] Horsford and other female friends were attending an adult slumber party.Jeanne Meyers, who resides at the residence, told police that Horsford was seen drinking from a blue bottle of tequila and smoking marijuana the previous night. She seemed in good spirits.As the party wound down around 1:30 a.m. Meyers says her friend opted to stay out on the deck to finish a cigarette. It was the last time she was seen alive. The next morning around 7:30 a.m. Horsford’s body was found.Autopsy results show Horsford sustained a laceration and fracture to her right wrist. Her cause of death is listed as “multiple blunt force injuries with other contributing factors being acute ethanol intoxication.”It was unclear how the photograph came to be in public circulation, but it appeared to be accurately described — it showed Horsford, a black woman, sitting amidst seven white women hours before she died under contested circumstances. Some iterations are credited to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, suggesting they released the image at some point after Horsford’s death.In a February 22 2019 post by Forsyth County News, Horsford’s husband Leander Horsford and other relatives expressed skepticism around the investigation into her death. Her husband said that the stories from others present at the party did not seem to add up:“I want the truth of what’s going on, because I mean, the stories I’ve heard so far, none of them make sense,” said Horsford’s husband, Leander Horsford. “And if they don’t make sense, usually there’s a reason they don’t make sense.”During their interview, Horsford and Terry Blanco, sister-in-law to Tamla Horsford, asked Christian why Horsford’s shoes and cigarette butts weren’t collected and tested, asserting that evidence could have been overlooked.“Even when she’s had the most she could have, she’s never ever fallen down,” Blanco stated. “We all know Tami and none of this makes sense.”Horsford and Blanco also told detectives that the family has ordered a second autopsy done privately out of state, because they, “don’t trust” the system in Forsyth County.“In my personal opinion I think that the investigation has been mishandled,” Horsford said. “That’s just my personal opinion because there’s a lot of things that were left back, that should not have been left back.”Developments in June 2020On June 12 2020, after several viral social media posts appeared, WSB-TV reporter Mike Petchenik tweeted a letter from the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) requesting that a new investigation be opened into Horsford’s death:BREAKING:  @ForsythCountySO officially asking the @GBI_GA to open a new investigation into the death of #TamlaHorsford. pic.twitter.com/sx1SIwWF1B— Mike Petchenik (@MPetchenikWSB) June 12, 2020Six days earlier, Petchenik tweeted an earlier statement from the Forsyth County Sheriff’s office about their initial investigation in late 2018 and early 2019:Statement from the @ForsythCountySO about the letter. pic.twitter.com/KHjdLbhOeu— Mike Petchenik (@MPetchenikWSB) June 6, 2020On June 10 2020, Petchenik reported that a petition calling for the case to be reopened had more than 50,000 signatures. A June 5 2020 letter from lawyer Ralph Fernandez to Leander Horsford about his review of the evidence was also shared by Petchenik on Twitter:THREAD:  Letter attached. pic.twitter.com/wnjdUmjWR1— Mike Petchenik (@MPetchenikWSB) June 6, 2020That letter read in part:The review reflects that a homicide is a strong possibility. Witness statements are in conflict. A potential subject handled the body as well as the evidence prior to the law enforcement arrival. Evidence was disposed of and no inquiry followed.The scene was not preserved. Evidence was improperly handled. The investigation was compromised by unauthorized access and disclosure to potential targets and witnesses. A remarkable fact is that there were no photographs taken during the autopsy of Tamla’s body. This had to have been done at someone’s directive because such a practice is unheard of.Let us address one issue as a sample, in reverse order, from the above. It appears Tamla was involved in a struggle. There were abrasions consistent with that scenario. There were parallel scratches to one arm. Since they were fresh, photos would not have proven recent use of defensive force. But having no photos inures to our detriment. There was one X-Ray, yet the injury noted as the cause of death appears nowhere. Getting the records has been another monumental task to say the least. I could go on, and will, in a few days. Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office employees have been the subject of much criticism. The case agent was a close friend of the subject, who turned out to be the leak of the ongoing investigation. The town of Cumming has a history which raises eyebrows. After conducting my extensive review I have come to the conclusion that the truth never had a chance here.A June 8 2020 tweet from Petchenik featured a Georgia Bureau of Investigation statement suggesting that photographs had been taken during Horsford’s autopsy. It is not clear which assertion is correct, or why Fernandez might have been unable to access the photographs:JUST IN:  Statement from @GBI_GA about Horsford’s autopsy. pic.twitter.com/1KihAJU03Z— Mike Petchenik (@MPetchenikWSB) June 8, 2020A separate June 12 2020 report by WSB-TV mentioned that “Petchenik reached out to the attorney representing the party-goers in a civil defamation case against one of Horsford’s best friend to see if he had any comment but has not heard back.” No additional information about the civil defamation case or parties involved appeared in that report.However, a statement attributed to lawyers for the other people at the party appeared to have been issued on February 20 2019 (based on its repeated mention of the passage of “109 days” between the document and Horsford’s death) accused “certain very vocal individuals” of trying to turn a “tragic death” into something else:109 days of waiting for the certain result that was to come yesterday in the press conference by the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department. 109 days of our clients being unable to properly grieve the death of their friend, because of what certain very vocal individuals called a “murder” from the start. As stated previously, each person who was present on November 4, 2018, has cooperated completely with law enforcement officers in an attempt to give family and friends answers in regard to the tragic death of Tamla Horsford. […]As reported by the Sheriff [in February 2019] in his press conference, each of these three independent bodies found absolutely and unequivocally that there was no foul play and that there was no evidence of any assault. Our clients knew this to be fact because there was NEVER any wrongdoing by them that evening. Contrary to stories being put out there by a certain very vocal individual, this was not a racially motivated murder. This was not murder. This was not anything other than a tragic accident. Mrs. Horsford fell 18 feet from the top of the rail on the back deck to the ground.SummaryOn the morning of November 4 2018, Tamla Horsford was found dead in a backyard after attending an “adult sleepover” with seven white women. From the outset, Horsford’s family were concerned her death was improperly investigated. Around February 20 2019, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office officially closed the investigation into her death, but calls to reopen it crested during widespread protests in June 2020. Those calls were amplified by celebrities, and in early June 2020, the Forsyth Country Sheriff’s Office asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to reopen the case and reexamine Horsford’s death.Comments


Overweight Americans who pick diet drinks eat more food: study.

Explanation: Heavy Americans who drink diet beverages rather than those sweetened with sugar appear to eat more, according to a study released on Thursday that raised questions about the role lower-calorie drinks play in helping people lose weight.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University analyzed data from a U.S. survey of 24,000 people over a period of 10 years. People who were overweight or obese generally consumed the same amount of calories a day no matter what they drank, but those who chose diet drinks got more of those calories from food. Outside experts were quick to caution that it is not clear what role, if any, diet drinks such as low- or no-calorie versions of sodas, sports drinks and teas played for people who ate more. In the study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, overweight drinkers of diet beverages in the United States ate 1,965 in food calories a day compared to 1,874 calories among heavy people who drank regular sugar-sweetened beverages. Among obese diet beverage drinkers, those who consumed low- or no-calorie drinks ate 2,058 calories a day in food versus 1,897 food calories for those who had regular drinks, researchers said. Such differences were statistically significant, they added. Lead author Sara Bleich said the results, when paired with other research, suggest that artificial sweeteners may affect people’s metabolism or cravings, although more study is needed. She acknowledged that people could be deciding to eat more since they are saving calories with their diet drinks. “The push to diet soda may not make a lot of sense if you are then also eating more solid food,” Bleich said. “The switch from a sugary beverage to a diet beverage should be coupled with other changes in the diet, particularly reducing snacks.”  Critics said the analysis, based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination survey between 1999 and 2010, is flawed and that it is too early to say what, if any, role the low-calorie drinks or their artificial sweeteners play in weight loss. Several researchers noted that the study did not track a set group of people over time and only looked at a 24-hour snapshot of what any individual consumed. The beverage industry, which has long promoted diet drinks as an alternative to full-calorie beverages, defended such alternatives to help manage weight. “Losing or maintaining weight comes down to balancing the total calories consumed with those burned through physical activity,” the American Beverage Association said in a statement on Thursday. Low- or no-calories drinks contain artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose. Many beverage companies are also turning to other alternatives, such as the extract of Stevia. Kelly Brownell, a professor psychology and neuroscience at Duke University and dean of its Sanford School of Public Policy, said while the study was compelling and there are still many questions about such sweeteners, more data is needed. “People need to separate the biology from the psychology,” he said. Bonnie Liebman, the director of nutrition at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said while her group may have other questions about artificial sweeteners, “it’s premature to conclude that it’s something going on in your brain.”  In the meantime there are other ways to watch your weight, she said: “You’re much better off with water - or coffee or tea, if they’re unsweetened.”


A photograph shows a rhino that was given a pink horn to prevent poaching.

Explanation: It should also be noted that rhino horns are not properly “ivory” (as they are not teeth or tusks). Rhino horns are made of keratin.

In May 2015, a photo purportedly showing a rhinoceros with a pink horn along with the claim that the discoloration was one intended to dissuade poachers began circulating on social media sites such as Tumblr and Reddit:  First of all, the image has been digitally manipulated. The results achieved by the Rhino Rescue Project, an organization that infuses rhino horns with a “compound made up of ectoparasiticides and indelible dye that contaminates the horn and renders it useless for ornamental or medicinal use” are not nearly as pronounced as the results shown in the above-displayed photo. When the image was published by Take Part back in 2012, it was accompanied by a disclaimer stating that the “photo has been digitally altered” and that the rhino in the picture did not undergo any procedure to have its horn turned pink: In fact, the dye used by the Rhino Rescue Project primarily affects the interior of the rhino horn. While in may produce slight exterior discoloration, the dye’s purpose is to introduce a color change from within the horn: Our newly improved infusion process utilises very high pressures and a custom designed non-return valve that prevents the liquids from exiting through the drill hole(s) after the 10-15 min infusion has been completed. In addition, the non-return valve keeps the liquid in the horn under around 30 bars pressure for up to 10 days, ensuring that the liquid penetrates large areas of the internal horn structure. On 23 July 2013, the Rhino Rescue Project posted an unretouched photograph of a rhino that had undergone the procedure with the caption, “And the patient is up! After being given antibiotics and painkillers, she should be feeling much more comfortable. Last reports received indicated she was doing well and recovering nicely”:  In addition to discoloring the inside of the horn, the dye used by the Rhino Rescue Project is also poisonous to humans. Lorina Hern, co-founder of the group, told Public Radio International in 2015 that poachers who handle these treated horns could suffer serious health issues: “At a minimum it would start with diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, severe headaches, all the way up to nervous symptoms, which could be permanent, Hern says. Some ectoparasiticides also precipitate the development of cancers later on in life.”


Among 2020 Democrats, a debate over ‘Medicare-for-all’.

Explanation: “Medicare-for-all” is quickly becoming a rallying cry for many Democratic White House hopefuls, but there are growing questions about how to pull off such a dramatic switch to a government-run health care system.

Jake Tapper, Health, Universal health care, North America, Health care reform, Medicare, Kamala Harris

The debate over scrapping private insurers has heated up in recent days since Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California, a supporter of “Medicare-for-all,” told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “Who of us has not had that situation, where you’ve got to wait for approval, and the doctor says, well, I don’t know if your insurance company is going to cover this? Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on.” But since her nationally televised remarks, several of Harris’ rivals have pointedly spoken about their plans to work toward universal health care in more pragmatic, incremental ways. Those Democrats portray the single-payer health care proposal they’ve backed as only one strategy to achieve universal coverage, while emphasizing the importance of other, less sweeping paths. Among the skeptics, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said “Medicare-for-all” would “bankrupt for us for a very long time.” Uniting Democrats is a desire to guarantee coverage for all, including an estimated 29 million people who remain uninsured. Some are backing a plan that would let people buy into Medicare, with tax credits from the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. At the forefront of the debate is Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ ’Medicare-for-all” bill, which holds out the promise of health care as a right, the potential for national savings from reduced administrative costs and government price-setting, and no more copays, deductibles or surprise medical bills. His plan envisions a four-year transition, phasing in the change by age groups. Simultaneously, some big tax increases would be taking effect. But there would be enormous challenges to put in place a single-payer health insurance with the government fully in control of the $3.5 trillion U.S. health care system, experts say. And polls show a looming political problem because many people don’t yet realize it would mean giving up their private coverage. Another issue: Sanders’ office says his plan would cover abortion, a major change from current federal laws and policies. In addition to Harris, Democratic Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have signed onto the Sanders bill. Gillibrand, who crafted language in Sanders’ bill that allows people to buy nonprofit insurance coverage during the transition, emphasized the importance of that bridge. “If more people buy into Medicare over whatever your transition period is, you will disrupt the insurance market . because you’ve created more competition for lower prices and quality care,” Gillibrand told The Associated Press. “What I like about where the Democrats are today is, we have four or five versions of ‘Medicare-for-all’,” she added. “I think we all want to get to single payer. And I think the best way to do it is what I wrote in Sen. Sanders’ bill.” Booker, who declared his own candidacy on Friday, told a satellite radio show that day that he is “a big believer in ‘Medicare-for all’- but I believe that if we give people a quality public option, we’re going to be able to get more people into the system.” And Warren, for her part, told Bloomberg TV last week that “multiple bills on the floor in the United States Senate” would accomplish her core priority of ensuring that “every American has health care at a price they can afford.” Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sherrod Brown of Ohio also describe universal health care as an ultimate goal, but neither has signed onto Sanders’ legislation. Brown has called for the expansion of Medicare to those over 50 as a more workable first step, while Klobuchar said in a recent interview that “on health care, there’s a lot more that unites us in the Democratic Party.” “One, we do not want to repeal” Obamacare, she added. “Two, we want to expand Medicaid . three, we want to improve on that as well as get to universal coverage.” Others are less sanguine about a single-payer approach. “We can’t pay for it, it eliminates choices, most versions...would make private health care coverage for almost all health care needs illegal, and it will diminish quality and access,” said former Maryland Rep. John Delaney. Among non-candidates, Kathleen Sebelius, former Health and Human Services secretary under President Barack Obama, said Democrats should debate a full range of options. “I think this is a great opportunity to put plans on the table and hopefully not have an early litmus test that says we only want to talk about one idea,” said Sebelius. “I want to talk about 15 ideas.” A long-time supporter of single-payer said Democrats should tread carefully. Now retired from political office, former Democratic congressman Jim McDermott of Washington said, “A single-payer system would be best if we had a magic wand, but in the real world it is going to be extraordinarily difficult to make this change.” The last industrialized nation to transition to a single-payer system was Taiwan in 1995. Princeton health policy analyst Tsung-Mei Cheng, who studied the Taiwan experience, said she believes the Democratic candidates are doing poorly explaining pros and cons. “I don’t think that the full information that would really help voters is out there,” she said. “You need to offer more specifics, and first of all about financing.” ___ Associated Press writers Elana Schor and Juana Summers contributed to this report.


U.S. teen smoking declines to record low in 2012: study.

Explanation: Cigarette smoking among American teenagers dropped to a record low in 2012, a decline that may have been partly driven by a sharp hike in the federal tobacco tax, researchers said on Wednesday.

An annual survey of about 45,000 students in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades found that the overall proportion of those saying they had smoked in the prior 30 days fell by just over a percentage point to 10.6 percent. “A one percentage point decline may not sound like a lot, but it represents about a 9 percent reduction in a single year in the number of teens currently smoking,” Lloyd Johnston, the principal investigator in the study, said in a statement. He said reductions on that scale can translate into the prevention of thousands of premature deaths and tens of thousands of cases of cancer and other serious disease. More than 400,000 Americans are estimated to die prematurely each year as a result of cigarette smoking - the No. 1 cause of preventable U.S. deaths - and most smokers begin their habit as adolescents, experts say. Healthcare advocates hailed Wednesday’s findings as evidence that higher cigarette taxes were paying off, combined with federal curbs on youth-oriented tobacco marketing and sales and a sweeping anti-smoking media campaign. The researchers also cited the increase in federal cigarette taxes, raised by 62 cents a pack in 2009, as a likely contributing factor. The findings were part of an annual survey by University of Michigan researchers released by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Smoking rates fell for each of the individual age groups surveyed, most notably among eighth graders - from 6.1 percent in 2011 to 4.9 percent in 2012, the survey found. Longer-term trends showed teen smoking rates dropping by about three-fourths among eighth graders, two-thirds among 10th graders and by half among 12th graders since a peak in the mid-1990s, researchers said. One reason cited by experts is that the proportion of students who have ever tried smoking has declined sharply. Whereas nearly half of all eighth graders had tried cigarettes in 1996, just 16 percent had done so this year. Teen attitudes toward smoking also continued to become more negative. For example, 80 percent of teens said they preferred to date nonsmokers in 2012. But anti-tobacco advocates said their battle to stamp out teen smoking was far from over, noting that 17 percent of high school seniors still graduate as smokers. Researchers singled out concerns over new forms of smokeless tobacco, including dissolvable products like Camel-branded “Orbs” and “Strips,” and a fine, moist form of snuff called snus (rhymes with “loose”), which users place under their upper lip. They said a significant portion of older teens have experimented with small cigars and water pipes called hookahs, which are becoming popular among young adults. “We cannot let our guard down when the tobacco industry still spends $8.5 billion a year - nearly $1 million ever hour - to market its deadly and addictive products and is pushing new products ... that entice youth,” said Susan Liss, executive director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.


Indonesia hunts for survivors as volcano tsunami toll nears 400.

Explanation: Indonesian military and rescue teams fanned out across a stretch of coastline on Monday, hoping to find survivors of a tsunami triggered by a landslide from a volcano that killed at least 373 people.

Thick clouds of ash spewed from Anak Krakatau, a volcanic island where a crater collapse at high tide late on Saturday set off waves that smashed into coastal areas on both sides of the Sunda Strait between the islands of Sumatra and Java. Rescuers used heavy machinery and bare hands to dig bodies out of mud and wreckage along a 100 km (60 mile) stretch of Java’s west coast. More than 1,400 people were injured, and about 12,000 residents had to move to higher ground, with a high-tide warning extended to Wednesday. The vast archipelago, which sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, has suffered its worst annual death toll from disasters in more than a decade. Earthquakes flattened parts of the island of Lombok in July and August, and a double quake-and-tsunami killed more than 2,000 people on a remote part of Sulawesi island in September. “At least 373 people have died, while 128 people are currently missing,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency, said on Monday evening. (For graphic on Indonesia tsunami disaster zone, click tmsnrt.rs/2RdjsMd)  Saturday’s tsunami destroyed more than 700 buildings, from small shops and houses to villas and hotels. It took just 24 minutes after the landslide for waves to hit land, and there was no early warning for those living on the coast. Vehicles were crushed by waves that lifted chunks of metal, felled trees, wooden beams and household items and deposited them on roads and rice fields. Nurjana, 20, ran uphill after the tsunami hit. Her beachside snack stall was washed away. “I opened the door straight away and saved myself. I jumped over the wall,” she said. “Everything is destroyed.”  Out in the strait, Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatau) was still erupting on Sunday night, belching white smoke and ash into the sky. The meteorology agency that an area of about 64 hectares, or 90 soccer pitches, of the volcanic island had collapsed into the sea. In 1883, the volcano then known as Krakatoa erupted in one of the biggest blasts in recorded history, killing more than 36,000 people in a series of tsunami, and lowering the global surface temperature by one degree Celsius with its ash. Anak Krakatau is the island that emerged from the area in 1927, and has been growing ever since. The high waves isolated hundreds of people on Sebesi island, about 12 km from the volcano. “We are completely paralyzed,” Syamsiar, a village secretary on the island, told Metro TV, calling for food and medicine. President Joko Widodo, who is running for re-election in April, told disaster agencies to install early warning systems, but experts said that, unlike with tsunami caused by earthquakes, little could have been done to alert people that waves were coming. “Tsunamis from volcanic flank collapse are generated right at the coast and often close to populations,” said Eddie Dempsey, lecturer in structural geology at Britain’s University of Hull. “The interval between the volcanic collapse and the arrival of the waves is minimal.”  The timing of the disaster over the Christmas season evoked memories of the Indian Ocean tsunami triggered by an earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004, which killed 226,000 people in 14 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia. Families streamed out of the area on Monday for fear of further tsunami, jamming roads already blocked by debris. Fishermen told how a light breeze was followed by a huge wave that smashed together wooden fishing boats moored off the coast and pulled down the trees they were tied to. Excavators were being used to move debris including piles of steel roofing tangled like spaghetti. Medics were sent in with the military, while groups of police and soldiers reached remote areas. One team used sniffer dogs to search for survivors at the beach club where a tsunami washed away an outdoor stage where the Indonesian rock band Seventeen were performing at a party for about 200 guests. They had already pulled out nine bodies that day. At a village 20 km away, district chief Atmadja Suhara said he was helping to care for 4,000 refugees, many of them now homeless. “Everybody is still in a state of panic,” he said. “We often have disasters, but not as bad as this.”  “God willing,” he said, “we will rebuild.”


Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton both seek an abortion "cutoff date" of 36 weeks, and both claim that late-stage fetuses feel no pain and have no rights.

Explanation: What's true: Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton support abortion access with few restrictions, and Clinton indicated she would agree with late-term abortion bans if provisions were included for the health of the mother. What's false: Clinton and Sanders didn't expressly seek to legalize all elective abortions up to 36 weeks, and neither candidate said that fetuses didn't feel pain or have rights.

Politics Politicians, 36 week abortion, abortion, bernie sanders

On 6 May 2016, a Facebook user published a status update, which was shared thousands of times, claiming that presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders had specific and identical plans for abortions in the United States:  The post included a photograph of a newborn baby ostensibly born several weeks early and encouraged fellow social media users to “share this post” and “get the word out.” This post employed the hashtag #Boycott36, although that tag did not appear to be part of any existing movement or initiative beforehand. A previous Facebook status update was nearly identical in substance, but that earlier post mentioned neither Clinton nor Sanders, saying only that the poster had “read” that undefined “people” want to increase the limit for abortions to 36 weeks:   Both versions were vague and misleading. We contacted a clinic that provides late-term abortions to ask about the circumstances under which such a procedure would be performed, and they told us that terminations in the 36th week of pregnancy typically occur due to a fetal incompatibility with life (that is, the fetus would not survive to term) that was somehow not diagnosed until late into the pregnancy. A May 2016 fact sheet published by Guttmacher did not include specific numbers about late-term abortions, but a chart indicated that only 1.3 percent of all abortions occurred after the 21-week mark:  In 2010, 2011, and 2012 (the most recent years for which statistics were available), the Centers for Disease Control recorded 765,651 abortions, 730,322 abortions, and 699,202 abortions respectively. A three-year average of those numbers was 731,725. 1.3 percent of that average worked out to roughly 9,512 abortions at or after the 21-week mark per year. According to Guttmacher, 43 states expressly prohibit abortion either after the fetus was viable or at a specific numerical point in the pregnancy [PDF]. The “#Boycott36” claim did not mention the fact that abortions were already illegal at or past the 20-week point in all but seven states and the District of Columbia. Both Sanders and Clinton list their positions on the issues on their campaign web sites. Clinton’s position can be found on the “Women’s rights and opportunity” section of her site, and it does not mention raising gestational age limits for abortion: Women’s personal health decisions should be made by a woman, her family, and her faith, with the counsel of her doctor. Hillary will stand up to Republican attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, which would restrict access to critical health care services, like cancer screenings, contraception, and safe, legal abortion. Sanders’ position is more detailed, but again does not mention raising gestational age limits in any way: Bernie believes in protecting a woman’s right to choose and has a lifetime pro-choice record. In 1993, he co-sponsored the Freedom of Choice Act, which aimed to bar states from restricting the right to terminate a pregnancy before fetal viability or at any time when a termination is necessary to protect the health of a woman. In an op-ed for the Huffington Post published in April 2012, Bernie wrote “We are not returning to the days of back-room abortions, when countless women died or were maimed. The decision about abortion must remain a decision for the woman, her family and physician to make, not the government.” During his 16 years in the House of Representatives and 8 years in the Senate, Bernie has consistently supported a woman’s right to choose a safe abortion. In addition to co-sponsoring the 1993 Freedom of Choice Act, Bernie voted numerous times to allow women to travel interstate for abortions, supported permitting federal funding of organizations that conduct abortions, voted to increase access and funding for family planning for women, and co-sponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2013, which prohibited many limitations on abortions. In March 2008, Bernie voted against defining an unborn child as eligible for State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and in turn defining life as beginning at conception. In light of these votes, Bernie has repeatedly received ratings of 100 percent from NARAL Pro-Choice America, and ratings of 0 percent from the National Right to Life Committee, indicating a pro-choice stance. Both Sanders and Clinton spoke about their positions on the topic of abortion during a March 2016 “Town Hall” appearance on Fox News. Sanders said he supports fewer restrictions than Clinton: While both candidates — like most Democrats — are both well known as in favor of abortion rights, they gave slightly different answers on the question of late-term abortions. Asked generally whether abortion should ever be illegal, Sen. Bernie Sanders said, “I happen to believe that it is wrong for the government to be telling a woman what to be doing with her own body.” He chided Republicans who broadly oppose government interference in people’s personal lives, “but somehow on this issue they want to tell every woman in America what she should do with her body.” Asked more specifically if he would support restrictions on abortions for pregnancies farther along than five months, Sanders simply responded, “I am very strongly pro-choice. That is a choice to be made between a woman, her physician and her family.” Clinton, by contrast, noted that she has gone on the record as in favor of some “late-pregnancy regulation that would have exceptions for the life and health of the mother.” However, Clinton stressed that she objects to the recent efforts in Congress to pass a federal law banning abortions after 20 weeks with no exceptions. “Under Roe v. Wade, it is appropriate to say in these circumstances” that abortion rights may be restricted, she said — “so long as there’s an exception for the life and health of the mother.” Neither Sanders nor Clinton have expressly argued for “36-week abortions,” nor is that policy embraced or argued for by most pro-choice groups. Only 1.3 percent of abortions occur at or after the 21-week mark, and only seven states allow late-term abortions. We were also unable to locate any statements from either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders maintaining that late-term fetuses felt no pain or had any rights. The “36 week abortion” (or #Boycott36) rumor was one of several inaccurate claims about abortion to circulate on social media during the 2016 elections. In November 2015, claims about a scientifically discredited “abortion reversal” procedure circulated, and two separate rumors misleadingly claimed support was growing for “post-birth abortions.” In April 2016, another rumor made rounds regarding an abortion doctor purportedly strangling a baby born alive, a claim that was actually based on an incident that was nearly four decades old.


Italy has stopped treating elderly coronavirus patients due to "socialized medicine.

Explanation: What's true: Italian health care workers who are overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases could be faced with decisions about allocating limited life-saving treatment to those with the most likelihood to live longest upon survival. What's false: However, Italy hasn't abandoned elderly patients to die. Instead, Italian health care workers, when faced with more patients than available equipment and capacity to treat them, may possibly be forced to prioritize treatment of those with the highest likelihood of surviving long-term.

As the COVID-19 new coronavirus disease spread across the United States in early 2020, so did anxiety, as people looked to how the virus had affected Italy, already deep in the throes of the pandemic. A social media meme exacerbated the anxiety with the claim that Italian doctors had “decided NOT to treat the elderly,” and that that was the result of “socialized medicine.” As of mid-March, Italy was the hardest-hit nation outside of Asia and had become the new epicenter for the global pandemic. As in China, where the virus was initially detected in the winter of 2019, the Italian health care system was overwhelmed by the disease. Amid fears that the United States could end up in a similar situation, a viral Facebook meme pointed the finger at Italy’s government-run health care system.The meme appears to represent both an exaggeration and distortion of news reports and events in Italy regarding the coronavirus. Readers also inquired about an article published by the British news publication The Telegraph, headlined, “Italians over 80 ‘will be left to die’ as country overwhelmed by coronavirus.” The article references a document drawn up by health officials in Turin, a city in Northern Italy hit hard by the virus, with guidelines for if and when “It becomes impossible to provide all patients with intensive care service.” In such a case, the document says, “It will be necessary to apply criteria for access to intensive treatment, which depends on the limited resources available.” The Telegraph reported that the document “produced by the civil protection department of the Piedmont region, one of those hardest hit, says: ‘The criteria for access to intensive therapy in cases of emergency must include age of less than 80 or a score on the Charlson comorbidity Index [which indicates how many other medical conditions the patient has] of less than 5. '” The guidelines were expected to affect the whole country and go into effect, according to the Telegraph, “‘If the situation becomes of such an exceptional nature as to make the therapeutic choices on the individual case dependent on the availability of resources, forcing [hospitals] to focus on those cases in which the cost/benefit ratio is more favorable for clinical treatment. '” In other words, it is not true that Italy as a whole had “decided not to treat their elderly” for the coronavirus. What is true per news reports is that overwhelmed Italian health systems that have more patients than available equipment could face “catastrophe” triage decisions not seen since World War II. That has nothing to do the fact that Italy, like other European countries, has a public health care system, or what some people call “socialized medicine.” It is instead the result of the sheer volume of cases flooding the hospitals. As of March 12, 2020, The New York Times reported that Italian officials had maintained that everyone who needed care was entitled to it. In a public statement on the matter, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte stated, “We live in a system in which we guarantee health and the right of everyone to be cured. It’s a foundation, a pillar, and I’d say a characteristic of our system of civilization. And thus we can’t allow ourselves to let our guard down.” The Times also reported that Flavia Petrini, president of the Italian College of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care, had issued “catastrophe medicine” guidelines: “In a context of grave shortage of health resources,” the guidelines say, intensive care should be given to “patients with the best chance of success” and those with the “best hope of life” should be prioritized.