A baby died at an unnamed medical facility because its parents refused to allow a black nurse to care for the child.

Explanation: Fellow Twitter users suggested @FierceFemtivist indicated she was from Louisville, Kentucky, prior to deleting her account. We were unable to locate any news reports of unusual infant deaths on 8 November 2015 in that area, nor were we able to confirm that the purported incident took place in Louisville (or at all):

On 8 November 2015, former Twitter user @FierceFemtivist published an alarming series of tweets about purportedly racist parents who allowed their child to die rather than be treated by “n***** nurses.” The tweets in question, besides appearing on Twitter (cached partially here), were circulated via Facebook and Tumblr and are embedded in full below. According to @FierceFemtivist, she “just had an infant die” that she personally “could’ve saved” because the child’s epithet-slinging, Confederate flag-bedecked father purportedly physically blocked the nurse from entering the baby’s room despite the fact that the infant was “crashing fast.” @FierceFemtivist claimed to be the most qualified caregiver in the facility but did not provide a date, facility name, medical condition, nor even a gender for the baby who purportedly died solely because it had racist parents. The child appeared merely as a footnote to the narrative of neatly-packaged racism, replete with a Confederate-flag wearing, stock redneck character. Even after the baby’s preventable death, @FierceFemtivist described its parents as unmoved by grief and simply concerned with whether a black staff member might handle the infant’s corpse. No response on the part of the hospital or other medical staffers during the critical event was described in the story; as presented, the narrative reads like the facility passively allowed a baby to die during an unspecified cardiac event for the sole reason that the parents objected to a nurse’s race (despite the fact that hospitals and Child Protective Services maintain broad protocols for such emergency interventions). The form of sure life-saving care which could only have been be rendered by that one nurse (and apparently no other on-duty caregivers) wasn’t specified in the account. Readers were left with a number of questions when @FierceFemtivist deleted her account (and along with it, the controversial tweets). Did the incident occur on 8 November 2015, the date the tweets were posted, or earlier? Where was the facility located? Why did no other nurses or doctors intervene and attempt to administer life-saving care, even if they weren’t as capable of doing so? Were police summoned to investigate the baby’s death? What was the condition and ultimate cause of death? Was the baby male or female? Were any adults (parents or medical staff) considered potentially liable for the purported death?


Bat from Shawnee County tests positive for rabies.

Explanation: A bat found in northeastern Kansas has tested positive for rabies.

Rabies, Health, General News, Kansas, Bats, Topeka

Topeka television station KSNT reports that the bat was found in Shawnee County. The Shawnee County Health Department is urging residents to be aware of the signs and symptoms of rabies and the steps to take if exposed. Rabies is a fatal but preventable viral disease that is typically transmitted by raccoons, bats, skunks and foxes. Health officials those who suspect they’ve been exposed to the disease should seek immediate medical treatment. Once a person begins to exhibit signs of disease, survival is rare. Symptoms include general weakness or discomfort, fever or headache and progress to confusion, agitation and delirium. ___ Information from: KSNT-TV.


Germany has banned pork from school canteens because it offends Muslim 'migrants.'

Explanation: What's true: Some politicians complained that less pork was being served in Germany, diluting the country's culinary cultural heritage. What's false: Germany has banned pork in any way, shape, or form.

On 7 March 2016, British tabloid Express reported that some German cafes and schools were phasing out pork products. The headline (“GERMANY BANS SAUSAGES”) naturally made some readers infer that the country had banned pork entirely. The article itself described a less alarming scenario, in which a single politician said that pork was slowly disappearing from schools and cafeterias, and extrapolating that it was because Muslims were possibly objecting to its presence: SCHOOLS and canteens in Germany have BANNED pork from their menus over fears of offending Muslim migrants, a top politician has revealed. An increasing number of public canteens, child daycare centres and schools have stopped serving sausages, bacon and ham over religious considerations. Now members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party are fighting to keep pork on the menu, insisting the consumption of pork is part of German culture. Daniel Günther, party representative, claimed that pork products were being taken off the menu in schools, nurseries and canteens across the country. He said: “The protection of minorities – including for religious reasons – must not mean that the majority is overruled in their free decision by ill-conceived consideration. The paper surmised such a “move” would deepen resentment over immigration in Germany, without specifying precisely what, exactly, was moving: The move is likely to cause tensions among residents who support the introduction of restrictions on the inflow of refugees to the country. At around the same time, readers also asked about a Daily Mail piece making a similar claim about pork, reporting that schools in a locality in England (not Germany) were replacing pork with “halal meat”: Parents have condemned a school’s decision to ban all pork products from the menu and replace other meats with halal versions. Pupils aged between three and 11 at Brinsworth Manor Infant and Junior Schools in Rotherham – which Ofsted identifies as having only a small number of pupils from minority ethnic groups – will no longer be able to enjoy sausages, bacon or ham. Parents at both schools, which share a site, were told of the decision in a letter from Rotherham Council’s principal catering officer Ron Parry, who wrote that there had been ‘minor adjustments’ to the lunch menu. While many thought this article came out around the same time as the Germany one, it was actually already two years old (from 7 March 2014), and concerned one particular area in England, not Germany. That story also contained the following reportage, which appeared to partially contradict its initial claims: The school governors at both schools are understood to have agreed to the menu change to ensure the meals are more inclusive. A spokesman for Rotherham Borough Council confirmed that school meals at both Brinsworth Manor schools have changed and now include halal and non-halal meat on the menu. She added that the Schools Catering Service supplies about 17,000 school meals every day to children at infant, junior, primary and secondary schools in Rotherham. She said: ‘The provision of both halal and non-halal is not unusual in Rotherham’s school. Currently, nine schools out of 115, select one of our menus that provide a mix of both halal and non-halal meals. ‘All meat on our menus, including halal, is sourced from reputable companies, which fully comply with the quality standards of the relevant individual meat boards.’ At any rate, the “pork ban” didn’t last even last until the end of March 2014; it was soon reversed, mostly due to pressure by far-right and nationalist political groups. On 1 March 2016, news outlet Deutsche Welle covered the matter of Germany’s vanishing pork. According to that report, politician Daniel Günther had complained about what he perceived as a decreased number of pork-based items on cafeteria menus: CDU parliamentary group leader, Daniel Günther, bemoaned on Tuesday that an increasing number of canteens, nurseries and schools are removing pork from their menu due to religious considerations. “The protection of minorities – including for religious reasons – must not mean that the majority is overruled in their free decision by ill-conceived consideration,” Günther said, arguing that tolerance also means “the appreciation and sufferance of other food cultures and lifestyles.” Günther told local German newspaper “Lübecker Nachrichten” that at least one nursery in every voting district had stopped serving pork after taking Muslim children into consideration. “The consumption of pork belongs to our culture,” he argued, adding that those who didn’t want to eat pork didn’t have to. “No one should be obliged to do so,” he said. “But we also don’t want the majority having to refrain from pork.” Deutsche Welle also provided more contextual information. According to its article, many Germans mocked the initiative and felt it was completely without merit: The CDU’s proposal was met with a wave of mockery on Tuesday, particularly on Twitter where the hashtag #schweinefleischpflicht – meaning “pork duty” – became Germany’s top trending hashtag by late Tuesday afternoon. Accompanied with an image with the words “Wurst case scenario” – wurst being the German word for sausage – Germany’s Green party tweeted: “Now we finally know what the CDU meant with dominant culture.” The WWF in Berlin also criticized the CDU proposal. “At present there is little evidence that the pork cutlet and chop must be placed on the menus of German canteens as a protected species,” the wildlife protection organization quipped. The exaggerated claims about pork bans in Germany weren’t the first of their kind to appear in British media sources. An October 2015 press frenzy centered around purported bans on pork in UK offices (nothing was banned), and in June 2015 the Daily Mail claimed Muslims demanded someone’s grandfather be exhumed (again, false). In 2014 claims circulated that KFC banned hand wipes because they were prohibited by Islam (they weren’t), and around the same time a questionable story made the rounds about a couple booted from a bus for offending Muslims by singing the theme song to Peppa Pig. While it was true one or (at most) a few German politicians “bemoaned” what they believed was a disappearing presence of pork in school cafeterias, misleading headlines indicated that there was a “ban on pork”. Finally, a number of Germans mocked the assertions as ludicrous and baseless.


Coronavirus prompts Canada to roll out safe drugs for street users.

Explanation: Canada’s Pacific province of British Columbia was already battling an opioid epidemic when the new coronavirus hit, compounding the threat to drug users, many of whom are homeless and particularly vulnerable during the pandemic.

In March, the Canadian government urged provinces to lower barriers to prescription medications - allowing doctors to provide prescriptions for controlled substances by phone and  pharmacists to deliver them - to better help citizens to practice physical distancing and self-isolation. B.C. is the first province to apply those guidelines to support people who use street drugs. Healthcare providers are  ramping up the supply of prescription drug replacements for those who live with addictions to drugs like heroin, and even dispensing some of them via unique vending machines. “We’ve taken these exemptions and we’re running with them at break-neck speed,” said Judy Darcy, provincial Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. The goal is to “bring down the number of people who are dying of overdose,” she said. The Downtown Eastside is where the majority of Vancouver’s homeless population resides. In 2019, the city had 2,223 homeless residents, about a third of whom live with opioid or methamphetamine addictions. By providing a safe supply of legal drug alternatives, the province hopes to lower a sudden spike in drug overdose deaths that coincided with the coronavirus outbreak in Vancouver. Overdose deaths in the city had been declining over the  past year with implementation of safe consumption sites and availability of naloxone overdose reversal kits. But between March 23 and 29, police in Vancouver responded to eight suspected overdose deaths, the most in a single week since August 2019. The following week, they attended eight more. Cheyenne Johnson, co-interim executive director at the B.C. Centre on Substance Use, said the region’s illicit drug supply was already tainted. The coronavirus closure of the border with the United States has exacerbated the problem by stymying illegal drug supply routes, prompting dealers to increasingly make or cut their wares with dangerous ingredients. “As the effects of the pandemic continue to unfold, the illicit drug supply is likely to become significantly more adulterated and toxic,” Johnson said. Before the new guidelines came into place, some people were able to access prescription drug replacements through special programs. In most instances, they had to get the medication from a pharmacy every day. For people using the highly potent opioid fentanyl or heroin on the street, doctors can provide the prescription opioid hydromorphone along with methadone. Dexedrine or Ritalin are  available to people who would otherwise be using cocaine or crystal meth. Days after the new guidelines were rolled out, Rupinder Brar, a physician at Vancouver’s Portland Hotel Society, said she has provided prescriptions for free drug replacements, which can be dispensed by the week. This gives her patients “a fighting chance” as supplies of illicit street drugs dwindle, along with sharply reduced opportunities to make income at a time of coronavirus shutdowns and social distancing measures. “I don’t want them to have to go to the pharmacy every day,” Brar said. Another option are specialized vending machines called MySafe. Conceived in response to the opioid crisis, they dispense drug replacements with a prescription, bypassing the need for a face-to-face interaction with a pharmacist. At the corner of Vancouver’s Main and Hastings streets, a typically busy intersection in a neighborhood where hawking pills is common, some sections of the sidewalk were virtually empty in early April. Chrissy McMullin, a Downtown Eastside resident who uses drugs, already takes opioid replacements and said she had no trouble getting a hydromorphone prescription under the new guidelines. McMullin, who lost her brother in October to an overdose, is upset it took a global pandemic to prompt access to safe drugs. “It’s a real kick in the gut, to see how quickly and easily (it got put in place),” McMullin said. “Now all of a sudden what we’ve been trying to get for years is made available.”


Wayne National Forest plans fires for tree, wildlife health.

Explanation: Nearly 2,000 acres of Wayne National Forest in Ohio will be intentionally burned over the next three months as part of the area’s fire management efforts.

Plants, Wildlife, Health, Wildlife health, Forests, Trees, Fires, Ohio, Controlled burns

Forest officials say scientists who study native plants, birds and other wildlife believe prescribed fire helps maintain healthy oak forests. They say controlled blazes help increase nutrient availability in the forest and remove some leaf litter and smaller trees and brush. That, in turn, allows more sunlight to reach the forest floor to regenerate oak and hickory trees and sun-loving plants. Officials say 1,710 acres are scheduled for controlled burns during March, April and May on the southern Ohio forest’s Ironton Ranger District. The forest supervisor says prescribed burns follow strict guidelines and take place only under specific weather conditions.


School closures will have little impact on COVID-19 control, review finds.

Explanation: School closures do not tend to help contain the spread of infections during outbreaks of disease such as COVID-19, but will have a big impact on how societies restart after lockdown, scientists said on Monday.

Data on the effects of school closures on COVID-19 are limited as the pandemic is still under way, but researchers at University College London said evidence from flu epidemics and outbreaks caused by other coronaviruses suggests their impact on the spread of the disease will be small. “We know from previous studies that school closures are likely to have the greatest effect if the virus has low transmissibility and attack rates are higher in children. This is the opposite of COVID-19,” said Russell Viner, an expert at UCL’s Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health who co-led the research. “Policymakers need to be aware of the equivocal evidence when considering school closures for COVID-19 given the profound and long lasting effect they will have on children - particularly the most disadvantaged,” he said. Millions of children around the world have been affected by school closures as governments introduced social distancing and lockdown measures to try to slow the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the new SARS-COV2 coronavirus. Viner’s research, published late on Monday in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal, said that as of March 18, some 107 countries had implemented national schools closures. To analyze the potential impact, Viner’s team reviewed 16 previous studies, including nine which looked at school closures during the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - a respiratory disease caused by a coronavirus similar to the one that causes COVID-19. Data from the SARS outbreak in China, Hong Kong and Singapore suggested school closures “did not contribute to control of the epidemic”, they said in a summary of the review. Experts not directly involved in the research said its findings were important and confirmed what many suspected: That the public health benefits of school closures were not proportionate to the social and economic costs for affected children and families. “This work suggests that ... schools could, and should, begin to reopen as soon as practicable after the initial wave of cases has passed through,” said Robert Dingwall, a professor of sociology at Britain’s Nottingham Trent University. Viner said the findings suggest countries should now “ask hard questions about when and how to open schools”. He said other measures, such as staggering school start and break times, closing school playgrounds and minimising the movement of children between classes could be considered to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading.


The state of Michigan threatened local beavers with a $10,000 per day fine for failing to remove their dams.

Explanation: After some wrangling the agency ultimately dropped the issue, but not before Stephen Tvedten found an inventive way of quickly pointing out both how ludicrous and humorous the situation was. In a way dusty legal language never could, such a letter serves to drive home the silliness of Michigan DEQ’s intractable posturing. The beavers are likely still ignorant of how close they came to being fined $10,000 a day for dam living expenses.

In July 1997, one of Stephen Tvedten’s neighbors noticed flooding on his property and traced it back to a dam on Tvedten’s stream. The neighbor complained to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on 28 July 1997, and five months later the agency responded with a letter to the offending land owner. The letter, from David Price, a local Michigan DEQ official, was blunt: The “construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of Spring Pond” was “unauthorized” because “a permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity.” The letter ordered Stephen Tvedten, the land owner, to “cease and desist” under penalty of “elevated enforcement action”:  STATE OF MICHIGAN Reply to: GRAND RAPIDS DISTRICT OFFICE STATE OFFICE BUILDING 6TH FLOOR 350 OTTAWA NW GRAND RAPIDS MI 49503-2341 JOHN ENGLER, Governor DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY HOLLISTER BUILDING, PO BOX 30473, LANSING MI 48909-7973 INTERNET: http://www.deq.state.mi RUSSELL J. HARDING, Director  December 17, 1997  CERTIFIED  Mr. Ryan DeVries 2088 Dagget Pierson, MI 49339  Dear Mr. DeVries:  SUBJECT: DEQ File No. 97-59-0023-1 T11N, R10W, Sec. 20, Montcalm County  It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of property. You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or contractor who did the following unauthorized activity:  Construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of Spring Pond. A permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity. A review of the Department’s files show that no permits have been issued. Therefore, the Department has determined that this activity is in violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Michigan Compiled Laws annotated. The Department has been informed that one or both of the dams partially failed during a recent rain event, causing debris dams and flooding at downstream locations. We find that dams of this nature are inherently hazardous and cannot be permitted. The Department therefore orders you to cease and desist all unauthorized activities at this location, and to restore the stream to a free-flow condition by removing all wood and brush forming the dams from the strewn channel. All restoration work shall be completed no later than January 31, 1998. Please notify this office when the restoration has been completed so that a follow-up site inspection may be scheduled by our staff. Failure to comply with this request, or any further unauthorized activity on the site, may result in this case being referred for elevated enforcement action. We anticipate and would appreciate your full cooperation in this matter. Please feel free to contact me at this office if you have any questions. Sincerely,  David L. Price District Representative Land and Water Management Division  Mr. Tvedten responded to the Michigan DEQ’s demand with the now widely-circulated “dam letter,” in which he pointed out that the “debris dams” he had been ordered to remove because they were constructed without permission from the state of Michigan were actually built by beavers:  Dear Mr. Price: Re: DEQ File No. 97-59-0023; T11N, R10W, Sec 20; Montcalm County  Your certified letter dated 12/17/97 has been handed to me to respond to. You sent out a great deal of carbon copies to a lot of people, but you neglected to include their addresses. You will, therefore, have to send them a copy of my response. First of all, Mr. Ryan DeVries is not the legal landowner and/or contractor at 2088 Dagget, Pierson, Michigan — I am the legal owner and a couple of beavers are in the (State unauthorized) process of constructing and maintaining two wood “debris” dams across the outlet stream of my Spring Pond. While I did not pay for, nor authorize, their dam project, I think they would be highly offended you call their skillful use of natural building materials “debris.” I would like to challenge you to attempt to emulate their dam project any dam time and/or any dam place you choose. I believe I can safely state there is no dam way you could ever match their dam skills, their dam resourcefulness, their dam ingenuity, their dam persistence, their dam determination and/or their dam work ethic. As to your dam request the beavers first must fill out a dam permit prior to the start of this type of dam activity, my first dam question to you is: are you trying to discriminate against my Spring Pond Beavers or do you require all dam beavers throughout this State to conform to said dam request? If you are not discriminating against these particular beavers, please send me completed copies of all those other applicable beaver dam permits. Perhaps we will see if there really is a dam violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Michigan Compiled Laws annotated. My first concern is — aren’t the dam beavers entitled to dam legal representation? The Spring Pond Beavers are financially destitute and are unable to pay for said dam representation — so the State will have to provide them with a dam lawyer. The Department’s dam concern that either one or both of the dams failed during a recent rain event causing dam flooding is proof we should leave the dam Spring Pond Beavers alone rather than harassing them and calling them dam names. If you want the dam stream “restored” to a dam free-flow condition — contact the dam beavers — but if you are going to arrest them (they obviously did not pay any dam attention to your dam letter-being unable to read English) — be sure you read them their dam Miranda rights first. As for me, I am not going to cause more dam flooding or dam debris jams by interfering with these dam builders. If you want to hurt these dam beavers — be aware I am sending a copy of your dam letter and this response to PETA. If your dam Department seriously finds all dams of this nature inherently hazardous and truly will not permit their existence in this dam State — I seriously hope you are not selectively enforcing this dam policy, or once again both I and the Spring Pond Beavers will scream prejudice! In my humble opinion, the Spring Pond Beavers have a right to build their dam unauthorized dams as long as the sky is blue, the grass is green, and water flows downstream. They have more dam right than I to live and enjoy Spring Pond. So, as far as I and the beavers are concerned, this dam case can be referred for more dam elevated enforcement action now. Why wait until 1/31/98? The Spring Pond Beavers may be under the dam ice then, and there will be no dam way for you or your dam staff to contact/harass them then. In conclusion, I would like to bring to your attention a real environmental quality (health) problem: bears are actually defecating in our woods. I definitely believe you should be persecuting the defecating bears and leave the dam beavers alone. If you are going to investigate the beaver dam, watch your step! (The bears are not careful where they dump!) Being unable to comply with your dam request, and being unable to contact you on your dam answering machine, I am sending this response to your dam office. Sincerely, Stephen L. Tvedten  The DEQ later claimed they were fully aware the “debris dams” were beaver dams; the issue, they said, was that the beavers who built them had long since abandoned the dams, but Mr. Tvedten had been continuing to maintain and even build up the dams himself:  The letter concerned an enforcement action directed to a tenant on property surrounding Spring Pond, which is located in Pierson Township, Montcalm County, Michigan. The tenant was observed by the downstream complainant, and has since admitted to the complainant, that he artificially built up, and maintained two abandoned beaver dams on the discharge end of the natural pond. Such an activity falls under the jurisdiction of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1194 PA 451, as amended. It is the Department’s position that in the absence of any threat to public welfare, beaver dams should be left in their natural state, that being either actively maintained or abandoned by beaver. The Department conducted an on-site inspection of the dams in August of 1997, accompanied by a Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist, the Pierson Township Supervisor and the complainant. The tenant’s actions, and a threat to the welfare of the downstream complainant prompted our correspondence of December 1997, instructing the tenant to cease and desist all illegal activity and to restore the stream to its prior condition. The owner of the property took issue with our action, and responded with his own version of the situation. It was this correspondence that has been circulating in the internet. Luis Saldivia Grand Rapids District Supervisor Land and Water Management Division 616-356-0208  For his part, Mr. Tvedten claimed that the dams had been “abandoned” because a neighbor had killed the beavers (then filed a complaint with the state because he was concerned that the untended dams would break apart and enter his property) and that no one but the beavers had ever maintained them. And contemporaneous accounts of the brouhaha quoted a Michigan DEQ spokesman as saying the agency hadn’t performed an inspection before firing off their December 1997 letter to Mr. Tvedten:  Ken Silfven, public information officer at the state Department of Environmental Quality, said that … the account was correct. He hastened to note, however, that the case was prompted by a complaint from a neighbor who was concerned about flooding caused by the dams. The department dropped its investigation after an inspection by a DEQ employee. “It probably would have been a good idea to do the inspection before we sent the notice,” Silfven said.


More infected in fresh wave of China bird flu - WHO.

Explanation: Another 23 people in China have been infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu in recent days, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday, adding to at least 24 new cases last week and confirming a fresh surge in the virus.

With many people travelling within the country for upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations on January 31, the United Nations health agency also said people should be aware of the risk that flu viruses might spread more widely. Among the new H7N9 cases, reported from several different provinces of China, was a 38-year-old man who died on January 9 and a five year-old girl from Guangdong province who became ill on January 14 and is now stable in hospital. Many of the other new patients were either in a serious or critical condition in hospitals. Several had reported recent exposure to poultry or poultry markets, but the WHO said the source of infections was still under investigation. “Given the population movement prior to Chinese New Year and potentially unpredictable behavior of influenza viruses, continued vigilance and close monitoring are needed,” the WHO’s China office said in a statement on its website. It advised people “to continue to practice good hygiene and handle food properly” but did not recommend any travel or trade restrictions. The H7N9 bird flu virus emerged in March last year and has so far infected at least 199 people in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, killing 52 of them, according to an update on Monday from the WHO’s spokesman Gregory Hartl. Several clusters of cases in people who had close contact with an infected person have been reported in China, but WHO reiterated on Monday that “so far, there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission”. Hartl told Reuters last week that the United Nations health agency had noted the recent rapid increase in human H7N9 infections and was keeping a watchful eye. “So far we haven’t seen anything that causes us to change our risk assessment,” he said. The WHO’s assessment is that “the current likelihood of community-level spread ... is considered to be low.”  Experts say the Northern Hemisphere’s winter flu season is probably largely to blame for a significant increase in the number of cases of human H7N9 infection in recent weeks after they dwindled to almost nothing in July and August of 2013. “This trend is expected to continue through the winter months,” said the WHO’s China office. Experts have warned public health authorities and doctors to be on alert for any signals that the more widely circulating virus might be adapting or mutating to become easily transmissible between people.


Explanation: This story was about a concerning trend in consumer use of unpasteurized milk. As with other potentially functional foods, there are health claims made about the product which have no supporting evidence. The real issue which should have been reported on is the potential for harm associated with consumption of raw milk. The story does not do this justice, and would have been substantially strengthened by a deeper discussion (with experts) about the health risks of unpasteurized milk.

Although the story did not contain specific price details, it did mention that the farmers can sell raw-milk and raw-milk products at a ‘thick premium’ from which the reader could gather that the costs would be more than milk which has been pasteurized. The story mentioned a number of health claims so-called ‘fans’ of raw milk postulate can be derived through the use of raw milk. (The story also included comments from the FDA in which these claims were refuted.) It should have included some critical examination of the health claims made. The story mentioned safety concerns associated with consumption of raw milk, especially by individuals who may have heightened vulnerability. (The story also included comments from people who are fans of raw milk who claim these concerns are overblown.) However, this is one area where this story could have been improved. Raw milk has the potential to make people quite ill, especially children (which was mentioned in the story) but also pregnant women, those whose immunity is compromised as well as the general public. It should have included more information about infection rates among people consuming raw milk. The story contained the arguments raised by those opposed to and in favor of increasing availability of raw milk. It included a link to a site that refutes the information put forth by the FDA and mentions some of the epidemiology evidence linking raw milk with increased disease risk. The story really only provided  anecdotal evidence from one woman who stated that she had more health problems the previous year when she did not drink raw milk. It should have included some framework for understanding the fallacy of using this type of information as the basis for health decision making. The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. The story has quotes from ‘fans’ of raw milk, a scientist with expertise in food safety, and material from the FDA. Beyond mention of raw milk and pasteurized milk, the story mentioned that two states (Washington and Maine) which permit raw milk to be sold but hold it to the same standard for bacteria counts as pasteurized milk. While the story did not list the states by name, it did mention that six states allow the sale of raw milk in stores and that 28 states allow the sale of raw milk on the farms where it is produced. The story mentioned that the FDA requirements about the sale and distribution of raw milk date back to 1987. Given multiple sources, there is no evidence the story relied solely or largely on a news release.


Explanation: Ethical investors, including the Church of England, plan to extend their campaign for miners and other big businesses to stop funding industry associations that block progress on U.N. goals to curb climate change, they said on Tuesday.

Shareholders of BHP, the world’s biggest listed miner, voted at meetings in October and November against a resolution to suspend the global miner’s membership in some industry groups, saying it was effectively paying the pro-coal lobby. Adam Matthews, director of ethics and engagement at the Church of England, told the Mines and Money conference in London on Tuesday he and other investors, representing large pension funds, would extend their campaign. “We’re really concerned incumbency is preventing the speed up towards a supportive regulatory environment,” Matthews said. He said investors planned to draw up more resolutions and would focus on the chemical and transport industries, as well as the natural resources sector, in cases where companies that accept U.N. goals on climate change are “misaligned” with industry bodies to which they subscribe. Fiona Reynolds, CEO of the Principles for Responsible Investment, which is campaigning alongside the Church of England, said in an emailed statement that negative corporate lobbying was a major reason for the slow progress towards action to limit temperature rises. “It’s completely unreasonable that companies use shareholder money to fund groups that do not act in investors’ long term interests,” she said. The ethical investors approve of some industry groups and are working with the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), which includes the world’s biggest miners, to deliver a global standard on dams that store mining waste, known as tailings. The ICMM has admitted mining has work to do to earn the trust of investors and says its members will begin implementing revised sustainability principles, which include measures to protect the climate and environment, next year.


Q: Did Democrats in Maine legalize female genital mutilation? A: No. That practice is illegal across the U.S. Female genital mutilation has been outlawed across the country since 1996. It is not legal in any U.S. state.But, an incendiary headline has been circulating on Facebook claiming: “Maine House Democrats Vote to Allow Female Genital Mutilation.”Facebook users flagged it as potentially false. It is.The underlying story is based on a recent vote in the Maine legislature, which was considering a bill that would have criminalized the practice under state law in addition to the existing federal law.The Senate and the House of Representatives in Maine failed to agree on the text of the bill, and the measure died at the end of the session on April 18. The failure of the bill, however, doesn’t mean that Maine will now “allow female genital mutilation,” as the headline claimed.Debate over the bill had been highly charged for months. The Southern Poverty Law Center published emails in February between one Republican representative and a group called ACT for America, which the SPLC has designated as hate group.ACT for America has “helped pass” female genital mutilation legislation in nine states, according to the group’s website. It has also “helped pass” legislation that bans Sharia Law and legislation that “protect those who ‘see something’ and ‘say something,'” according to its website.The American Civil Liberties Union also had weighed in on an early version of the bill in Maine, saying in a statement, “This bill is nothing more than an attempt to single out behavior that is commonly attributed to certain religious and ethnic communities as different from other forms of abuse.” The ACLU called the bill “redundant,” because “there are already severe penalties under both Maine and federal law that cover FGM.”According to a women’s advocacy group called Equality Now, there were 26 states as of September 2017 that had enacted legislation criminalizing female genital mutilation in addition to the federal ban. Those laws differ in a number of ways, including the age-range they cover and the allowance for culture as defense.Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk false stories flagged by readers on the social media network.18 U.S. Code Section 116 — Female genital mutilation. Pub. L. 104-208. 3 Jan 2012.“Maine House Democrats Vote to Allow Female Genital Mutilation.” Minuteman-Militia.com. 25 Apr 2018.128th Maine Legislature. An Act To Prohibit the Practice of Female Genital Mutilation of a Minor. Final disposition 18 Apr 2018.Southern Poverty Law Center. “Maine State Rep. Sirocki seeks support from anti-Muslim hate group for FGM bill.” SPLCenter.org. 5 Feb 2018.ACT for America. State Legislation. ACTforAmerica.org. Accessed 27 Apr 2018.American Civil Liberties Union. “Statement on FGM Bill.” ACLUMaine.org. 23 Jun 2017.Equality Now. “Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the United States.” March 2016.


Trump: Asian-Americans not responsible for virus, need protection.

Explanation: U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been accused of racism in labeling the coronavirus pandemic the “Chinese virus,” said on Monday that Asian-Americans were not responsible for spreading the disease and needed to be protected.

Earlier on Monday, the New York Times cited advocacy groups and researchers as saying there had been a surge of verbal and physical assaults on Asian-Americans reported in newspapers and to tip lines as the virus has taken hold in the United States. Trump last week ratcheted up his rhetoric against China over the coronavirus, saying Beijing should have acted faster to warn the world after the disease outbreak there. He also dismissed criticism that his labeling it the “Chinese virus” was racist. He brushed aside a reporter’s question on Wednesday as to whether it was potentially harmful to Asian-Americans to give the disease that name, as well for an unnamed White House official to have privately termed it the “kung flu.”    On Monday, Trump tweeted: “It is very important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States, and all around the world. “They are amazing people, and the spreading of the Virus.... is NOT their fault in any way, shape, or form. They are working closely with us to get rid of it. WE WILL PREVAIL TOGETHER!”  Trump repeated his remarks at a news conference with his coronavirus task force. Asked what prompted them, he replied:   “It seems that there could be a little bit of nasty language toward the Asian-Americans in our country and I don’t like that at all ... so I just wanted to make that point, because they’re blaming China, and they are making statements to great American citizens that happened to be of Asian heritage, and I’m not gonna let that happen.”  Trump has repeatedly criticized China and its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, but he has been careful to avoid criticisms of its president, Xi Jinping. On Friday, Trump said he greatly respected China and Xi, but added it was unfortunate the coronavirus began in China and got out of control. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Beijing’s delay in sharing information about the virus had created risks for people worldwide. At the same time, Trump and his administration have angrily rejected attempts by some Chinese officials to blame the virus on the U.S. military. The dispute is just the latest irritant in relations between the world two largest economies already strained by issues ranging from trade to press freedom. Speaking to AXIOS and HBO over the weekend, China’s ambassador to Washington appeared to distance himself from a foreign ministry spokesman who blamed the U.S. military for the virus, saying its origin was for scientists to determine, not diplomats. Cui Tiankai said the United States and China needed to work together to combat the virus and he hoped people would follow World Health Organization rules and avoid creating a stigma by linking the virus to a particular location.


Nerve Zap Might Ease Pain of Herniated Disk

Explanation: This story describes research results presented at a radiology meeting that compared treating patients with lower back pain from disk herniation with either a pulsed radiofrequency (pRF) probe or multiple steroid injections. We also reviewed a news release about this research. Among the story’s strengths: It alerts readers that the study — presented as an abstract — has yet to be peer-reviewed and published, and it provides cautious comments from an independent source, although they appear at the very end. However, the story leaves readers in the dark about how the treatment was evaluated and what it costs, and misses some important limitations with the evidence. It largely ignored potential harms, including the possibility that some patients might be treated unnecessarily because the cause of back pain can be difficult to diagnose. Back pain is a common problem. Often it goes away with time and exercise. But chronic pain that does not respond to conservative treatment and includes shooting pain into the buttocks and leg (sciatica) is a leading cause of disability and an economic burden. More treatment options are needed, but identifying the true source of pain is part of the battle.

back pain,pulsed radiofrequency,Radiological Society of North America

The story says pRF is “far cheaper” than steroid injections, but there’s no data on its cost. We found one web site, MD Save, offering procedures for $2,500, but it’s unclear whether that’s representative. The story could have helped readers by comparing the cost of CT-guided pRF, CT-guided steroid injections, and lumbar disk surgery. The story calls this treatment a potential “boon to back pain patients for whom standard therapies have failed,” and includes a glowing personal endorsement by the study’s lead author. Only near the end do we get a small amount of data: “By the one-year mark following either treatment, a full ‘perceived’ recovery was reported by 95% of the pRF patients, compared with just 61% of the steroid injection patients.” The story doesn’t tell readers what “perceived” recovery means and how it was measured. The story doesn’t discuss the harms of this treatment. It’s full of language — “a simple zap to the spine,” “scalpel-free,” “noninvasive,” “less risky” — that might mislead readers into being falsely assured. A procedure that introduces instruments close to the spine and makes contact with major nerve roots carries risks of infection and nerve damage. Those should have been mentioned. The story does say that “diagnostic uncertainty can undermine the ability of surgery to get at the true source of a patient’s pain.” However, we think the story should have underscored the point that low back pain is often treated unnecessarily. Even if a herniated disk shows up in imaging — which is common — it might not be the cause of a patient’s pain. That opens the possibility that some patients will undergo a procedure that won’t help them, but could do harm. This is a close call. The story deserves credit for pointing out that the research presented at a medical meeting “is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.” We also like that it quoted a doctor who cautioned that it “remains an open question as to whether the pRF procedure really cured the condition,” since back pain often resolves on it own. Still, there are other points we wish the story had addressed: Back pain is common, and this story does not disease monger. It gives a concise description of what disk herniation of the lower back is. Laudably, the story contains cautionary comments from a physician who was not involved with the study. He points out that most people with back pain “improve with time and exercise alone,” and “it remains an open question as to whether the pRF procedure really cured the condition.” We wish some of the cautions had been placed higher in the story. The story did not mention conflicts of interest, and we could not find any that the authors have disclosed. The story mentions interventions that are commonly recommended for low back pain, including waiting it out. Generally speaking, there’s no standard treatment for most back pain, and often no treatment is recommended. This story mentions this treatment has been FDA-approved, but doesn’t explain whether it’s widely available, particularly for treating spinal disk herniation with spinal nerve compression. The story explains early on that pRT is “not new” although it’s claimed that recent technology advances enable doctors to deploy it with better accuracy. The story doesn’t rely on a news release.


Kansas officials suggest alternatives to deal with pond scum.

Explanation: Kansas health and environment officials are recommending alternative ways for municipal water operators to treat toxic blue-green algal blooms that have troubled state lakes for nearly 10 years.

Plants, Algal blooms, Kansas, Lakes, Algae, Environment, General News, Water treatment

People and animals that come into contact with cyanobacteria algae might suffer diarrhea, headaches and other symptoms, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Blooms have even killed small animals that drink the contaminated water. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has detected traces of toxins related to the blooms in at least five water treatment plants. The department has suggested adding activated carbon to the water treatment process, the Kansas News Service reported. The carbon causes algae to fall to the bottom of ponds, allowing clean water to pass through. But smaller water plant officials noted that adding carbon can also be more costly. “Any time there’s an algae bloom out at the lake there’s potential for that to get into the plant and through town,” said Jamie Amlong, the water plant supervisor of Norton County. “We’re on pins and needles from the beginning of the bloom until two or three weeks after the bloom.” Amlong noted the algae have bloomed on the county’s Keith Sebelius Lake since 2014, but didn’t really affect the city of Norton’s water until drifting into the plant’s intake pipes last year. Amlong added the entire plant was then forced to close as they drained and cleaned most of the tanks in an effort to safeguard the drinking water supply. The department offers a program to subsidize water quality tests searching for toxins caused by cyanobacteria, officials said. Twenty-three of the 72 water systems that get their water from the state’s rivers and lakes signed up for the program. Robert Gavin, professional geologist of the department’s Public Water Supply section, said the program allows local water systems to avert polluted water instead of trying to reverse a problem. Previously, state park officials would detect a bloom on a lake before alerting Kansas’ public water division, which would hasten to get tests out to those sites. But bottles for raw water samples are now sent out weekly via the mail. If there’s ever a positive test result, additional bottles are sent to inspect the treated water. “After a couple of years, this will probably be old hat. They’ll kind of just know what to do,” Gavin said. “But they’re all kind of learning right now.” ___ Information from: KMUW-FM.


McDonald's in England only sells organic milk and free-range eggs, which provides more nutritious offerings than in the U.S.

Explanation: Chef Jamie Oliver praises McDonald's in England

National, Education, Food Safety, This Week - ABC News, Jamie Oliver,

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is a well-known crusader for healthier eating. So it may have come as a surprise to hear him give a shout-out on ABC's This Week with Christiane Amanpour on Aug. 29, 2010, to the fast-food giant McDonald's -- or at least the restaurants in his homeland, England. Oliver, AKA the Naked Chef, is perhaps best known to American audiences for his Emmy-winning reality program Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on ABC, in which he tried to transform the eating habits of the residents of Huntington, W.Va., statistically one of the unhealthiest cities in the country. On ABC's This Week, Oliver said the food revolution is about giving people the tools to make good, nutritious choices. But host Christiane Amanpour asked Oliver to respond to a comment David Letterman made to him when he appeared on the Late Show: "Try as hard as you might, you're never going to succeed, because we are living in a culture dominated by the commerce of selling food which is inherently unhealthy," Letterman said. Said Oliver: "In the one way, he's right. You know, the structure of commerce and food in America is so intertwined in broadcast, print media, advertising, TV. I think that the problem we have to have -- and it's an interesting one. I'll throw it back at you. Like fast food I've hated for many years. And the last two years, I like stopped. And I actually now start to see (fast food chains) ironically as part of the solution. "Now, I'll give you -- I'll give you one brand, like McDonald's. McDonald's, in England, has had its best three years ever, profitability. It only sells organic milk, free range eggs. You know, it's got an incredible standard of beef. And their ethics is really ... moving. But that's nothing like the one in the States. And the only distinguishing part is the public and what they expect." Part of the allure of McDonald's is its uniformity, that a Big Mac in New York will be the same as one in London. And so we wondered if Oliver was right that McDonald's restaurants in England really "only sell organic milk" and "free range eggs," and that, by implication, they are dramatically different and more healthy than McDonald's restaurants in the United States. We made queries with McDonald's officials in the U.S. and Britain, and neither responded, but we were able to piece together the pertinent facts from company web pages and documents. Let's break this into two parts. First, do McDonald's restaurants in England "only sell" organic milk? According to the McDonald's UK website, all of the bottled milk offered for sale in UK McDonald's (most of it sold along with kids' meals) is "semi-skimmed organic." In 2007, McDonald's UK made an even bigger commitment to organic milk, announcing that all the milk served with the teas and coffees it sells in 1,200 outlets in the UK will come from organic British cows. The company said organic farmers who supply McDonald's "don't use (genetically modified) feed or artificial pesticides in fields where their cows graze." Media reports suggested McDonald's alone could account for 5 percent of the UK’s organic milk supplies. Organic milk is not, however, used in milkshakes in the British stores. According to the website, "Organic milk is still a relatively small industry in the UK and McDonald's simply can't find a supplier that can meet the high volume demands. The company is in talks with the dairy industry about how it can facilitate more farmers switching to organic but, until the organic food supply chain can guarantee that it can supply the required amount, McFlurries, Sundaes and Milkshakes will continue to be made from non-organic milk from the British Isles." (In the U.S., McDonald's does not use organic milk.) Second, do McDonald's restaurants in England only use free-range eggs (meaning, eggs that come from hens that are not in cages and are free to roam outside)? McDonald's does, and the move generated quite a bit of positive press for McDonald's, including a "Good Egg" award from Compassion in World Farming in recognition of McDonald's Europe committing to using 100 percent free-range, cage-free eggs in all locations in the European Union by the end of this year. "We’re thrilled to be awarding such a well-known company for moving to cage-free eggs across the whole of Europe," said Dr. Lesley Lambert, Director of Research & Food Policy at Compassion in World Farming, in a press release for the award. "McDonald’s decision will benefit huge numbers of farm birds. By choosing to do the right thing on eggs across Europe, McDonald’s has shown great leadership on an issue which many consumers feel strongly about." McDonald's in the United States, however, has not embraced a similar switch. In April, the Humane Society of the United States (which owns stock in McDonald's USA) proposed to shareholders that the company switch 5 percent of the eggs it purchases for its U.S. locations to "cage-free" eggs by January 2011. The Board of Directors recommended against the switch, saying it would not be in the best interest of shareholders. "As we have examined this issue over the years, we have determined that there is no agreement in the global scientific community about how to balance the advantages and disadvantages of laying hen housing systems," the board wrote in a proxy statement. "Cage-free systems, for instance, allow birds to exhibit more natural behaviors, but may pose more risk with regard to the spread of infectious diseases. Furthermore, there seems to be a significant gap in scientific knowledge related to a wide range of sustainability impacts of laying hen housing—environmental impact, food safety, worker safety, animal health and well-being, and food affordability." According to a New York Times story about the proposal in May 2009, "McDonald’s USA announced its participation in a coalition with leading animal welfare scientists, academics, non-governmental organizations, such as the American Humane Association and the American Veterinary Medical Association, food manufacturers, egg suppliers and other retail companies to study housing alternatives for egg-laying hens in the U.S. The study will look at the sustainability impacts of different laying hen housing options, including cage-free aviary housing, enriched housing (which includes nests and perches) and conventional caged housing systems (currently used by the vast majority of the contemporary U.S. food supply system)." Paul Shapiro, senior director of the Humane Society’s factory farming campaign, said McDonald's has been "looking into" the issue for years. "There is a dramatic difference between the two companies (McDonald's in the U.S. versus the U.K.) with regard to animal welfare," Shapiro said. In April, a spokeswoman for McDonald’s, Lisa McComb, told the New York Times the disparity was due to the high consumer demand for cage-free eggs in Europe and a more robust cage-free egg production infrastructure there. Oliver doesn't explicitly argue the U.K. McDonald's restaurants offer more nutritious food, but given Amanpour's question -- and the topic of the segment -- we think many people would be left with that impression. So is it true that the organic milk and free-range eggs mean healthier food than in the U.S.? "No, that would not reliably mean better nutrition," said Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at the Yale University School of Medicine. "It appeals to the popular sentiment, without changing much about the food." One can make a case that using "cage-free" hens is more humane to the animals, Katz said, but that doesn't directly correlate to better nutrition for consumers (though it may reduce the risk of bacterial infection). As for using organic skim milk, Katz said there is definitely value, health-wise, to using fat-free milk. But the nutritional value of organic milk versus non-organic is unproven, he said. "I am a proponent of organic dairy," Katz said. "But there is no definitive evidence that organic means better health value in people. I think there's probably a potentially small movement in nutritional value. But there is a much larger movement in public perception." Katz said McDonald's could take much more meaningful steps to improve the nutritional value of its food, for example, by changing to whole wheat bread in buns or making the burgers lower in saturated fat. But just switching to organic milk and using free-range eggs doesn't much alter the nutritional value of McDonald's meals, he said. As for Oliver's comment, he's correct that McDonald's in England uses organic milk. Organic milk is served with coffee and tea, and for bottled milk. But Oliver was off a bit when he said it "only uses" organic milk. The British McDonald's stores still use non-organic milk in milkshakes. Oliver was on the mark when he noted that in the U.K., McDonald's uses only free-range eggs, while they are not used in the U.S. But when Oliver said McDonald's in England is "nothing like" the U.S. one, he implies the policies in England translate to substantially more nutritional food offerings. While the U.K. policies have drawn praise from animal rights groups, experts say it's a stretch to say they translate to better nutrition. And so we rule Oliver's claim .


	Dr. Sam Vaknin told   TruthorFiction.com that he is not the author of the article in the   eRumor but has written about the psychological make-up of Barack Obama. The forwarded email   appears to be a commentary written by someone else taken from   an article written by Dr. Sam Vaknin called “Barack Obama – Narcissist   or Merely Narcissistic?” Vaknin told us that he   is not a mental health professional but has dedicated the last 12 years   to the study of personality disorders in general and the Narcissistic   Personality Disorder (NPD) in particular. Vaknin has authored nine books   about these topics, one of which, “Malignant Self-love: Narcissism   Revisited”, is a Barnes and Noble best-seller. According to the bio   on his website, Dr Sam Vaknin was born in Israel in 1961, served in the   Israeli Defense Force as a trainer and education and earned a PHD in   Philosophy at Pacific Western University in California. Vaknin wrote several   articles about Barack Obama including an   article by the title of “Barack Obama – Narcissist or Merely   Narcissistic?” expressing his observations of the President saying that   “Barack Obama appears to be a narcissist.”   Vaknin also said that only after a series of tests by trained professionals can   one get an accurate diagnosis of the condition   “But, in the   absence of access to Barack Obama, one has to rely on his overt   performance and on testimonies by his closest, nearest and dearest.”    Click for Vaknin   website Vaknin’s article   points out the problems with narcissistic leaders such as over   exaggerated feelings of self importance and entitlement. Narcissists lack empathy, behave arrogantly and can display symptoms of   paranoia. The article also pointed out that psychologist,   Eric Fromm, had diagnosed both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin as   malignant narcissists. updated 03/10/09    Comments	https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Noted+Narcissism+Expert+Wrote+that+Barack+Obama+Appears+to+be+a%0ANarcissist+-+Truth%21+%26%23038%3B+Fiction%21&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.truthorfiction.com%2Fobama-vaknin%2F&via=erumors, https://www.linkedin.com/cws/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.truthorfiction.com%2Fobama-vaknin%2F, https://www.truthorfiction.com/lefthandedobama/, https://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.truthorfiction.com%2Fobama-vaknin%2F, https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.truthorfiction.com%2Fobama-vaknin%2F, https://www.truthorfiction.com/category/warnings/, http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com/obama.html, https://api.whatsapp.com/send?text=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.truthorfiction.com%2Fobama-vaknin%2F, https://www.truthorfiction.com/okra-cure-diabetes/, https://www.truthorfiction.com/author/truthorfiction/	mixture	Warnings
3795	Governor signs Montana’s Medicaid expansion bill.		Gov. Steve Bullock signed a bill Thursday to continue Montana’s Medicaid expansion program for another six years, as long as federal funding continues.	 Amy Beth Hanson	He was joined at the signing ceremony by bill sponsor Republican Rep. Ed Buttrey and Democratic Rep. Mary Caferro, who sponsored a separate bill that did not pass. The bill continues the program, which began in 2016, and provides health insurance to about 95,000 low-income adults. It would have ended on June 30 if lawmakers had not reached an agreement. He also held ceremonial signings for other bills to lower health insurance and prescription drug costs. “These bills continue the progress our state has made in recent years to provide quality and affordable health care to Montanans, and they will further our efforts to increase access, reduce costs, and improve the quality of care,” Bullock said. “By finding common ground and taking much-needed action now, we continue to be an example for other states to follow.” Bullock, however, vetoed a bill that sought to help insurance companies negotiate better contracts with pharmacy benefit managers — the middle man between drug manufacturers and pharmacies. The vetoed bill would have required any rebates offered by drug manufacturers go directly to the health insurers to be used to reduce premiums for policies sold through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. The office of state Auditor and Insurance Commissioner Matt Rosendale wrote the bill, saying it would have saved about 70,000 Montanans up to $8 million in the first year. The bill would increase administrative costs and result in higher drug costs, Bullock wrote in his veto letter. “Bullock’s veto is a gift to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries and a slap in the face to consumers,” Rosendale said in a statement. Bullock has signed several bills dealing with pharmacy benefit managers, including bills that would not allow PBM’s to charge pharmacies unexpected fees or prevent pharmacies from operating mail order businesses. Another bill mirrors a federal law that says PBM’s can’t prevent pharmacies from telling patients the cash price of their drug is less than their insurance co-payment. The governor earlier signed a bill, similar to one initially proposed by Rosendale’s office in 2017, to set up a high-cost reinsurance program for policies sold on the exchange. It will use premium taxes and federal money that would have been used for premium tax credits to pay medical claims that cost more than $40,000 and less than $1 million. It’s estimated the reinsurance pool will offset any insurance premium increases by 10% to 20%. Buttrey’s Medicaid expansion bill requires able-bodied recipients to participate in 80 hours of work or community engagement per month, strengthens an asset test, allows the health department to verify an applicant’s income with the Department of Revenue and increases premiums for people who stay on the program for more than two years. It also adds a tax on hospitals to leverage more federal money and increase reimbursement rates for Medicaid claims. It also includes $2.5 million to help recipients with job training. It’s estimated the Medicaid expansion program could bring about $720 million in federal funding into the state in each of the next two fiscal years. Supporters said the program created jobs, saved lives, helped keep rural hospitals open and reduced uncompensated care for hospitals, which reduces cost-shifting to insured residents. Bullock also signed bills Thursday to: — Allow Montana reservations to adopt the Community Health Aide Program, which allows dental health aides, behavioral health aides, and community health aides to work with licensed providers to increase access to health care on reservations; — Create a grant program to support local mobile crisis mental health teams that could help ease the use of law enforcement and hospital staff in the case of a mental health crisis; — Appropriate $500,000 for suicide prevention for veterans and Native American youth.	 	true	Health, Prescription drug costs, Montana, Medicaid, Bills, Steve Bullock
38791	 A study found that some hotdog brands contained human DNA. 	October 27, 2015	Human DNA Found in Hotdogs	  Rich Buhler & Staff  	Human DNA was found in about 2% of hot dogs that were analyzed in one study, but that doesn’t mean people who eat them are cannibals. Clear Labs, a nonprofit group that analyzes food at the molecular level, undertook a “Hot Dog Study” that looked at 345 hotdog and sausage samples marketed under 75 different brands and sold at 10 different retailers: Each sample we analyze is assigned a Clear Score. The Clear Score is a representation of how closely a product’s label claims match its actual molecular contents. The higher the score, the more closely a product abides by its claims. To create the score, each item is molecularly analyzed through our proprietary DNA sequencing workflow. We screen for major, medium, and minor substitution, and we deduct points accordingly. We then examine products for nutrition-content accuracy, such as carbs, fat, calories, and protein. The Hot Dog study found human DNA samples in 2% of the 345 hotdogs and sausages that it looked at. Two-thirds of that human DNA was found in vegetarian hot dogs, according to the study. Overall, 14.4% of the hotdogs and sausages that were tested were listed as “problematic” because of substituted or unexpected ingredients or hygienic issues. Human DNA found in hotdogs was classified as a hygienic issue because human hair or skin dander likely got into the product during the manufacturing process. So, it’s true that human DNA was found in hotdog samples — but that doesn’t mean that people who eat hot dogs are cannibals. The FDA allows many “defects” in processed foods that most people would find even more disgusting than human DNA. Things like maggots, rodent hair, feces, cigarette butts and mold are allowed in processed foods at allowable levels because, the FDA reports: The FDA set these action levels because it is economically impractical to grow, harvest, or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects. Products harmful to consumers are subject to regulatory action whether or not they exceed the action levels. Because hot dogs don’t appear on the FDA’s list of product defects, the agency would likely decide what action needs to be taken on a “case-by-case basis” if it confirmed the report’s findings. Comments	https://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.truthorfiction.com%2Fhuman-dna-found-in-hotdogs%2F, http://www.clearfood.com/food_reports/2015/the_hotdog_report, https://www.truthorfiction.com/category/food/, https://www.truthorfiction.com/author/truthorfiction/, https://www.truthorfiction.com/alabama-coach-paul-bear-bryant-carried-a-prayer-in-his-wallet/, https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.truthorfiction.com%2Fhuman-dna-found-in-hotdogs%2F, https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Human+DNA+Found+in+Hotdogs-Truth%21+%26amp%3B+Misleading%21&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.truthorfiction.com%2Fhuman-dna-found-in-hotdogs%2F&via=erumors, https://api.whatsapp.com/send?text=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.truthorfiction.com%2Fhuman-dna-found-in-hotdogs%2F, https://www.truthorfiction.com/barefoot-cellars-giving-away-wine-on-facebook/, http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/SanitationTransportation/ucm056174.htm, https://www.linkedin.com/cws/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.truthorfiction.com%2Fhuman-dna-found-in-hotdogs%2F	mixture	Food / Drink
11844	Donald Trump Says Joe Scarborough is party to an ""unsolved mystery"" from his time as a congressman in Florida."

Explanation: Aaron Sharockman

National, Candidate Biography, Donald Trump,


Wholly domestic communication between you and your wife can go to New York to London and back and get caught up in the (NSA) database.

Homeland Security, Technology, Terrorism, PunditFact, Edward Snowden,

Most Americans have a fuzzy understanding of exactly what the National Security Agency can and cannot see with its surveillance programs, much less what a former NSA contractor named Edward Snowden tried to do about it. That’s the finding, anyway, of informal street interviews by John Oliver’s crew at Last Week Tonight on HBO. Oliver devoted his April 5 show to the NSA spying story. It included an exclusive interview with Snowden, who is living in Russia after the State Department canceled his passport. And it included the topic of this fact-check: Can emails sent between two people living in the United States unwittingly end up on the computer screen of some NSA analyst? Oliver, who blends comedy with journalism, framed the discussion around the NSA peeping on nude pictures. Oliver asked Snowden to describe the capability of various NSA surveillance programs in relation to nude pictures sent by Americans, starting with "702 surveillance." This refers to section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. This section was added in 2008 and was renewed under President Barack Obama in 2012. Could the NSA see a picture of, say, Oliver’s privates under this provision, he asked? "Yes," Snowden said, "the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which section 702 falls under, allows the bulk collection of internet communications that are one-end foreign." After an Oliver joke about "bulk collection," Snowden continued, "So if you have your email somewhere like Gmail, hosted on a server overseas or transferred overseas or anytime crosses outside the borders of the United States, your junk ends up in the database." Oliver jumped in and asked Snowden to clarify that the racy picture — if you’ve seen the interview, you know we’re paraphrasing — wouldn’t necessarily have to be sent to Germany in order to end up in NSA storage. "No," Snowden said. "Even if you sent it to someone within the United States, your wholly domestic communication between you and your wife can go to New York to London and back and get caught up in the database." Is it really true that this situation (regardless of the content of the email) could happen, and if so, is it likely? You’ve got mail … being collected by the NSA Several experts in national security law agreed Snowden’s scenario is plausible, thanks to holes in international surveillance laws that affect data shared between Americans living in America. The law that Oliver mentioned, Section 702 of FISA Amendments Act of 2008, is labeled "Procedures For Targeting Certain Persons Outside The United States Other Than United States Persons." Going on name alone, that sounds like the opposite of a license for the NSA to collect private messages between Americans. Not necessarily. The section addresses spying on communications on U.S. soil in which one end of the conversation is foreign. Critics, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Technology and Democracy, and American Civil Liberties Union, deem it a "backdoor search loophole" that allows the NSA to get access to information on U.S. citizens. The section says the government cannot "intentionally target" citizens of the United States with its surveillance, nor can it target a person outside the country to learn more about the communications of a person who is in the United States. "Intentionally," obviously, is a pretty big gap. NSA communications spying under Section 702 does not need an individual warrant. There are a few government spying programs that we know about, through Snowden’s leaks to journalists, that operate using Section 702, including Prism and Upstream. Prism, as outlined in a leaked slide, allows the NSA to collect via court order email, chats, videos, photos, stored data and files of foreign targets from technology companies such as Google, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook. Analysts reportedly use Prism in concert with Upstream, by which the NSA collects foreigners’ communications directly from the fiber-optic backbone of the Internet. A leaked NSA slide reported by the Washington Post describes Upstream as amassing "communications on fiber cables and infrastructure as data flows past." Through those spying programs, it is possible that American-to-American email could hit an overseas server and be pulled into NSA databases even though those emails are not the target of NSA searches. The law does not prohibit this kind of "incidental" collection of Americans’ communications, as long as it was part of an otherwise valid collection of non-Americans’ information, said Stephen Vladeck, American University national security law professor. Government reports, leaks and a scathing 2011 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinion offer more proof that the NSA cannot separate out communications between Americans from the emails involving a foreigner. "NSA’s knowing acquisition of tens of thousands of wholly domestic communications through its Upstream collection is a cause of concern for the court," wrote FISC Judge John D. Bates in the declassified opinion. It’s unknown exactly how often this happens, but it does not appear unusual. "It doesn’t matter whether it’s a d--- pic or a bland email," said Andrew Crocker, a senior analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which sued the NSA to release the Bates opinion. "These are all things that can be swept up." By law, the NSA is supposed to "minimize" wholly domestic communications it obtains, said Molly Bishop Shadel, a University of Virginia law professor who represented the United States on terrorism-related matters before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court while working for the Justice Department. This could mean deleting the email or not searching or using the information, something Snowden doesn’t say. "I can’t promise the email wouldn’t end up in an NSA database," she said, "but it’s not going to be accessible to the government if it does." Other experts pointed out that we don’t know for sure what happens to these exchanges when they are collected. Jonathan Mayer, a cybersecurity fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society, said many important features of Upstream collection "haven’t leaked and remain classified," such as whether it involves bulk collection, massive-but-targeted collection or only individually targeted collection, he said. Email routes that cross international boundaries So, yes, it’s possible that an email between you and your wife or husband about the grocery list could wind up in the hands of the NSA. But to do so, the electronic footprint of that email needs to leave the confines of the United States. How likely is that to happen? Understanding how or why an email may hit an overseas server even if it’s sent to someone in the same area requires a basic knowledge of how the Internet works. But even then, it’s complicated. So we turned to technologists, who had different opinions. Predicting how an email travels to its destination once you hit "send" is not an exact science — and it can change from hour to hour. When a person sends an email, it goes through the Internet service provider to an email provider, is exchanged with another provider, and goes back to someone else’s Internet service provider. If the Internet provider is big, like Verizon, the most efficient, least congested path to route the bits of information might just be a cable that crosses a foreign country’s boundary. Chats, pictures and messages travel from senders to recipients through the Internet along fiber-optic cables, some underground and some undersea. These cables can send messages in milliseconds. "The way the network thinks about distance is very different from the way you think about distance in the real physical world," said Joseph Hall, Center for Democracy and Technology chief technologist. Hall mentioned an example using the concept of "trombone routing:" Two people could be on opposite sides of Denver, and the most efficient way to get bits of information to them may be through a cable that runs through Canada. Mayer, of Stanford University, suggested the odds are good that your message is stored domestically if you’re an American who is working within the continental United States and who is using Gmail. Mayer called Snowden’s example of an intimate picture shared between a couple in New York hitting a London server en route to its destination "hypothetically possible, but it’s unlikely." The route between providers would have to be unusual, and the connection would have to be unencrypted, he said. "There are enormous privacy implications from the one-end foreign rule, to be clear," Mayer said. "I just don’t think this is a very generalizable example." On the other hand, Hall said, "It’s not hard to see this happening at all," even though more providers are encrypting their networks in response to NSA practices. Even though Hall and Mayer have different estimations for how likely it is for a U.S. user’s communications to be transmitted over a national border at a given time, Hall agrees it’s more likely for an email to cross a border in places that don’t have a huge infrastructure. Because Snowden mentioned Google’s Gmail service as an example, we checked in with the company to figure out under which conditions this example could happen. The company has strengthened the encryption of its infrastructure as a way to dissuade the government from using "backdoor" methods of tapping its network data without its knowledge. Emails between Gmail accounts are encrypted as they go to Gmail servers, which essentially means they look like gibberish to outsiders, and as they move from Google’s data centers around the country and the world. Copies of emails could be stored in several places, including in data centers abroad, as a way to provide backups in case one center fails. If the NSA tried to collect emails between Google data centers, they may be able to pull the metadata of messages (the to and from) but not the content. If one side of the exchange is not a Gmail user, the message may not be encrypted and therefore may be more vulnerable. As for how often an email may end up in a foreign server, even if it’s between two American Gmail users, spokesman Aaron Stein said, "We aren't always able to predict how often that happens." The NSA press office did not return requests for comment. Our ruling Snowden said, "Even if you sent it to someone within the United States, your wholly domestic communication between you and your wife can go to New York to London and back and get caught up in the database." In Oliver’s context of a naked picture, the comment may be surprising. But to experts familiar with the laws governing surveillance practices and the NSA programs brought to light through his leaks, Snowden is correct that this could happen. But this isn’t the most likely scenario for most Americans emailing other Americans day-in, day-out. Moreover, the NSA is supposed to "minimize" domestic emails that get caught up in a broader sweep, either by deleting them or not searching or using the information. Snowden’s claim is accurate but misses that context. We rate it .


New Findings Show Xience Stents Are as Safe and Effective as Others

Explanation: This story is an example of what’s often missing in medical research stories in a business section. The story is about a new cardiovascular stent that may be available if it receives approval from the Food and Drug Administration. But the story does not provide much insight about the actual utility of implanting stents. The story quoted an investigator on the project as saying that there was a lower heart-attack rate in those patients receiving this new stent. However – the published study indicated that while there were fewer heart attacks, this difference was not statistically significant. Beyond this, it is a comparison of heart attack rates in individuals who received stents and does include any indication of how this rate compares to that seen in people receiving optimal medical therapy but who don’t get a stent. The story fails to deliver any independent perspective – only letting us hear from a company spokesman and one study investigator. Not everyone who reads medical research stories in a business section is interested primarily as a shareholder. Some people want more context, more on the quality of the evidence, more on the size of the potential benefits and harms, and more on what this thing is likely to cost them. This story – which reported more on the competition among or revenues for device manufacturers – didn’t help those readers. And when you think of it, why wouldn’t shareholders want that missing information as well?

The story did not project any cost of this new stent; it did provide estimates for the amount of sales revenue generated by those drug-eluting stents that are currently available to consumers. (The story also did not provide information about how much these stents cost consumers either.) There was no discussion of associated costs for the medications that need to accompany the use of these drug eluting stents. The story did not adequately explain the intended appropriate use for this new stent. The story indicated that the new stent decreased the need for repeat treatment in the target vessel and that the new stent decreased the occurrence rate for heart attacks. There was no comparison of this stent with no stent at all. In addition – as the information provided either came from the oral presentation at a conference or from the company news release – and has not been peer reviewed – the story should have been explicit about the source of the limited information it did present. The story provided quantitative data indicating that the rate at which blood clot formation occurred after implanting the new stent was comparable to the rate with one of the currently available drug-eluting stents. However there was no information about how the harms with this new stent compared with bare metal stents or no stent at all. The story included some quantitative data from the research paper published in April 2008; it mentioned some of the research findings that were presented at a recent meeting. It did not include the specific data from this meeting which is appropriate given their preliminary nature. That said, the story is really about claims that this new drug-eluting stent is better than the currently available drug-eluting stents and since the data backing that claim has not yet been reviewed by objective experts in the field, the story should have stated this explicitly. The story engaged in subtle disease mongering because in its discussion of the use for this new product to treat ‘blocked blood vessels’ it failed to acknowlege that in fact, national guidelines don’t recommend the use of stents to treat all blocked coronary arteries, only those through which flow is occluded 70% or more. The story would have benefited greatly by including comment(s) from someone other than a company spokesperson or someone involved in the study. This could have provided readers with some insight about what this new product might add to the field. The story did not even provide a clear picture of what would be involved in treatment using the medical device highlighted, let alone outline the other options available for those with cardiovascular disease. It’s clear from the story that the stent in question is not yet approved by the FDA. The story was about one more drug-eluting stent that may come on the market but it was unclear about how this stent differs from those currently on the market. We can’t be sure if the story relied solely or largely on a news release, but the quantitative information about the benefit of this product appears to rely on the company news release. If not, the story should have explained where it came from. We do know the story only included comments from the company and from someone involved in the study – no independent perspectives.


Italy looks to safeguard biomedical valley leading fight against COVID-19.

Explanation: Italy plans to tighten health checks to ensure that work is not disrupted in a small northern town specialising in the production of medical supplies to tackle its coronavirus crisis.

The area snuggled around the medieval town of Mirandola has become a focus for desperate health authorities seeking to source equipment in the European country where COVID-19 has taken the most deadly toll. Already home to a cluster of companies making high-end products for dialysis, heart surgery and transfusions, it has found itself on the front line of efforts to treat patients during the pandemic. “This is a key strategic sector that we need to nurture and we’re going to make sure it stays open for business,” said Sergio Venturi, coronavirus czar for the northern region of Emilia Romagna where Mirandola is located. The idea is to ask companies to carry out swab tests on their employees to help monitor the health of workers in an area deemed of national strategic interest. Faster tests being developed in a nearby laboratory could also come into play once validated. “What we’re looking to do is ask for daily screening for all staff in the area so there’s no risk of the virus leading to a shutdown. We can’t afford that,” Venturi told Reuters. The measures underline the importance of the hub, created around 50 years ago by the pharmacist and entrepreneur Mario Veronesi. Mirandola, which has a population of only around 24,000,   plays host to about 100 high-tech medical companies including Germany’s Fresenius SE (FREG.DE), ventilator multinational Medtronic (MDT.N), and UK respiratory support group Intersurgical. Companies have been working flat out on coronavirus-related production such as filters and circuits to help supply oxygen, and disposable medical items to hook patients up to ventilators. Production in the area, badly damaged in a deadly earthquake eight years ago, has shot up by more than 20%. Dimar, one of a handful of companies producing respiratory helmets, had police and staff from Italy’s Civil Protection unit knocking on its doors to take stock back to neighbouring Lombardy, one of Italy’s worst affected regions. The company, which supplies emergency departments in around 125 hospitals, has ratcheted up output of its face-covering helmets that allow patients to be treated away from overwhelmed intensive care units. “We wanted to double production but it’s just not possible since that would require building plant and that takes more than six months,” Dimar founder Maurizio Borsari said, adding that problems faced by suppliers, transport bottlenecks and a shortage of raw materials was also holding up work. Borsari said police patrols in the district had risen sharply since the crisis started to protect businesses. A dearth of equipment such as surgical masks and ventilators has left hospitals and medical staff across the north struggling to cope, and concern is growing the spread of the virus to the poorer south could cause some health systems there to collapse. It was another Mirandola company, UK-based Intersurgical, that in 72 hours last month built a prototype circuit developed by an Italian medical team allowing two patients to use the same ventilator – effectively doubling capacity at a stroke. Giuliana Gavioli, regulatory director at German dialysis and blood product group B. Braun, points to the role of local expertise in underpinning broader efforts to fight COVID-19. “They’re giving special status to this district because of its biomed pedigree and they want to get a task force in place to move on a series of fronts such as identifying product lines that can be converted to produce vital equipment and medical devices,” she said. She points to the example of recent start-up Tecnopolo, which has around 20 researchers. Set up in 2015 to provide biotech research services, it now concentrates on certifying the masks made by a legion of companies around the country that have switched from other product lines such as fashion. “Work has ballooned. We’re in contact with around 250 companies across the country that want their production lines authorised,” says Tecnopolo coordinator Laura Aldrovandi.


Microsoft owns patent "666," which involves inserting microchips into people to mine their activity for cryptocurrency purposes.

Explanation: What's true: Microsoft published a patent for a "cryptocurrency system using body activity data." This patent is filed under the number WO2020060606A1. What's false: The number WO2020060606A1 contains three "6's" but is obviously not the same as "666." This patent focuses on tracking body activity via wearable technology, such as a smart watch, and makes no mention of implanted microchips.

The spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease in 2020 sparked a flurry of conspiracy theories concerning where it originated, how it spread, and who was responsible for it. One such theory blamed the disease on Bill Gates and claimed that the former Microsoft CEO had started a pandemic so that he could insert microchips into people around the globe under the guise of providing vaccinations or for other purposes. This conspiracy theory is propped up by little more than coincidences and misinterpretations. For instance, in April 2020 social media users started to share a link to a patent supposedly owned by Microsoft that pertained to the micro-chipping of individuals for financial gain. This patent was especially insidious, users claimed, because it carried the numbers “666,” the biblical mark of the devil, and the letters WO, which they claimed stood for the “World Order.”    The above-displayed screenshots pertain to a genuine patent filed by Microsoft. However, this patent does not involve a plan to microchip individuals, “WO” does not stand for World Order, and one has to ignore the existence of 11 other characters in order to arrive at the conclusion that this patent carries the devil’s number. This patent is for a “cryptocurrency system” that “uses body activity data.” Microsoft Technology Licensing applied for this patent in June 2019, and the patent was published a few months later in March 2020 under the number “WO2020060606A1.”  The patent, which has not been granted as of this writing, makes no mention of microchips. The diagrams included in this patent (and shown in the screenshots above) show how the “person,” “user device,” and “sensor” are all distinct items. The text of the patent further explains that the “user device” in the diagram may include wearables, such as a smart watch, or cell phones, laptops, or tablets: User device 130 may include any device capable of processing and storing data/information and communicating over communication network 120. For example, user device 130 may include personal computers, servers, cell phones, tablets, laptops, smart devices (e.g. smart watches or smart televisions). An exemplary embodiment of user device 130 is illustrated in FIG. 6. The patent provides two options for the sensor. First, the sensor could be incorporated into one of the aforementioned devices, such as a smartphone. The “sensor” may also be its own standalone component: Sensor 140 may be configured to sense the body activity of user 145. As illustrated in FIG. 1, sensor 140 may be a separate component from user device 130 and be operably and/or communicatively connected to user device 130. Alternatively, sensor 140 may be included and integrated in user device 130. For example, user device 130 may be a wearable device having sensor 140 therein. The sensor 140 may transmit information/data to user device 130. At no point in this patent does Microsoft suggest that the sensor would be a microchip implanted into a person’s skin.