Explanation: We would have liked to have seen a little more detail about the following:   Yes, this approach is being studied for lung, bone, liver and kidney cancers, but it can’t be emphasized enough how preliminary are these findings from this one Italian study that was reported. And a US audience was given no perspective on how/whether it’s being analyzed here.

The story says that the procedure “costs about $2,000, takes about an hour, and the patient is typically kept overnight in the hospital for observation.” That’s good information. Whether most insurance companies cover the therapy would have been good additional context. And the story could have included the costs for complications from the procedure – with 8 of the patients experiencing partial lung collapse with respiratory symptoms, this drives up the cost substantially. Nonetheless, we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. The story says that microwave ablation “eliminated lung tumors in 19 of 28 patients. Eight months later, none of the tumors had come back.” It also paraphrases one of the study’s authors saying “Tumors shrank or stopped growing in the other nine patients”. We were glad to see additional comments later in the story pointing out that eight months is not enough time to determine whether cancer is going to return. Taken as a whole, the story shows readers that the results of this therapy — while dramatic at first glance — require further research. The story explains the short term harms associated with the therapy, noting that there were no “major complications” and that eight of the 28 patients “had temporary trouble breathing due to a partially collapsed lung, but all got better on their own within a week.”  It would help to provide further information about whether those collapsed lungs required additional monitoring or hospitalization days. The information about the quality of the evidence was a bit scattered, but we think most readers would see that far more work needs to be done to establish microwave ablation as the first choice for cancer patients. The story calls it a “preliminary study” and notes that findings were presented at a Radiological Society of North America conference. The story included boilerplate language at the end about why these findings should be considered preliminary for that reason. The story also notes a key limitation in the study, which is how long patients were followed. It says that patients should be followed for at least five years before declaring that the therapy has adequately eliminated any tumors. We have a problem in this category. The story lists the total numbers of patients in the US living with lung cancer, when in fact the therapy is only being tested/applicable to patients with inoperable lung tumors. This greatly overestimates the number of people for whom this therapy might be applicable. It would have been possible to provide an estimate of the number of inoperable tumors. The story quotes one independent source: American Society of Clinical Oncology spokesman Gregory Masters, MD, a medical oncologist at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center. More sources could have deepened our understanding of the technique. The story spells out both the current treatment options and potential new therapies. It says, “Standard treatment options include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Researchers are looking at a number of ways of destroying tumors with heat from radiofrequency waves or by freezing it, for example.” But the story could have given even a little information about how the tumor reduction rates in this preliminary study stack up against chemotherapy and radiation. Readers are really only told that this was a study in Italy and that “US researchers say the technique certainly shows promise.” The story does not make it clear whether a patient could expect to have this technique performed in a typical hospital or how many clinical trials are currently ongoing involving microwave ablation. As with the “availability” criterion, the novelty of the technique is a bit of a mystery, although the story does say that “microwave ablation is being studied for the treatment of liver, kidney, and bone cancers.”  How long has it been studied or in use? We’re not given a clue. It does not appear that the story relied solely on a press release.


Obesity Surgery Helps Diabetic Patients Kick Medicines

Explanation: As you’ll see, our critique of just the "Evidence" criterion was almost as long as the entire blog story, but we think the points we raise about evidence are essential – no matter the story format or its perceived limitations. Good job analyzing costs. No independent sources quoted; we would like to hear from an independent expert who could address the evidence questions we raise.

Health care spending before and after the surgery is a key point in this story. The story also includes an estimate of the cost of stomach-reduction surgery. However, neither the story nor the study offer a comparison of the spending of these patients to that of people who do not have this type of surgery. Our primary reviewers (a journalist and a physician) were split on this one. The journalist said that the story reports specifics of how many participants in this study stopped taking diabetes medications following stomach-reduction surgery, but it does not provide any context. All of the study participants were extremely obese and had diabetes. How many obese people have diabetes? Readers are not told. How many people with diabetes are so obese that they may be candidates for stomach-reduction surgery? Readers are not told. How does the reduction in health care spending following surgery compare to the spending trends of other people who are obese and have diabetes? Readers are not told that the study did not explore that question.


Missouri "is leading the country when it comes to improving services for mental and behavioral health. Innovation is happening right here.

Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt has been on a mission to expand access to mental health and behavioral health patients. He believes it should be treated the same way as physical health. Blunt spoke recently in Springfield about the importance of the Excellence in Mental Health Act, which he first introduced in 2014. "After visiting community health centers and certified community behavioral health clinics across Missouri, I’m proud to see firsthand how our state is leading the country when it comes to improving services for mental and behavioral health. Innovation is happening right here," Blunt said Oct. 13. Access is improving, but has Missouri become the leader in championing this cause? Steps taken We reached out to Blunt’s office, which referred us to a press release from Missouri Coalition for Community Behavioral Healthcare. Download PDF Missouri was one of the eight states initially selected to participate in the pilot program of the Excellence in Mental Health Act. This is a demonstration program that would implement a Medicaid prospective payment system for community behavioral health services. Being one of the few selected for this pilot program already puts Missouri ahead in the nationwide effort to improve mental and behavioral health services. Debra Walker, director of the Office of Public and Legislative Affairs for the Missouri Department of Mental Health, agrees with Blunt. She believes Missouri has become a national leader in the expansion of mental and behavioral health services, pointing to many of the new initiatives taking place in the state. Others shared this view. "Sen. Blunt has truly been an asset in representing the state of Missouri in areas relating to mental health services and has historically been a strong advocate for our most vulnerable population," said Denise Mills, vice president of corporate relations for Burrell Behavioral Health. Brent McGinty, president of the Missouri Coalition, agrees, stating that Missouri is paving the way in "whole-person" health. "Our health care home program is leading the nation in results around cost reduction and physical health improvement among the 25,000 Missourians we serve," McGinty said. As a representative of all of the Missouri Certified Community Behavioral Health Centers, McGinty said Missouri is currently working with law enforcement and developing a statewide system to better address behavioral health crises. "It’s hard to really say which state, if any, is leading the country for providing services for mental and behavioral health," said Ronald Honberg, senior policy advisor for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Honberg points out that there is no system in place for measuring this. "It’s fair to say that Missouri has been innovative," said Honberg, pointing to Senator Blunt and Joe Parks as champions in the cause in improving coordination between mental and behavioral health. Parks is the Medicaid director for the Missouri Department of Social Services and a member of the National Council for Behavioral Health. Some of the innovative work Missouri has been doing is with Emergency Departments and Mental Health First Aid, which are considered cutting edge across the country. Future of mental and behavioral health Currently there are no statistics to show where Missouri stands in improving services for mental and behavioral health as part of the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic demonstration, but measures are to be reported to the federal government according to McGinty, president of the Missouri Coalition. "Under the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic demonstration, sponsored by Senator Blunt, we will finally start reporting to the federal government real behavioral health measures," McGinty said. Recently, Sens. Blunt and Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, along with Reps. Leonard Lance, R-New Jersey, and Doris Matsui, D-California, announced this would be expanded to 11 more states. With the inclusion of more states it will more likely create distinctions in who is and is not leading the nation in regard to improving services for mental and behavioral health. As of now, Missouri is implementing new measures to address whole-person care. Some of these initiatives include a partnership for Hope Waiver for Developmental Disabilities and the construction of a new, state-of-the-art, high security facility at Fulton State Hospital. "The state that actually is moving ahead fastest, gets the most done, where access and quality are both being addressed, the state that not only comes to my mind but everyone in the field’s mind, is Missouri," said Linda Rosenberg, CEO of the National Council for Behavioral Health in a 2016 press release. Our ruling Blunt said Missouri "is leading the country when it comes to improving services for mental and behavioral health." Under the demonstration program sponsored by Blunt, Missouri will start reporting real behavioral health measures to the federal government. The reports will include information regarding time between request for treatment and treatment, hospital follow-up and medication adherence. Experts agree that Missouri has started several new initiatives to improve and innovate when it comes to services for mental and behavioral health. We rate this claim .


From Eurovision host to coronavirus care, Rotterdam venue changes tune.

Explanation: Rotterdam’s Ahoy concert hall had been gearing up for the glitter and glamour of next month’s Eurovision song contest - but on Wednesday it opened its doors to medics instead as the Netherlands’ newest care centre for coronavirus patients.

The venue has capacity for 680 hospital beds in its halls, normally used for concerts, trade fairs and international sports events, and the first 80 have now been installed. “We have built it in the last two weeks and now I am organising all the nurses and doctors who are going to work here,” the newly christened Care Centre Ahoy’s director Hugo Keuzekamp told Reuters. It is expected to open for patients on Monday, he said, and will treat people with the coronavirus or other illnesses who do not require hospital admission. The number of coronavirus infections in the Netherlands has risen rapidly since the first case was reported on Feb. 27, topping 28,000 as of Wednesday, with more than 3,100 deaths. But in recent days reported hospital admissions have levelled off below 200 a day, leading to speculation that the Ahoy might not need to take in any patients at all. “Well that would be good news, because ...that would mean that our (existing) care system ...is (coping),” said Saskia Baas of the Rotterdam-Rijmond health services. The Ahoy was picked to host Eurovision after Dutch singer-songwriter Duncan Laurence won last year’s event in Tel Aviv with a song called “Arcade”. The epidemic forced organisers to call off the 2020 contest in March.


Georgia woman gets life sentence in boyfriend’s slaying.

Explanation: A Georgia woman convicted of shooting her boyfriend to death then confessing to the crime at a mental health facility has been sentenced to life in prison.

Columbus, Shootings, Mental health, Health, Crime, Georgia

The Ledger-Enquirer reports 45-year-old Yashicer Alexandra Pritchett was found guilty of felony murder on Monday for the 2018 attack on her boyfriend, 51-year-old Tommy Ellis Marshall Jr. Under her sentence, she’ll be eligible for parole. Prosecutors say Pritchett and Marshall had a dispute over him talking to another woman. Crime scene evidence showed she shot him in the neck as he bent over to fix a TV. Prosecutors added that Pritchett checked herself into a mental health center afterward and called 911 the next day, telling dispatchers Marshall was hurt and someone should check on him. Police found his body days later. ___ Information from: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, http://ledger-enquirer.com


Coca-Cola is an effective solution for eliminating head lice.

Explanation: Coca-Cola is not an officially endorsed product for removing head lice, and while some people may have found the beverage to be seemingly effective on an individual basis, there is no evidence that this is a reliable method of lice removal. If you’re trying to get rid of your nits, it’s probably best to stick to the tried-and-true methods: a lice comb, medicated shampoo, and patience.

In February 2016, a meme asserting that the soft drink Coca-Cola was an effective solution for eliminating head lice began circulating on social media. Although this claim has frequently appeared in answers to lice-related questions on web sites such as MamaPedia and Budget 101, it has not been vetted by any authoritative source. The Coca-Cola lice remedy is also mentioned in the “miscellaneous treatments” section of Itch No More, an Australian business that specializes in head lice removal, but the company provides no information on how that method ostensibly works: Miscellaneous treatments:  Vaseline, Tea Tree Oil, Olive Oil, Mayonnaise, Kerosene, Coca Cola, Hair Dye, Raid, Lysol, Dog Shampoos, Vinegar The best approach to treating head lice:  Many decisions about treating head lice is best approached with an understanding of the biology of the lice. When exploring lice treatment options, consider the life cycle of the head lice and when they are most vulnerable. Adult head lice are able to lay as soon as they reach full size and continue doing so for their entire 30 day life span resulting in as many as 100 nits per lice. This means that even if you get rid of all the adult lice, there will be plenty of viable nits and immature nymphs to take their place and repeat the cycle if they are not removed or killed during the initial lice treatment process. The National Pediculosis Association, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about head lice infestations (and selling lice combs, a removal method that’s endorsed by the American Academy of Dermatology) said in an e-mail response that they had never heard Coca-Cola as a lice remedy, nor could they provide any scientific reasoning why it would work: For what it is worth — nits on hair sold to wigmakers remain glued to that hair even after repeatedly being dipped in chemicals to remove all the color from the hair and [being] dyed again for a new wig. But nits remain stuck to the hair. We don’t know of anything that truly loosens the glue beyond the use of a physical method. The organization stated that the effectiveness of these methods, such as Coca-Cola, may only appear to work due to the determination of the parents: Many who try “alternatives” have already had failure with readily available pediculicides from the local drug stores. If there is success with such alternatives, we suspect that it may have to do with motivation and the “parent power” behind the effort rather than any particular pediculicidal or ovicidal property. Effective screening and combing is the ultimate complement to whatever course of action an individual selects. It is impossible to obtain independent scientific data as to the effectiveness and safety on many of the different ideas being circulated about “natural” remedies. Ultimately, it will always be the “parent power” behind the effort that makes the difference.


FDA takes fresh step towards curbing U.S. nicotine addiction

Explanation: This Reuters story reports on a new FDA proposal to lower nicotine levels in cigarettes in order to reduce the addictiveness of smoking. It’s thought that such a move would help current smokers to quit their habit while also reducing the likelihood that those experimenting would get addicted. The story hits many bases, but doesn’t spend enough time discussing the evidence behind the proposal. Smoking contributes to many diseases, including heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, and cancer. The CDC says smoking is the leading cause of preventable death — worldwide and in the US. Because of its impact on the health of Americans, any intervention that aims to reduce smoking is worthy of news coverage.

This is a proposal for reformulating a product already on the market. Also the cost is not closely tied to their contents — cigarettes are among the most highly taxed products in the US. It’s too early to know if cigarette costs would be altered by this proposal, so we’ll rate this as not applicable. The story informed readers that the FDA’s own analysis predicts “would help 5 million smokers quit within a year and prevent more than 33 million teens and young adults from becoming regular smokers by the year 2100.” We think more could have said about the data this was based, but we address that below, in evidence quality. The story did not mention possible harms of introducing low-nicotine cigarettes, namely that it might encourage current smokers to smoke more to get their usual dose or make people think the cigarettes aren’t as harmful, so they aren’t as cautious about intake. In that scenario, smokers would be inhaling more of the toxic smoke that causes damage to the lungs. We think it’s important to share with readers if researchers have looked into this, and if it’s indeed a concern, as NPR did. While the story gave a brief description of the benefits of lowering nicotine levels in cigarettes, it provided no information about how those numbers were obtained. It didn’t even mention that the data were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, as many other outlets did. No disease-mongering here. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths, according to the CDC. The story contained information from two FDA officials, one quote from an antismoking group (the identical quote was found in several different news stories), and a comment from a cigarette maker. We only wished that there was an outside source commenting on the quality of the projected benefits or of the possible harms of this plan. The story mentioned e-cigarettes in passing and mentioned the FDA’s efforts to tackle smoking in general. However, there are a host of ways that federal policy might tackle smoking rates in this country that were not raised, including outlawing menthol cigarettes, placing further restrictions on advertising, and adding stronger language or graphic warnings on cigarette packaging. It’s clear that lowering nicotine in cigarettes is in the proposal stage. The story makes very clear that this is a new and sweeping effort by the FDA to reduce smoking rates in the US. The story did not appear to rely solely on a news release.


Manuka honey, as a topical treatment, is better than all known antibiotics.

Explanation: While there is growing evidence to suggest an important role for manuka honey for wound care and recalcitrant infections, the research is too preliminary and largely untested on humans to truly know its complete potential, and it is certainly too preliminary to suggest it is “better than all known antibiotics.” As such, we rank this claim as mostly false.

Medical, antibiotic resistance, honey, manuka honey

Despite celebrity endorsements from Gwyneth Paltrow and other actresses-turned-lifestyle brands, humans have used honey as a treatment for skin ailments and infections for thousands of years. Early practitioners may not have known why, but, later scientific discoveries elucidated one of the primary reasons behind honey’s success as an antiseptic — it naturally produces hydrogen peroxide when diluted, per a 2014 review paper: All undiluted raw honeys restrict microbial growth due to their osmolarity and acidity. On dilution many honeys produce low, sustained levels of hydrogen peroxide by the oxidation of glucose by glucose oxidase. Since 1989, however, a growing body of work has suggested that one particular kind of honey called manuka honey, found in New Zealand and Australia and derived from bees that feed on the manuka bush (Leptospermum scoparium), appears to have additional antiseptic and antibiotic properties likely attributed to something beyond the hydrogen peroxide. Later research, beginning in 2008, determined that the main compound responsible for this increased antimicrobial activity is a chemical called methylglyoxal (MGO), a byproduct of the bee’s honey production. Some manuka honey contains up to 100 times more MGO than other honeys. It is against this backdrop of scientific research that viral news stories and specialty honey distributors frequently extol the virtues of manuka honey. Yet, exaggerations are frequent. In viral post from January 2017, the website Healthy Holistic Living made this claim of the honey: Not all honey is created equal. While the benefits of raw, unprocessed honey have been well-documented over the centuries, Australian researchers have found one type of honey, called Manuka honey, to be better than all known antibiotics. That story, as well as a similar post on the missed-bee-pun-opportunity website bewellhub.com from October 2017, highlights research from October 2010 and January 2015 (not exactly breaking science news) to suggest manuka honey has potential to avoid antibiotic resistance. They claim it could fight some strains of Staphylococcus aureus, which can develop marked resistance to antibiotics in the form of MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: In the aforementioned studies, Australian researchers found that the honey killed every bacteria or pathogen it was tested on […]. The honey can be applied topically to help fight against infections of the skin, cuts and insect bites, or taken internally. The most exciting difference with the manuka honey that was tested is that none of superbugs killed by the honey were able to build up immunity, a common problem with today’s antibiotics. The older 2010 study, published in the European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, is a preliminary, but not definitive, suggestion that treating wounds with honey does not result in honey-resistant bacteria, but this research was not performed on human test subjects, and was instead performed using the tightly controlled conditions of a petri dish: Two cultures of bacteria from reference collections […] and four cultures isolated from wounds […] were exposed to sub-lethal concentrations of manuka honey in continuous and stepwise training experiments to determine whether the susceptibility to honey diminished. Reduced susceptibilities to manuka honey in the test organisms during long-term stepwise resistance training were found, but these changes were not permanent and honey-resistant mutants were not detected. The risk of bacteria acquiring resistance to honey will be low if high concentrations are maintained clinically. While it is accurate to suggest this study showed that manuka honey “killed every bacteria or pathogen it was tested” on, it would be inaccurate to suggest that evidence from two specific strains of bacteria and four heterogenous samples taken from wounds suggest broad superiority over antibiotics in all cases. In fact, much of the current research on manuka honey is focused on the possibility that, medically, it could be used in combination with other antibiotics, primarily for hard to fight infections like MRSA. The more recent 2015 study highlighted in the bewellhub.com post and published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, primarily addressed that issue looking at a variety of Staphylococcus infections: We demonstrate that manuka-type honey combined with [one of four tested] antibiotics frequently produces a synergistic effect. In some cases when synergism was not observed, there was a significant enhancement in antibiotic susceptibility. Some strains that were highly resistant to an antibiotic when present alone become sensitive to clinically achievable concentrations when combined with honey. However, not all of the S. aureus strains tested responded in the same way to these combinational treatments. Our findings support the use of NZ manuka-type honeys in clinical treatment against S. aureus-related infections and extend their potential use as an antibiotic adjuvant in combinational therapy. This study, like the one discussed before, was done using cultures, and was not performed on actual human subjects, as well. In a 2014 paper reviewing the available science for manuka honey as a topical treatment for infections, the authors suggest that there is certainly potential for manuka honey, but more human trials will need to be conducted to get a clearer picture and gain widespread acceptance: Despite accumulating evidence of the efficacy of manuka honey in inhibiting wound pathogens in vitro, substantive in vivo data are required because practitioners influenced by evidence-based medicine are likely to need objective clinical evidence before they risk adding manuka honey to their armament as a first-choice topical treatment. Since laboratory studies carry little weight in the hierarchy of evidence, suitable funds must be found to support clinical investigation. An effective topical antimicrobial could have a significant impact on the fight to limit the spread of MRSA in healthcare establishments.


China expands switch from polluting coal heating in 2018: environment minister.

Explanation: China expanded its coal-to-gas and coal-to-electricity projects to 35 cities in 2018 from 12 cities the previous year, China’s environment minister, Li Ganjie, said on Monday, as the world’s second-largest economy stepped up its fight against smog.

China’s winter heating program used to burn an estimated 400 million tonnes of coal a year, and switching it to cleaner types of fuel was identified as a major part of the country’s war on pollution, now in its sixth year. The program to convert households to low-emission heating ran into difficulties last winter amid widespread natural gas shortages, but 4.8 million households still managed to make the switch from coal to natural gas and electricity last year, up from 4 million households switched in 2017, Li said. China has also installed ultra-low emissions technology at more than 80 percent of its total coal-fired power generation capacity, Li added. But, speaking to journalists at a press conference on the sidelines of China’s annual parliamentary meeting, Li warned that despite the strides made in 2018, China’s war on smog was getting harder. “In reality the pressures are huge and it isn’t easy to be optimistic about the trends,” he said. “The things that could easily be done have already mostly been done, and the things that need to be done afterwards are much harder.”  While China cut the share of coal in its total energy mix to 59 percent last year, down from 68.5 percent in 2012, it remained too high, he said. There were also still regional disparities in the way environmental protection was being enforced, he said. China said last week that it would implement special emissions restrictions for a third consecutive winter, after Premier Li Keqiang told parliament that the state would continue to strengthen pollution controls in 2019. China’s economy expanded at its slowest rate since 1990 last year, and the environment ministry has been at pains to state that it would not relent in its efforts to curb pollution. However, though concentrations of hazardous small particles known as PM2.5 fell overall last year, they rebounded over winter, with averages in 39 smog-prone northern cities up 13 percent over the October-February period.


Every child in Colorado who has been given medical marijuana for treatment for seizures has had diminished seizure activity.

Explanation: Lawmaker: Studies show medical marijuana reduces seizures

Georgia, Children, Health Care, Marijuana, Allen Peake,

An important debate is ongoing in the Georgia Legislature concerning the use of a form of medical marijuana to treat certain forms of seizures. The state’s House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed House Bill 885, which would allow for the use of medical research cannabis in specific cases. The bill’s supporters are anxiously hoping the Georgia Senate will adopt the legislation. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s new Legislative Navigator gives it a 27 percent chance of passing this session. The bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, offered what appeared to be a persuasive argument to support the legislation. "(In Colorado), 100 percent of children have seen diminished seizure activity," Peake told fellow House members in the discussion before the bill was passed. PolitiFact Georgia wondered whether Peake’s statement was correct. Peake and other leading House Republicans did not plan to advocate this session on legislation that involves medical marijuana, particularly in an election year. Peake said he was persuaded to get involved after meeting a 4-year-old girl from his area named Haleigh Cox who suffers from a severe seizure disorder. Peake said he received the information he used to base his claim from the Realm of Caring, a Colorado-based organization that has attempted to provide care to patients suffering from cancer, AIDS, Parkinson’s disease and other conditions through the use of medicinal cannabis oil. Some Georgians have moved to Colorado to seek treatment for their children. Peake clarified his statement, saying that it was actually 98 percent of patients who had diminished seizure activity. Marijuana contains about 60 chemical components called cannabinoids. The cannabinoid that the bill’s proponents are considering is cannabidiol. It would be ingested and not smoked, the bill’s supporters say. It would not include THC, which is the element in cannabis that causes smokers to get high. The form of cannabidiol used at the Realm of Caring is named Charlotte’s Web, after a 5-year-old girl whose recovery from a rare condition is credited to the substance. Charlotte’s Web is a rich amber and as thick as cold honey. It smells like marijuana and tastes like raw plants. A month’s supply of the oil can cost $150 to $250, and some families say they receive financial help from nonprofit groups. Heather Jackson, the executive director of the Realm of Caring Foundation, said Peake was correct that every patient studied in the first set of tests, "harvests" is the term she used, had a reduction in seizures. The Realm of Caring is in its second harvest and has seen less than a handful of nonresponders, which accounts for Peake’s revised 98 percent total. The New York Times, though, reported in December that there is "scattered medical research" to substantiate claims cannabis oils helped reduce seizures, citing a 2012 study on the American Epilepsy Society’s website. Other researchers have also cautioned there is not enough research on its medicinal benefits. The American Epilepsy Society wants "well-controlled studies" it believes will lead to a better understanding of the effectiveness of cannabidiol and other forms of medical marijuana on epilepsy patients. Amy Brooks-Kayal, a Colorado-based neurology physician who is first vice president of the American Epilepsy Society, said there’s not enough information to determine what the dosage should be or how it interacts with other medicines. The AES, which claims about 3,500 members, said although cannabidiol offers hope, these are only anecdotal reports. Robust scientific evidence for the use of marijuana, it said, is lacking. "There haven’t been good studies with cannabidiol with children with epilepsy," Brooks-Kayal said. The federal Food and Drug Administration has authorized trials of an established British drug, Epidolex, that comes from marijuana. Some experts who believe Epidolex is a better option say it’s unclear whether Charlotte’s Web is free of potentially harmful impurities. Jackson offered us two studies in defense of the treatment. In one study, all 11 children studied showed a reduction in weekly motor-type seizures, the study concluded. After three months, five of the 11 children were seizure-free, the study found. The paper, introduced at the American Epilepsy Society’s annual meeting in December, acknowledged the sample size was small. In the other study, two Stanford University researchers asked parents whose children were using cannabidiol to fill out a survey detailing its impact on their children. Sixteen of the 19 parents reported reduced seizure frequency. Three parents said their children were free of seizures. The most often reported side effects were better mood, increased alertness, better sleep and drowsiness. Common side effects with other forms of treatment were not found, the parents said. Jackson said 13 of those 19 parents had children who were using Charlotte’s Web. Jackson said they are doing more research. Jackson, whose son has used the treatment, said in the cases in which Charlotte’s Web did not result in fewer seizures for the patient, "there is less than a 1 percent chance that a child in this intractable epilepsy population will find one that will work." Charlotte’s Web, she said, has performed better than other forms of treatment. "There is not a treatment in the world that will work for all," Jackson told us. "However, it is important to note that there is not a pharmaceutical in the world that works for even 5 percent of the epilepsy population. So the numbers are quite staggering actually." Peake said he was not deterred by questions or concerns about the research. "The anecdotal evidence is so strong that a parent, in conjunction with their doctor, should have the personal choice to make that decision," Peake said. To sum up, Peake said "every child in Colorado" who has been given medical marijuana for treatment for seizures has had diminished seizure activity. Peake then said it’s actually 98 percent, citing newer data. There are very few studies out there. They do show medical marijuana has a positive impact on seizure activity. But not at the levels Peake said. His statement is partially accurate. But it needs a lot of context to be fully understood. We rate it .


A video shows the aftermath of a school prank in which a student spiked lemonade with laxatives.

Explanation: A video appears to capture the disturbing and messy aftermath of a school prank.

Fauxtography, american vandal, laxatives, liveleak

A video purportedly showing the aftermath of a school prank in which a student spiked a batch of lemonade with laxatives was uploaded to the web site LiveLeak in mid-September 2018. This footage racked up millions of views when it was shared on Facebook along with the caption: “So Wrong: A student puts laxative in the school’s lemonade”: This video does not capture real students at a high school suffering bouts of diarrhea after a student spiked their lemonade with laxatives. This footage was taken from the Netflix mockumentary television series American Vandal and depicts a staged incident involving a group of actors. American Vandal plays like a true crime documentary, but instead of focusing on villainous acts such as murder, the mockumentary takes place in a high school and features juvenile pranks and acts of vandalism. The second season of the show, which made its debut just a few days before this video went viral, opened with an episode entitled “Brown Out.” The New Yorker described the opening sequence of that episode thusly: I got a queasy feeling watching the opening sequence of the new season of “American Vandal,” and not only because it showed a lunchroom full of teenagers soiling themselves. The scene is certainly disgusting: in an event known afterward as “the Brownout,” students at the fictional St. Bernardine prep school in tony Bellevue, Washington, having been poisoned by laxative-tainted lemonade, suffer together in a grisly act of mass defecation, all of it memorialized in real time and shared on social media. Some of the footage from this viral hoax video can also be glimpsed in a trailer for the second season of the show:


Charlie Crist Says Rick Scott "pled the Fifth 75 times to avoid jail for Medicare fraud.

Corrections and Updates, Legal Issues, Florida, Charlie Crist,

Gubernatorial campaign commercials have been digging up each candidate’s past for months, but now Gov. Rick Scott and Charlie Crist are pretty much calling each other criminals. The Republican Party of Florida, working on Scott’s behalf, had a Fort Lauderdale investor say in a TV ad that he was "swindled" by Crist. The man had invested with Scott Rothstein, who was later convicted of a Ponzi scheme. We rated that !, because Crist had nothing to do with the plot to defraud investors. Now Crist is going after Scott’s past as the CEO of hospital chain Columbia/HCA, which in 1997 was busted by the federal government for bilking Medicare. Crist referred to the Rothstein attack in a Sept. 19, 2014, commercial, saying Scott lied to voters "4,000 times," the number of times the Rothstein ad had aired on Florida TV stations. "We shouldn’t be surprised," the narrator said. "Scott pled the Fifth 75 times to avoid jail for Medicare fraud." That’s referring to a deposition Scott gave in 2000 for an unrelated civil case. To further muddy the waters, the commercial shows footage from a deposition for yet another unrelated case in 1995. This attack should sound familiar, because it came up in the 2010 campaign, when Scott’s Republican primary opponent Bill McCollum said Scott "barely escaped imprisonment,". PolitiFact Florida wanted to revisit this angle and see if Scott, who was never charged with wrongdoing in the federal fraud case, gave vague testimony to avoid time in the cooler. The Columbia/HCA case We’ve been over this many, many times before, so let’s explain the history as quickly as possible. Scott began what eventually became Columbia/HCA in 1987, buying and merging hospitals until his publicly traded company became the nation’s largest health care chain. At its peak, the company boasted more than 340 hospitals, 135 surgery centers and 550 home health locations in 37 states and two foreign countries. Scott’s reputation as a hard-nosed businessman came from a cutthroat corporate environment, in which the most productive managers were rewarded and the least were fired. Some employees speculated it was that culture that led to unscrupulous behavior, such as padding bills, charging Medicare for procedures that were more lucrative than what was actually performed, and giving doctors kickbacks in exchange for patient referrals. Whether Scott knew about such practices is unknown, although he apparently signed off on reports that raised concerns about things happening within the chain. Jerre Frazier, a company attorney told the Miami Herald in 2010 that Scott said the company wasn’t doing anything differently than other chains in the health care industry. Whistle-blowers exposed the fraud, helping federal investigators gather enough evidence to raid the company’s offices and hospitals in 1997. Scott was pressured to resign in July of that year, taking a $5.1 million cash severance and an additional  $300 million in stocks and options with him. (Five other top executives also resigned.) Scott has said it was because he wanted to fight the charges while the board wanted to settle, which they did in 2000 and 2002, for a total of $1.7 billion in fines and penalties. Scott was never charged with a crime. His boilerplate response to the incident is that he wasn’t even questioned by investigators, although ABC’s World News Tonight reported in 1997 he was "considered a prime target of the investigation." That’s not unusual, legal experts told PolitiFact, because replacing a CEO is often a first step a company makes to show the government it means business about cleaning up its wayward methods. Whether that’s exactly what happened in Scott’s case, we can’t say. Scott has addressed the case plenty, however. In a 2010 debate he called the deposition a "fishing expedition" he refused to participate in. He told the Tampa Bay Times that same year that he was partly culpable. "There's no question that mistakes were made and as CEO, I have to accept responsibility for those mistakes," he said. "I was focused on lowering costs and making the hospitals more efficient. I could have had more internal and external controls. I learned hard lessons, and I've taken that lesson and it's helped me become a better business person and a better leader." Think about the clink The company agreed to plead guilty to at least 14 corporate felonies, which don’t involve jail time but did factor into the fines. Four Florida-based Columbia/HCA executives were indicted. Two were convicted of defrauding Medicare and sentenced to prison, but those verdicts were later overturned. One was acquitted, and a jury couldn’t reach a verdict on the last. Does that mean Scott faced jail at all? In pleading the Fifth Amendment, it certainly seems like a possibility, former federal prosecutor Ryan O’Quinn told us. That’s because the only legal reason to use your Fifth Amendment right in court is if you think your answer would incriminate you. The deposition in which Scott pleaded the Fifth 75 times was part of a civil case by Nevada Communications Corp., which alleged that Columbia/HCA breached the terms of a communications contract. Scott gave the deposition at his offices in Stamford, Conn., on July 27, 2000, months before the settlement with the federal government. Scott lawyer Steven Steinbach explained the strategy thusly: "Unfortunately because of the pendency of a number of criminal investigations relating to Columbia around the country, he's going to follow my advice, out of prudence, to assert his constitutional privilege against giving testimony against himself." While pleading the Fifth in a criminal case can’t be used as an admission of guilt, it’s just fine to assume that in a civil case. For example, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in July 2014 upheld a $67 million judgment against TD Bank for a group of investors bilked by imprisoned attorney Scott Rothstein, who has factored heavily into campaign commercials between Scott and Crist. In that ruling, the judge said jurors could infer former TD Bank South Florida regional VP Frank Spinosa knew about or participated in Rothstein’s scheme when he invoked the Fifth 193 times. Spinosa has not been charged with a crime and was no longer a bank employee, but was likely avoiding self-incrimination, or possibly as a favor to TD Bank, the ruling said. Scott wasn’t facing a jury, but we’re trying to establish whether one could infer guilt for invoking the Fifth Amendment. In fact, there’s no other reason to think otherwise, because by the letter of the law, Scott must have thought he would incriminate himself if he answered truthfully. "Given the adverse consequences of an assertion of the Fifth Amendment in a civil deposition, an executive must have a significant concern that their response could contribute to their criminal prosecution," O’Quinn said. "A frivolous assertion of the Fifth Amendment would be an unethical act." So if Scott was avoiding incriminating himself and other executives were actually convicted and sentenced to prison (albeit later overturned), does that mean Scott faced jail? That’s conjecture, but he certainly could have faced federal charges, which could have resulted in time in prison. There is a possibility some in the FBI regretted the decision to not go after Scott. "After Columbia/HCA, I realized people, individual corporate officers, had to be held accountable for the actions of their companies,'' former Tampa FBI agent Joe Ford said in a book about the Columbia/HCA case. "Instead of just giving us (the government) money, people need to go to jail. I learn from my mistakes and this was my first big one.'' Our ruling Crist said Scott "pled the Fifth 75 times to avoid jail for Medicare fraud." If you haven’t heard by now, Scott did invoke his Fifth Amendment rights 75 times in a deposition to avoid discussing a Medicare fraud case. But Crist’s ad is pushing the envelope to say he did it to avoid jail. No one went to prison for the Medicare fraud debacle, nor did Scott actually face the rigors of a grand jury or even federal investigators. The commercial seems to imply Scott was in the thick of the raids, when he was actually sent packing as soon as it became apparent the company faced a major punishment for defrauding the U.S. government. It’s impossible to say if Scott would have gone to jail if he had answered those deposition questions, but experts say he was certainly avoiding possible legal trouble by asserting the Fifth Amendment. We rate the statement . Correction, Oct. 3, 2014, 2:30 p.m.: This version clarifies the context in which Scott asserted his Fifth Amendment right. The change does not affect the ruling.


New York tries to keep alive flavored e-cigarette ban.

Explanation: New York’s ban on flavored e-cigarettes is still held up in court, but a state council voted Thursday to keep it alive in case the judge rules in the state’s favor.

Health, Marijuana, New York, General News, Vaping, U.S. News, Public health, Tobacco industry regulation

The state’s Public Health and Health Planning Council voted Thursday to keep the emergency ban on the books for another 90 days. The council had approved the ban in September, but a state appeals court blocked the state in October from enforcing it. The state also plans to seek public comment on banning menthol e-cigarette flavoring. In October, a state appeals court temporarily blocked New York from enforcing its prohibition on sales of flavored e-cigarettes after the vaping industry sued to block the ban. The rules were set to expire this month, but the council wants to renew the regulations for another 90 days. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said the vote to keep it alive would make sure New York has the emergency regulations on the books if the courts uphold the ban. “While our scheduled enforcement of this ban has been delayed by pending litigation, we are confident that the court will agree that this is a public health emergency demanding immediate action to help ensure the wellbeing of our children,” spokeswoman Jill Montag said. New York’s prohibition covering flavored e-cigarettes and other vaping products except for menthol and tobacco flavors went into effect immediately in September. Retailers initially had two weeks to remove merchandise from store shelves. Health officials issued the regulations in response to worries that vaping may cause illnesses and that its use is growing among teenagers. According to data from the state health department, use among high-school students increased from 10.5% in 2014 to 27.4% in 2018. Critics including the Vapor Technology Association sued the state over the ban, which they called governmental overreach that would hurt small businesses selling e-cigarettes and adult smokers who say flavors help them quit. The opponents have argued states should address improper marketing to kids and follow New York’s move to raise the statewide smoking age to 21. But supporters such as the American Cancer Society’s advocacy group said they’ll continue pushing for New York’s ban on flavored e-cigarettes and for laws to make similar restrictions permanent. The groups want New York to ban all flavored tobacco, and argue flavoring can attract kids to tobacco products and get them hooked. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo had said he would move to expand New York’s flavor ban to include menthol. Anti-tobacco and -vaping groups say there’s no scientific basis for leaving menthol alone. They warn that menthol has been unethically marketed toward African Americans, and that mint and menthol flavors can still increase the appeal of e-cigarettes for young people who aren’t smokers by overcoming the harshness of nicotine. New York City Council separately passed its own bill last month banning flavored vaping products including menthol. The bill has the support of Democratic Bill de Blasio and is expected to take effect in July 2020, barring legal challenges. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday over 2,400 confirmed and probable cases of lung illnesses and 52 deaths nationwide have been attributed to vaping. The CDC says laboratory findings suggest vaping products with vitamin E or THC has played a major role in the outbreak.


Rhode Island officials issue air quality alert.

Explanation: Rhode Island environmental officials are warning residents of the potential for unhealthy air quality as temperatures rise.

Rhode Island, Environment, Travel, Smog, Air quality

The state Department of Environmental Management says the poor air quality possible on Thursday afternoon and evening will be due to elevated ground level ozone concentrations Ozone is a major component of smog and is formed by the photochemical reaction of pollutants emitted by motor vehicles, industry and other sources in the presence of elevated temperatures and sunlight. Residents are being urged to help reduce air pollutant emissions by limiting car travel and charcoal lighter fuels. Unhealthy levels of ozone can cause throat irritation, coughing, chest pain, shortness of breath, increased susceptibility to respiratory infection and aggravation of asthma and other respiratory ailments.


In Florida and elsewhere, GOP pressured over climate change.

Explanation: Since taking office in January, Florida’s Republican governor has appointed a science officer, established a climate change czar and pledged to spend billions of dollars to restore the Everglades and combat the pollutants that spawn blue-green algae and red tides.

Climate, Climate change, General News, Florida, Politics, AP Top News, Science, Tallahassee, Donald Trump

A top Republican lawmaker in the state, meanwhile, recently stood on the House floor and implored his party “to stop being afraid of words like ‘climate change’ and ‘sea level rise.’” While President Donald Trump and his administration reject the urgency of the threat, leading Republicans in Florida and other states find themselves under political pressure to address the immediate impacts of climate change. As a result, these leaders are increasingly changing their message, and in some cases their policies, to acknowledge climate science and discuss mitigation, even as the Trump administration dismisses both. In the Southeast, where Republicans in South Carolina and Georgia control the legislature or occupy the governor’s mansion, the GOP is acknowledging, even if begrudgingly, sea level rise and the growing threat from intensifying hurricanes. Nowhere is the break from Trump’s path clearer than in Florida, his adopted home state, where Gov. Ron DeSantis is a close ally and where Republicans are sounding the alarm about the harm that rising oceans pose to coastal communities. With its 1,350 miles of coastline, Florida faces some of the starkest risks from rising oceans. Higher global temperatures bring extreme weather conditions, including more intense and destructive hurricanes. Miami and other cities could find themselves submerged as glaciers melt into the oceans. While it’s hardly the dramatic call to action that environmentalists and scientist say is needed, the shift signals a new pragmatism among many Republicans, especially in states where their constituents already are grappling with the consequences of a warming planet. “This isn’t about the next election. This is about the next several decades and what our environment is going to look like for our children and grandchildren,” said GOP state Rep. Chris Sprowls. At 35, he is poised to leads Florida’s House of Representatives next fall. His district northwest of Tampa lies along the Gulf Coast. “We shouldn’t fall into the same trap on the environment, where we allow the national conversation to dictate and hamstring us from accomplishing practical goals that truly protect our water and make our state beautiful for decades to come,” Sprowls said in an interview. “We’re playing the long game here.” Still, there is political motivation. The new messaging comes as Democrats saw success in 2018 running on a promise to combat climate change and hammering Republicans as the party of deniers. The White House declined to comment. Forty-six percent of Florida midterm voters said they were very concerned about climate change, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 3,700 midterm voters in Florida. Among Florida independents, 51% expressed great concern, slightly higher than independents nationally. “Republicans have figured out that if you get caught crossways on the environment, you could very well lose an election. That’s how important the issue is to Floridians of all stripes,” said Susan MacManus, a former political science professor at the University of South Florida. The state’s rising population is pushing development and asphalt deeper into once-rural areas. Fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals are flowing into creeks, rivers, lakes and eventually into the waters that surround the Florida peninsula, further damaging coral reefs and putting sensitive ocean life at risk. One sign of Republicans’ shift is former Gov. Rick Scott, now a U.S. senator. Many environmental groups accuse him of mostly ignoring the issue during his eight years in Tallahassee. In February, Scott acknowledged in an opinion piece that climate change “is real and requires real solutions.” More recently, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., joined the Senate Climate Solutions Caucus, a fledgling bipartisan group launched in October. Even Republican firebrand U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a fierce ally of the president, has espoused cleaner energy. “I think that more of my colleagues need to realize that the science of global warming is irrefutable,” Gaetz said last spring while offering his “Green Real Deal,” a counterpoint to the “Green New Deal” backed by some Democrats. While Trump has discouraged federal agencies from prioritizing preparation for changes, DeSantis has cast himself as Florida’s environmentalist-in-chief. Two days after taking office, the new governor pledged to invest $2.5 billion during his four-year term — a billion dollar increase from his predecessor’s final four years in office — to protect water resources and help restore the Everglades, the largest ecosystem restoration project in the United States. He issued an executive order mobilizing action against algae blooms and the pollutants that taint the state’s lakes, waterways and coastlines. Thus far, the governor has gotten much of what he’s requested from the Republican-dominated Legislature, an indication of the political muscle he’s put behind his environmentalism. Florida’s environment — its beaches, swamps, woods and abundant sunshine — is a fundamental pillar of the state economy, generating billions in tourism and agriculture dollars, said Noah Valenstein, the secretary of Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection. “What you see in Florida is an independent streak, a belief that the environment is important,” Valenstein said. “We as a state have determined that this is a top issue and we’re going to take that on.” The conversation in Florida may be shifting, but action isn’t moving fast enough and policy discussions are not broad enough for critics. Land conservation groups note that while DeSantis talks about conservation, he also supports 340 miles of new toll roads that could permanently alter some of the state’s most pristine landscapes. These groups want DeSantis to boost funding for Florida Forever, the state’s land preservation program, which is projected to get $100 million instead of the $300 million that had been historically allocated. “Even though he has now talked about climate change for the first time, it’s all about mitigation,” said Sierra Club Florida director Frank Jackalone. He wants the governor to emphatically say that ``climate change is caused by all the pollution we have in the atmosphere and that we need to do something about it.” Mitigation projects, including sea walls, only address the symptoms of climate change, Jackalone said, but do little to combat the root causes — namely the continued reliance on fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases and the escalating deforestation of the planet. The only money that DeSantis is proposing for reduced carbon emissions is Florida’s $166 million slice from a $14.7 billion emissions settlement U.S. regulators reached with the European automaker Volkswagen. The money will be used to expand the state’s fleet of electric transit vehicles, install electric charging stations along major highways and cut diesel emissions. Still, Florida derives three-quarters of its electricity by burning carbon-emitting natural gas — a cleaner alternative to sooty coal that still powers parts the state. “It’s not enough to appoint a science officer and chief resilience officer, and it’s terrific that they’re going to the use the VW settlement money to help,” said Susan Glickman, the Florida director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “That’s a far cry from the bold action that we need if Florida really wants a future. We have to deploy clean energy solutions.” But it’s a start, said state Rep. Ben Diamond, a Democrat who represents a Tampa-area district and who is giving the governor and other Republicans the benefit of his doubt “We may come from different political parties, but we all recognize that this is the biggest and most immediate threat to Florida,” Diamond said. “It’s time for us to get past this whole partisanness and make some real progress here.” ___ Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Washington contributed to this report.


Dan Patrick Says "566,000 crimes" were "made in Texas by criminal aliens in the last 6 years.

Immigration, Criminal Justice, Crime, Texas, Dan Patrick,

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, seeking re-election, entered 2018 by warning on his campaign’s Facebook page that "criminal aliens" committed more than 500,000 Texas crimes in recent years. We wondered about Patrick’s declaration in part because we’d just found scant data about Texas crimes committed by individuals living illegally in the United States. Also, research rooted in U.S. Census Bureau data suggests that nationally, unauthorized immigrants commit few crimes. For that other fact-check, we calculated from annual state-posted crime reports that the 170,000 arrests of "criminal immigrants" proclaimed by a Texas House member at a 2015 hearing represented about 4 percent of all the adult arrests in the state from 2011 through 2015. But absent expert analysis, we wouldn't brandish that percentage as a fact. Here’s Patrick’s statement on Facebook, which he presented against the backdrop of a wire fence: "566,000 crimes made in Texas by criminal aliens in the last 6 years." We took that to mean that "criminal aliens" were found guilty of 566,000 crimes over six years. Then again, text in smaller print to the right of Patrick’s fence-backdropped statement offers a different interpretation. That text says: "In the past six years, criminal aliens have been charged with more than 566,000 crimes in Texas including kidnapping, homicide, burglary, and much more. There is no excuse for endangering our communities by allowing criminal aliens who have committed a crime to go free." Some perspective: We estimate, starting from Texas Department of Public Safety annual crime reports for 2011 through 2016, that there were 5,513,663 adult criminal arrests in the state in the six-plus years referenced by Patrick. If the 566,000 figure offered by Patrick solely reflects arrests, he was referring to about 10 percent of adult arrests in the state. Patrick points to state-posted figures We asked Patrick, a Houston Republican who touts his support for a secure U.S.-Mexico border in a fresh video ad, about the basis of his 566,000 "crimes made" statement. A spokesman, Alejandro Garcia, replied by email: "We have answered this question many times." Garcia provided a link to a familiar DPS web page, "Historical Arrest and Conviction Data for Select Offenses Associated with Criminal Aliens:"        SOURCE: Web page, "Historical Arrest and Conviction Data for Select Offenses Associated with Criminal Aliens," Texas Department of Public Safety, undated (accessed Jan. 23, 2018) Adding up the chart’s tallied arrests, covering 11 crime categories, gets you to 638,411 arrests "associated with criminal aliens." And did all those arrests occur in the six-plus years noted by Patrick on Facebook? Not so. A related DPS web page noted by Garcia, "Texas Criminal Alien Arrest Data," says that according to Department of Homeland Security "status indicators, over 240,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011 and December 31, 2017. During their criminal careers," it says, "these criminal aliens were charged with more than 638,000 criminal offenses." We read "criminal careers" to refer to the booked individuals’ lifetime rap sheets. More from the DPS page about those "career" arrests: "Those arrests include 1,300 homicide charges; 76,044 assault charges; 18,126 burglary charges; 76,660 drug charges; 774 kidnapping charges; 43,591 theft charges; 49,154 obstructing police charges; 4,180 robbery charges; 6,878 sexual assault charges; and 9,561 weapon charges." Unmentioned in that text: 352,143 of all the tallied arrests, 55 percent, were for "all other offenses," according to the DPS. According to DPS criminal history records, the agency says, those 638,000-plus criminal charges "have thus far resulted in over 286,000 convictions." The conviction count presented on the chart offered as Patrick’s backup indicates 286,101 convictions. The DPS page says the convictions break out to 547 homicide convictions; 28,592 assault convictions; 8,915 burglary convictions; 37,581 drug convictions; 268 kidnapping convictions; 19,803 theft convictions; 24,084 obstructing police convictions; 2,153 robbery convictions; 3,164 sexual assault convictions; and 3,973 weapon convictions." Its text on the web page doesn’t mention the 157,021 included convictions for other offenses accounting for 55 percent of the total convictions. We spotted a couple other wrinkles. DPS’s web page indirectly reminds that a "criminal alien" isn’t necessarily someone living in the country without documentation. "Of the total criminal aliens arrested in that timeframe," the page says, "over 160,000 or 66% were identified by DHS status as being in the U.S. illegally at the time of their last arrest." We noticed too that the DPS doesn’t specify how many of the noted arrests or convictions through criminal careers tie to the 160,000-plus people believed to be living here illegally at the time of their latest arrest. Our requests to the DPS to corroborate Patrick’s 566,000 figure didn’t yield additional information. Our ruling Patrick said that "566,000 crimes" were "made in Texas by criminal aliens in the last 6 years." We didn't find a factual path to this figure and, in fact, spotted no state-posted information specifying a relevant count of criminal arrests or convictions for the six-plus years singled out by Patrick. The DPS has said that more than 638,000 charges and over 286,000 convictions were accumulated through their "criminal careers" by more than 240,000 "criminal aliens" booked into Texas jails in the six-plus years. Unsaid: Some of those people were living in the U.S. with legal authorization. We find Patrick’s statement inaccurate and ridiculous. The statement is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim.


Caravan migrants demanded $50,000 payments from the U.S. in order to go home.

Explanation: What's true: A small group of migrants marched to the U.S. consulate in Tijuana and demanded that their asylum claims be processed more quickly or that they be given $50,000 each to return home. What's false: The vast majority of migrants waiting to have their asylum claims processed by the United States had nothing to do with this demand.

Politics, donald trump, fox news, honduran caravan

On 12 December 2018, Fox News reported that a group of Central American migrants currently housed in Tijuana, Mexico, and hoping to present asylum claims to the United States had demanded $50,000 each from the Trump administration in exchange for returning home. Although the group that made the demand was relatively small (100-plus people out of a total of the roughly 3,000 housed at El Barretal migrant shelter), the outrageous-sounding headline captured most readers’ attention: “Migrant group demands Trump either let them in or pay them each $50G to turn around.” The Fox News report was aggregated from the work of the San Diego Union-Tribune, which had earlier that day reported that:  The first group demanding action, numbering about 100, arrived at the U.S. Consulate at about 11 am. The migrants said they were asking that the Trump Administration pay them $50,000 each or allow them into the U.S. When asked how the group came up with the $50,000 figure, organizer Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa of Honduras, said they chose that number as a group … [A] second letter, delivered around 1:20 p.m., came from a separate group of caravan members asking for the U.S. to speed up the asylum process. Specifically, the group asked U.S. immigration officials to admit up to 300 asylum seekers at the San Ysidro Port of Entry each day. Currently, officials admit between 40 and 100 asylum seekers. The group of migrants say the slow pace violates American and international laws that call for an immediate process, and places vulnerable migrants at risk. The Union-Tribune reported that the group demanding money in exchange for turning around and going home was organized by Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa, a 54-year-old Honduran who sought political asylum in Mexico after being accused (falsely, he maintains) by the Honduran government of planting a bomb in a Chinese restaurant that injured six U.S. soldiers and a civilian in 1987. Ulloa joined the caravan in early November 2018 and viewed it as something of a political cause, according to the Union-Tribune: [Ulloa] led a group of 100 migrants to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana asking President Donald Trump to either let the migrants into the United States or oust [Honduran President Juan Orlando] Hernandez from office and pay each migrant $50,000 to go back to Honduras. He based that figure on what he considers reparations from the U.S. for their intervention in Central America. “The United States is directly responsible for this humanitarian crisis,” he said. “Honduras is practically colonized by the United States.”  The Trump administration has sought to require that Central American migrants apply for asylum in the “safe third country” of Mexico rather than in the U.S. According to the Union-Tribune, roughly 2,500 have already done so, but humanitarian groups — including the international medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) — maintain that Mexico (still a developing country) is not safe for many of them, with women, children, and members of the LGBT community particularly vulnerable to violence in Mexico: MSF medical data shows that a quarter of our medical consultations for migrants and refugees in Mexico are related to injuries from intentional violence. Ninety per cent of our mental health consultations are related to violence. Our patients are suffering from anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, among other conditions, which have severe consequences on their ability to function. Women, children, and members of the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer (LGBTQ) community are more vulnerable to certain types of violence and require specific protection measures that are not effectively in place in Mexico. The migrants arrived in Tijuana roughly one month before the Fox News report. As they traveled north in a caravan that originated in northern Honduras on 12 October 2018, they were a constant target of hoaxes and misinformation, particularly in the lead-up to the 6 November 2018 midterm elections in the U.S.


Italy coronavirus deaths jump by almost 800, government shuts most workplaces.

Explanation: Italy recorded a jump in deaths from coronavirus of almost 800 on Saturday, taking the toll in the world’s hardest-hit country to almost 5,000.

In its latest desperate effort to halt the epidemic Rome ordered that all businesses must close until April 3, with the exception of those essential to maintaining the country’s supply chain. “It is the most difficult crisis in our post-war period,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in a video posted on Facebook, adding “only production activities deemed vital for national production will be allowed”. Conte did not specify which factories and businesses will be considered crucial to keep the country going. The government is expected to publish an emergency decree on Sunday to make the new crackdown immediately effective. Supermarkets, pharmacies, postal and banking services will remain open and essential public services including transport will be ensured. “We are slowing down the country’s production engine but we are not stopping it,” Conte said. Italy on Thursday overtook China as the country worst hit by the highly contagious virus. On Saturday fatalities jumped by 793 to 4,825 in the largest one-day rise since the contagion emerged a month ago. Reported infections rose to 53,578 from 47,021, the Civil Protection Agency said. There were 2,857 people in intensive care, up from 2,655. Lombardy, the northern Italian region around Milan which is the worst-affected by coronavirus, remains in a critical situation, with 3,095 deaths and 25,515 cases. “What we all understand is that no member state can face this threat alone. The virus has no borders and the European Union is stronger when we show full solidarity,” EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper. Late on Friday the EU Commission moved to formalize a deal reached by EU finance ministers on March 5 to suspend EU budget rules that limit borrowing, giving Italy and other governments a free hand to fight the disease. Italy’s failure to reduce its huge debt of 134% of gross domestic product would normally have drawn a rebuke from the EU executive, but von der Leyen said there were now other priorities. “The Italian government will be able to put as much money into the economy as needed. Normal budget rules, debt rules for example, will not be applied at this stage,” she said. Brussels is expected next week to unveil a plan for using the euro zone’s bailout fund, known as the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which could unlock unlimited sovereign bond purchases by the European Central Bank. “This work is ongoing,” Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said in an interview with Reuters. The lockdown measures imposed in Italy and emulated by several other countries in Europe are likely to trigger a recession and heavy job losses. Dombrovskis said the Commission is accelerating work on an EU-wide scheme to help the unemployed, scheduled for presentation in the fourth quarter.


President Donald Trump asked about the possibility of injecting people with disinfectant to treat COVID-19.

Explanation: Did Donald Trump Ask About Using Disinfectant Injections to Treat COVID-19?

While social media users might not believe it, it is true that United States President Donald Trump asked during a briefing about the possibility of injecting disinfectants into a human body to treat COVID-19 on April 23 2020.The president’s outlandish and medically unsound suggestion came after a presentation from Bill Bryan from the Department of Homeland Security. Bryan, who leads the agency’s science and technology division, had said that the disease “dies quickest in sunlight,” later adding that people should still practice physical distancing (also called social distancing) to remain safe.But following his remarks, Trump took to the stage and said:Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked but you’re going to test it. Supposing you brought the light inside of the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting. And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. And is there a way we can do something, by an injection inside or almost a cleaning? It would be interesting to check that. That you’re gonna have to use medical doctors with.Transcripts and footage were quickly shared and spread online:Trump: “And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. And is there a way we can do something, by an injection inside or almost a cleaning? It would be interesting to check that. That you’re gonna have to use medical doctors with.”— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) April 23, 2020“The disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning. It gets in the lungs” — Trump seems to suggests that injecting disinfectant inside people could be a treatment for the coronavirus pic.twitter.com/amis9Rphsm— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 23, 2020When later asked about testing Trump’s hypothesis on injecting disinfectant, Bryan said, “We don’t do that within our lab.” Trump then chimed in, “Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t work.”Following Trump’s remarks, Reckitt Benckiser — the company that manufactures household cleaning products Lysol and Dettol — released a statement urging users not to test the president’s theory for themselves.“Under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),” the statement read.That evening Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), also refuted Trump’s idea in an interview with CNN.“I certainly wouldn’t recommend the internal ingestion of a disinfectant,” Hahn said.Meanwhile, the New York Times was criticized online for its coverage of Trump’s display, specifically a Twitter post seemingly treating the idea that injecting bleach into one’s self is harmful as something up for debate.“At a White House briefing, President Trump theorized — dangerously, in the view of some experts — about the powers of sunlight, ultraviolet light and household disinfectants to kill the coronavirus,” the tweet read.The newspaper’s actual story on the briefing did not mention any “experts” who would advocate using disinfectants against the disease.When contacted for comment, the Times sent us a link to a subsequent post saying, “We’ve deleted an earlier tweet and updated a sentence in our article that implied that only ‘some experts’ view the ingestion of household disinfectants as dangerous. To be clear, there is no debate on the danger.”According to CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang, the Trump administration responded by attacking news outlets; White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement on April 24, 2020:President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterday’s briefing. Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines.Trump also attempted to backtrack a day later, claiming that he was being “sarcastic” and then telling reporter Jeff Mason, “I was looking at you.”“No you weren’t sir,” Mason responded. “I wasn’t there yesterday.”Huffington Post reporter Jennifer Bendery posted a transcript of the exchange:Reporter: Some doctors want you to clarify that you weren’t telling people to inject disinfectant into their veins.Trump: I was being sarcastic, obviously, based on the way the question was asked. I was looking at you.Reporter: I wasn’t there. (via pool report) pic.twitter.com/feUu3T7d62— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) April 24, 2020The Guardian reported that days before the remarks, Trump was contacted by Mark Grenon, whose Florida-based group, Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, sells chlorine dioxide bleach as a “miracle mineral solution.” Grenon’s group claims, falsely, that the substance (billed as “MMS”) can cure not only COVID-19 but cancer and HIV, among other illnesses.Grenon read the letter he said he sent to Trump on his radio show, and also gushed over Trump’s remarks — with no indication that he took them to be sarcastic — on his own Facebook page.“Trump has got the MMS and all the info!! !” he wrote. “Things are happening folks! Lord help others to see the Truth!”Grenon’s “church” was also ordered by a federal court to stop selling its product after the US Justice Department requested a temporary injunction against the group, which had already incurred a warning letter from the FDA over its practices.“Despite a previous warning, the Genesis II Church of Healing has continued to actively place consumers at risk by peddling potentially dangerous and unapproved chlorine dioxide products,” Hahn said in a statement. “We will not stand for this, and the FDA remains fully committed to taking strong enforcement action against any sellers who place unsuspecting American consumers at risk by offering their unproven products to treat serious diseases.”Update, April 24 2020, 9:20 a.m.: Updated with comments from the Food and Drug Administration and Reckitt Benckiser as well as a note on the New York Times’ coverage of the story.Update, April 24 2020, 10:07 a.m.: Updated with response from the Times.Update, April 24 2020, 11:41 a.m.: Updated with further comments from Trump and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.Update, April 24 2020, 12:37 p.m.: Updated with notes on Trump being contacted by Mark Grenon.Comments


Amazonian tribe study shows how human bodily bacteria is changing.

Explanation: Everyone’s body is brimming with bacteria, and these microbes do plenty of good things like building the immune system and helping digestion. But modern diets, antibiotics and hygiene seem to be reducing the range of microbes occupying our anatomy.

A study published on Friday looking at the gut, mouth and skin microbes in people from a small, isolated tribe in southern Venezuela’s Amazonian jungles shows just how much modern life may be altering humankind’s bodily bacteria. The Yanomami villagers, secluded from the outside world until 2009, possessed the most diverse collection of bacteria ever found in people including some never before detected in humans, said scientists whose research appears in the journal Science Advances. The researchers were surprised to learn the Yanomami’s microbes harbored antibiotic-resistant genes including those conferring resistance to manmade antibiotics, considering they never had exposure to commercial antibiotics. Every person hosts trillions of microbes, collectively called the microbiota, that live in and on virtually every part of the body. They contribute to functions essential to human health including immune system development, processing food and confronting invading pathogens. “Our study suggests that the pre-modern human microbiota was composed of a greater diversity of bacteria and a greater diversity of bacterial functions when compared to populations impacted by modern practices, such as processed foods and antibiotics,” said pathology and immunology professor Gautam Dantas of Washington University in St. Louis. A microbiota diversity decline may be linked to the increase in the past several decades of immunological and metabolic diseases such as asthma, allergies, diabetes and obesity, said Maria Dominguez-Bello, a professor of medicine at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. The researchers analyzed microbial samples from 34 of the 54 Yanomami villagers. They were compared to a United States group, another Venezuelan Amazonian indigenous people, the Guahibo, and residents of rural Malawi in southern Africa. Yanomami were found to have twice the number of microbe varieties of the U.S. subjects and 30 to 40 percent more diversity than the Malawians and Guahibo. Some of the bacteria found in the Yanomami but not in the others offer beneficial effects like protecting against kidney stones. The Yanomami are semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers in their remote mountainous region. “It really is a unique opportunity to contact communities with this ancient lifestyle,” said Oscar Noya, a researcher with the Amazonic Center for Research and Control of Tropical Diseases in Venezuela who visited the villagers.


Earl Blumenauer Says "Every year air pollution protections are delayed, another 34,000 people will die prematurely.

Explanation: Earl Blumenauer says delaying air pollution rules will kill 34,000 people a year

Environment, Oregon, Government Regulation, Public Health, Earl Blumenauer,

Even in these cynical, partisan days, there are some universal truths. For example: Sulfur dioxide is a pollutant that can severely affect a person’s health and, in extreme cases, be fatal. Nitrogen oxide is another common and nasty pollutant that makes people sick. Scientists and non-scientists as well as Republicans and Democrats generally agree the stuff is bad for you. But how you deal with it is where agreement ends -- at least in Congress. On the House floor Sept. 23, Republicans muscled through legislation that would delay or scrap rules to reduce mercury and other harmful air emissions, including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Though the bill passed, it’s highly unlikely to pass the Senate and would be vetoed by President Barack Obama if it did. Nevertheless, the House debate was lively. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., was one of the loudest critics, insisting that delaying the tougher air pollution rules would have dire results. "Every year these protections are delayed, another 34,000 people will die prematurely," he said. Really? That’s a lot of dead bodies and it’s very specific. Perfect for PolitiFact. First, some background. As passed on a nearly party-line vote of 249-169, the bill would, among other things, require the president to set up a committee of Cabinet-level officials to evaluate the toll that a dozen-plus Environmental Protection Agency regulations would have on jobs, electricity, gasoline prices and competitiveness. Republicans said action was needed to slow down a runaway bureaucracy. "While there are reasonable regulations that protect our children and help keep our environment clean, we need to stop unelected bureaucrats from imposing excessive regulations that unnecessarily increase costs for consumers and make it harder for our economy to create jobs," House Speaker John Boehner said. Blumenauer and other Democrats said the bill was a craven gift to business that would result in dirtier air and more death. Blumenauer’s dire prediction was directed at the bill’s delay of something called the Cross‐State Air Pollution Rule which would limit the amount of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide belching from power plants in 27 states. The pollutants react in the atmosphere to create ground-level ozone and set free tiny particulates that can damage lung capacity and cause respiratory problems. In real numbers, the EPA says the rules would reduce the amount of sulfur dioxide from the plants by 6.4 million tons a year (from 8.8 million tons in 2005) and to 1.4 million tons a year of nitrogen oxide (from 2.6 million tons annually in 2005). Those are big numbers and Blumenauer argued Sept. 22 during floor debate that lawmakers voting for the bill would be directly responsible for making people sick. "The losers are hundreds of thousands of people (who) will die, get illness from cancer, asthma, lost school days, millions of lost work days, the lost quality of life that is documented beyond belief," he said. "This is real, and these people lose." Blumenauer’s aides said he was relying on studies conducted by the EPA to support his claim. The most authoritative of those studies is a 414-page analysis released in June. The dense title suggests it’s a product of science rather than sound-byte politicians: "Regulatory Impact Analysis for the Federal Implementation Plans to Reduce Interstate Transport of Fine Particulate Matter and Ozone in 27 States; Correction of SIP Approvals for 22 States." The report relied on the work of EPA scientists and a survey of independent, peer-reviewed studies by outside scientists. And there, listed among the "key findings" is this: "The benefits result primarily from 13,000 to 34,000 fewer (particulate matter) and ozone-related premature mortalities." The report repeats the number eight more times. We find that Blumenauer was on solid ground. But he also  cherry-picked the highest death number rather than using the range of 13,000 to 34,000 additional deaths. While that omission does not change the conclusion that air pollution is bad for public health, it could exaggerate the problem. Return to OregonLive.com/politics to comment on this PolitiFact/Oregon ruling.


Hillary Clinton "supports unlimited abortion on demand up until the moment of birth, including partial-birth abortion, with taxpayer funding.

Explanation: False: Ted Cruz claim that Hillary Clinton backs 'unlimited abortion' to moment of birth

Ted Cruz of Texas stirred an Austin crowd by declaring that Hillary Clinton favors abortion without limit. The Republican senator characterized the Democratic presidential nominee’s position after an audience member at the September 2016 Texas Tribune Festival asked why the father of two young girls could support "a candidate who is so openly misogynistic," referring to Cruz’s endorsement the day before of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Cruz stressed his concerns about entrusting Clinton with nominating Supreme Court justices who would, he said, threaten his daughters’ constitutional rights. When he paused, the audience member voiced another question: "Like the right to choose?" Cruz replied that the "right to life" needs to be protected, adding: "I can also tell you even on the question of the right to life that the views of Hillary Clinton on abortion are radical and extreme. Her views: She supports unlimited abortion on demand up until the moment of birth, including partial-birth abortion, with taxpayer funding." Unlimited to the moment of birth? Readers asked us to check this claim. For starters, it’s worth noting that abortions in the weeks leading up to birth are rare; 91 percent in 2012 occurred before the 14th week of pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based reproductive health nonprofit. That year, the institute says, 1.3 percent took place in the 21st week or later. Notably too, as of October 2016, Texas ranked among 15 states to have proscribed abortion after about 20 weeks post-fertilization, the institute says. It’s also so that abortions earlier in pregnancy aren’t always available on short notice. Twenty-eight states have statutory waiting periods for an abortion, PolitiFact Ohio noted in August 2016, and 14 states require physician counseling that necessitates two trips to a medical facility prior to an abortion. Clinton through the years And how does Clinton herself characterize her abortion position? We perused her own statements and one of her votes as a New York senator. A January 2016 "fact sheet" on her campaign website states that as president, Clinton will ensure the right to choose an abortion is protected, a reference to the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion. Also, the sheet says, Clinton will "repeal the Hyde amendment to ensure low-income women have access to safe reproductive health care." That's potentially a call for more federally funded abortions in that the Hyde amendment, regularly embraced by Congress since 1976, bars government funding of abortion through Medicaid except in cases of rape, incest or to save the health or life of the mother. According to a 2016 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, similar "restrictions affect the appropriations for other federal entities, including the Department of Justice, where federal funds may not be used to perform abortions in the federal prison system, except in cases of rape or if the life of the mother would be endangered." Hyde acts as a rider on federal appropriations bills. As such, PolitiFact Ohio noted in August 2016, it doesn’t have to be "repealed" to be deactivated. Bills on federal spending could just cease to include it. Some states have Hyde-like restrictions on their Medicaid dollars, and would have to change their guidelines to open an avenue to fund abortions if Hyde disappeared at the federal level. Clinton has long said that she’d support a late-term limit on abortion--provided it has exceptions. In 2003, as a senator for New York, Clinton was on the losing end of a 64-33 floor vote to advance the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 later signed into law by President George W. Bush. That change--barring physicians from knowingly performing intact dilation and extraction on a living fetus--had no exception to preserve the health or life of the woman. "Clearly, the administration and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle see this as an opportunity to begin to eliminate Roe v. Wade," Clinton said at the time, according to an NPR news report, "and the possibility of safe, legal and rare abortions in this country. And many young women don't seem to understand that this is not an option that they can take for granted." Earlier, in an Oct. 8, 2000, candidate debate, Clinton said: "I have said many times that I can support a ban on late-term abortions, including partial-birth abortions, so long as the health and life of the mother is protected. I’ve met women who faced this heart-wrenching decision toward the end of a pregnancy. Of course it’s a horrible procedure. No one would argue with that. But if your life is at stake, if your health is at stake, if the potential for having any more children is at stake, this must be a woman’s choice." In March 2016, more recently, Bret Baier of Fox News asked Clinton during a Democratic presidential town hal whether she favors legal restrictions on abortion at any stage of pregnancy. That exchange: BAIER: "Do you think a child should have any legal rights or protections before it’s born? Or do you think there should not be any restrictions on any abortions at any stage in a pregnancy?"


UK campaigners win appeal case over preventative HIV drug.

Explanation: The state health service in England has the legal power to fund an HIV pill to prevent infection, the court of appeal ruled on Thursday, in a victory for AIDS campaigners who have been calling for its widespread use.

But it is still unclear whether the state system will have the financial resources to make the drug widely available. So-called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against HIV can cut the risk of getting the virus during sex by more than 90 percent, according to clinical studies. NHS (National Health Service) England had argued it was not in a position to fund the medicine because PrEP was a preventative service and therefore the responsibility of local authorities. The NHS lost that argument in an initial court case in August, prompting the appeal. “We are delighted to have been vindicated by the court a second time,” said Deborah Gold, chief executive of the National Aids Trust (NAT), which brought the case. The NAT argues that PrEP is a potential game-changer and is urgently needed in Britain, where more than 4,000 people acquire HIV annually. NHS England said it would now formally consider whether to fund PrEP. It noted the court ruling established that the NHS had the ability but not the obligation to pay for the medicine. Gilead Sciences’ Truvada is currently the only drug approved in Europe for PrEP, although several generic companies in India make cut-price versions of the product. The original Gilead drug costs around 400 pounds ($500) for a month’s supply and its unavailability on the state health service has prompted some people to turn to online “buyers clubs” to get cheaper copies delivered from India. NHS England said it would ask Gilead to reconsider its current “excessively high pricing” and would also explore options for using generics. “We expect to be able to update on these developments shortly,” it said in a statement. Gilead said it welcomed the appeal court decision and hoped NHS England would make PrEP available as soon as possible. It had no comment on the call for lower Truvada prices. Use of PrEP is rising fast in the United States, where tens of thousands of people are now taking it to prevent infection. It is also being rolled out in other parts of Europe. Truvada is a combination of two antiretroviral drugs that work to keep HIV, which causes AIDS, from replicating in the body.


Blogger Says the Chinese Communist Party "will finally admit that the real source of the coronavirus is from ‘a lab in Wuhan’ linked to its covert biological weapon programs.

Explanation: No evidence that Chinese officials will say coronavirus was leaked from a lab

Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Bloggers,

A website with ties to Steve Bannon and a Chinese billionaire is claiming to have a scoop on the source of the coronavirus. In an article published Jan. 25, G News wrote that Chinese Communist Party officials would soon "admit that the real source of the coronavirus is from ‘a lab in Wuhan (China)’ linked to its covert biological weapon programs." "A reliable source told Miles Guo today that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will admit to the public of an ‘accidental’ leak of lab-created virus from a P4 lab in Wuhan to put blames on ‘human errors,’" the article reads. "But the official announcement is still being finalized." The article was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) It has been shared thousands of times. (Screenshot from G News) The coronavirus, which originated in the central China city of Wuhan, has infected more than 2,700 people worldwide, according to a Jan. 27 World Health Organization report. China has restricted travel within the country amid a rising death toll. While we can’t know who G News has or hasn’t spoken to, we could find no evidence to support the website’s story. Miles Guo, also known as Guo Wengui, is a Chinese billionaire and political activist. He fled China in 2014 in anticipation of corruption charges from the Communist Party. Since then, Wengui, who is a member of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, has become known for his outspoken criticism of Chinese efforts to weed out corruption. G News is the media arm of Guo Media, a company linked to Wengui. Axios reported in October that the company paid Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist and former executive chairman of Breitbart News, at least $1 million for "strategic consulting services." Both Bannon and Wengui have their own sections on G News. We could find no other media reports that corroborate G News’ story about the source of the coronavirus. There is a lab near Wuhan that deals with dangerous pathogens — and some have linked it to China’s biological warfare program. The country denies having such a program, but the U.S. State Department has raised concerns about China’s potential noncompliance with the Biological Weapons Convention, which bans the production of such weapons. Officials are still working to determine the source of the coronavirus outbreak. In its most recent situation summary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that both it and Chinese authorities had isolated the genome of the 2019 coronavirus. Their findings suggest "a likely single, recent emergence from a virus related to bat coronaviruses and the SARS coronavirus." The disease appears to have originated at a seafood and animal market in Wuhan, and it spread from there to several Asian countries, Australia, France, Canada and the United States. Researchers believe the current outbreak pattern suggests the coronavirus may have spread from animal to human at first, and now from human to human. G News’ story is inaccurate. We rate it .