Taiwan's carrot-and-stick approach to virus fight wins praise, but strains showing.

Explanation: Health worker Huang Ching-yuan knows exactly what to do the moment her mobile phone sounds an alert that someone in home quarantine as part of Taiwan’s stringent coronavirus prevention methods has stepped somewhere she shouldn’t.

Huang, a government employee in the industrial northern city of Taoyuan, immediately calls the 27-year-old woman to tell her the police are coming to check on her whereabouts. “The police will confirm your location,” Huang tells her. “You won’t be punished as long as you’re actually at home,” she adds, referring to fines of up to T$1 million ($33,051) for people who step outside before their mandatory 14-day quarantine expires. For those who follow the rules, the outcome is more pleasant: a stipend, and goodie bags that can include items ranging from masks and instant noodles to free packages for online gaming and movie services, plus snacks. Such steps are one of the reasons Taiwan, which sits next door to China and has close economic ties with it, has been able so far to avoid the fate of many of its neighbours and control its virus outbreak, with just 267 cases so far. Taiwan’s approach, combining early controls on Chinese visitors, vigorous contact tracing for all cases, technology and now stringent 14-day quarantines for all arrivals, has won it praise and support around the world, including from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But like many places, Taiwan is now dealing with an upsurge in imported cases, and pockets of local outbreaks where there is no obvious link to other infections - a vexing problem for a government aiming to track the source of each. Taiwan is in the middle of what Health Minister Chen Shih-chung has called a “crucial” two-week period to control the virus, with tens of thousands of Taiwanese flooding home from places wrestling with a surge in cases, such as the United States and Britain. Some health workers, tasked with missions that include tracking patients’ contact history to delivering care bags to those in quarantine, have expressed concerns the system could be overstretched if cases jump sharply in the coming weeks. “Many hospitals are getting nervous, trying to secure enough hospital beds and respirators,” said Su Po-wen, deputy head of Taoyuan’s public health department. “Our staff are working very hard for the time being, but if we can make it through these two weeks the situation will be less tense.”  A few Taiwanese politicians have said the government should be tougher, and that President Tsai Ing-wen should issue an emergency order forbidding foreign travel. Freddy Lim, a rock star and independent legislator, said not doing so was dangerous. “As the epidemic continues to grow, there are still people wilfully leaving the country, getting infected and then coming back, becoming a loophole in epidemic prevention,” he said. Taiwan is also not rolling out widespread testing, as South Korea and some other countries have done, triggering concerns in Taiwan media that the island might have more cases than reported. Vice President Chen Chien-jen, a U.S.-trained epidemiologist and health minister during the 2003-2004 SARS crisis, said widespread testing is a waste of resources in Taiwan, where workers have been able to trace almost all cases and their contacts. For now, the government says its quarantine system is working. Taiwan has 86,000 people in quarantine, mostly at home but also in hotels for those who don’t live on the island. On top of large fines for breaking the rules, the government has threatened to name and shame quarantine breakers. Taiwan has also deployed an “electronic fence” that uses mobile telephones to track those in home quarantines. “We want people to know that we are serious,” Taoyuan health worker Huang told Reuters. “The police will dash off to get you even if you are merely turning your phone off.”   More than 220 people have been fined a total of over T$18 million for breaking quarantine rules, official data shows. The approach is not all stick, however. The government has rolled out incentives to get the public onboard with the quarantine programme. Taiwanese can order up to three masks a week online and pick them up from convenience stores across the island, a  government-led effort to address panic buying after authorities teamed up with manufacturers to boost their daily supply to more than 12 million masks. In Taoyuan alone, more than 10,000 “care bags” have been delivered to people ordered to stay at home for 14 days. A daily subsidy of T$1,000 is also given to those quarantined at home, although it is withheld from people who travelled abroad against government advice. “We hope the home care bags cheer people up,” said Huang Tsui-mi of Taoyuan’s Public Health Department. “Having to spend 14 days at home, we don’t want them to get too bored.”


Doors frontman Jim Morrison has been found alive in Paris more than 45 years after he supposedly died there.

Explanation: Jim Morrison Found Alive in Paris

Chalk false reports that Jim Morrison has been found living in a Paris retirement community up to a fake news website. Fake news website The Nevada County Scooper started the rumor with a report that appeared under the headline, “Jim Morrison Found Alive in Paris Assisted Living Community.” The report claims that a Paris beat reporter named Belda Sauve broke the story after investigating Morrison’s death for 45 years:  “I was contacted by a nurse from Petites Soeurs des Pauvres, an assisted living hospital for the infirmed,” Ms. Sauvé told the Scooper. “This nurse informed me that she was caring for a patient named Jacques Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The patient, who is suffering fromalcoholism and liver and kidney failure, as well as moderate dementia, told her he was the grandson of the famous French post-impressionist artist, Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec. Everyone believed his story because they knew that the senior Toulouse-Lautrec was a raging alcoholic that cavorted with prostitutes.” “Over time, however, this patient would tell the nurses stories that didn’t seem to fit his originalnarrative. Stories of rock concerts, sexual orgies, and massive alcohol and illegal drug usage. At first, they brushed it off as his dementia talking,” whispered Ms. Sauvé. “One of the nurses, who had read the Morrison biography, No One Here Gets Out Alive, by Danny Sugarman, began to relate the patients stories to those in the biography. Simple addition sent them to me,” exclaimed the proud journalist. “I stopped by the hospital and interviewed Mr. Toulouse-Lautrec. We had great conversations about poetry and art, the Louvre, music, politics, and existentialism. When I mentioned Pamela Courson, Jim Morrison’s soul mate, he retreated within himself and became quiet. I sat there, watching him, silent for more than four hours, working in his brilliant but fragile egg-shell mind. And then he spoke, ‘Strange days have found me here, poisoned by an L.A. woman… waiting for the sun, amongst a feast of friends… lost in a Roman wilderness of pain… the crystal ship is slowly sinking, and the blood in the streets is up to my knees… I am ready to break on through to the other side… I see your pen and paper weave quick minarets… this is the end, my brain is squirming like a toad… Yes, I have taken a face from the ancient gallery…’ The non-sequiturs, that somehow fit, as always, continued to fly for an hour.” The story was quickly shared more than 18,000 times on social media. But The Nevada County Scooper is far from a credible news source, according to its disclaimer: This website is satirical in scope and intent. It provides fake news and social criticism in a satirical setting. If this offends you, you might want to consider doing something else with your time rather than looking at the Internet. Really, the quality of your life will improve dramatically. Our intention is not to fool anyone, but if you do get fooled,  don’t sweat it. Please have fun and lighten up and watch out for Snopes.com. We’re not sure they’ve had all their vaccinations. Questions about Jim Morrison’s death have persisted over the years, but there’s been no conclusive evidence to disprove that Morrison died in a bathtub of heart failure in July 1971. In 2007, a former Paris nightclub manager claimed that Jim Morrison actually died of a heroin overdose in a toilet stall of the club. Two drug dealers dragged Morrison’s body back to his apartment and put him into a bathtub in a last-ditch attempt to revive him, the Associated Press reports. Another theory is that Jim Morrison mistook a pile of heroin for cocaine and died after snorting it. But again, there’s no hard evidence to prove that. No autopsy was performed on Jim Morrison, and Paris prosecutors have said that it’s not likely that a new investigation into his cause of death will be opened. Comments


Michigan native set to become state’s new state veterinarian.

Explanation: A Michigan native who currently lives in Missouri is set to become Michigan’s new state veterinarian.

Health, Michigan, Animal health, Veterinary medicine, Missouri

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development says Nora Wineland will replace James Averill, who’s the agency’s deputy director. Wineland currently lives in Missouri, but she’ll relocate to Michigan and assume her state veterinarian duties on Nov. 5. Agriculture and Rural Development Director Gordon Wenk says Wineland brings a “commitment to protecting animal health” and a “deep understanding of federal regulations which is important to Michigan’s farmers and ranchers.” She received her bachelor’s degree in veterinary science and her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Michigan State University. She also earned her master’s degree from Colorado State University.


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


FDA gives fast track status to AstraZeneca's diabetes drug Farxiga.

Explanation: AstraZeneca Plc said on Tuesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted fast track status for the development of its diabetes drug Farxiga to prevent heart and kidney failure in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Farxiga, one of AstraZeneca’s top 10 drugs by sales, is part of the SGLT2-inhibitor class of antidiabetics that cause the kidneys to expel blood sugar from the body through urine. In July, U.S. regulators declined to approve Farxiga as a supplement to insulin in adults with type-1 diabetes where insulin alone was not able to control blood sugar levels. The treatment is already approved in the United States to treat type-2 diabetes, the more common form of the condition. Farxiga competes with rival diabetes drugs, including Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim’s Jardiance and Novo Nordisk’s Victoza.


U.S. McDonald's to put calorie counts in lights.

Explanation: A Big Mac and large fries? They’ll cost you 1,050 calories, and beginning next week, McDonald’s will tell its customers that in bright lights on its fast-food menus.

The world’s No. 1 hamburger chain said on Wednesday it is going to start listing calorie information on menus in some 14,000 U.S. restaurants and drive-throughs - ahead of a national rule that will require larger restaurant chains to make such disclosures. McDonald’s Corp is a trend setter for restaurants and its move in this arena - while prompted by regulations and pressure from public health activists - is likely to force other restaurant operators to follow quickly. The state of California and cities like New York already require that calories be clearly listed on menus. Under the new U.S. healthcare law, restaurants across the country must soon put calorie counts and other nutrition details on menus. The national rules target restaurants with 20 or more locations, as well as other retail food outlets. Most major chains have resisted posting such information, without legislation and the threat of fines. The date for national compliance has been delayed and is not expected to be set until after the U.S. presidential election. McDonald’s was slow to warm to calorie labeling. When labeling proposals were gaining steam several years ago, McDonald’s representatives publicly opposed them. A common complaint was that rules from one jurisdiction to another were inconsistent. Some officials also said calorie disclosures would violate customer privacy. Cindy Goody, senior director of nutrition for McDonald’s USA, described the company’s latest move as a way to help its customers understand their food choices. The company, which is in nearly every U.S. community and serves 25 million U.S. customers daily, is casting the nutrition disclosures as a business opportunity. “It’s a new reason to visit more often,” Goody said. Calorie and other nutrition information already is available on the company’s website. Listing calories on menu boards allows customers to use that information when they are making a decision about what to eat. Margo Wootan, the director of nutrition policy for the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, thinks the national calorie labeling deadline will probably be around the end of 2013 - so customers at McDonald’s will be getting the information about a year earlier than what will be required. Disclosure rules already have helped convince many restaurants, including Starbucks Corp, to cut calories from their food and to highlight healthy options, she said. Those moves matter because Americans get about one-third of their calories from eating out, Wootan said. Amid demands from parents and health activists, McDonald’s also has taken steps to make menu items healthier. It tweaked its popular Happy Meals for children - reducing the french fries portion by more than half and adding apples to every order. This past summer, it rolled out a “Favorites Under 400” menu that highlights products in that calorie range. McDonald’s also plans to add more fresh fruits and vegetables to its menu and has set a goal of decreasing calories, saturated fat and added sugars across its U.S. menu by 2020. Corporate Accountability International has been pressing McDonald’s to make bolder changes to its menus and to stop advertising to children. “To truly address its health impact ... the burger giant (needs) to make more fundamental, far-reaching changes,” said Juliana Shulman, senior organizer for the group’s Value the Meal campaign. More than two years ago, Panera Bread Co became the first national restaurant chain to voluntarily post calories at company-owned stores. Sandwich chain Subway has used calorie disclosures to position itself as a healthier alternative to rivals like McDonald’s and Burger King Worldwide Inc.  McDonald’s shares were down $0.30 at $90.90 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.


Statin Drugs May Cut Risk of Kidney Trouble After Surgery

Explanation: The story could have benefited from some strong, independent voices commenting on the findings and from a more careful explanation of the study itself. Readers deserved to know more about the study’s limitations, about the absolute differences seen in the groups studied and about the risks associated with statin use. The story went beyond the press release used to promote the study, but it needed to go much further in helping readers understand the strength of the findings and their potential impact on readers considering surgery. One of the risks associated with surgery is kidney failure, an outcome no patient or surgeon wants. To be able to reduce that risk by taking a pill would be a major boon to medicine. This study hints that statins could provide that benefit, but, as the authors themselves acknowledge, there are significant limitations to a backward-looking, uncontrolled study. Those limitations and the reality of the necessary steps to create a foundation for solid clinical practice needed to be acknowledged in this story and other coverage of the same topic.

The story makes no mention of costs, even though the costs of statins are easy to find, and, in Canada, because of the universal health care system, the costs of statins to the government should be an easy number to quantify. All benefits are presented in relative terms, which is misleading to readers. For example, the third sentence says, “Researchers found that people who took statin medications had about a 16% reduced risk of renal failure and a 21% lower risk of dying after their surgeries, compared to people who weren’t taking the drugs.” What are the absolute numbers? Well, out of 67,941 people, 1,208 people suffered an acute kidney injury while not taking statins, and 1,039 suffered one while taking statins. That means 169 fewer people suffered an acute kidney injury, and this is making the big assumption that statins had anything to do with it. No risks or harms from statins are mentioned in this story. Statins are a well tolerated class of drugs with a relatively low risk profile, but all drugs carry risks and have side effects. When you start talking about extending statin use to a much larger percentage of the population, those risks become magnified. We felt that some mention of risks was warranted. There is some good information in here about the basic outlines of the study design. The story says, for example, “For the study, researchers looked at the medical records of all seniors who had elective surgery in Ontario, Canada, from 1995 through 2008, a group of 213,347 men and women over age 65. Elective procedures included heart or lung operations, vascular surgery, or surgery in the abdomen, or procedures on the bladder, ureter, or kidneys — except transplants or removal of the kidneys. About half of patients in the study had heart surgeries. Nearly one-third of these patients were taking statin medications before going under the knife.” What was missing was any sense of the limitation of these findings. The study itself goes on at some length about these limitations, including this crucial piece of information: “As with all observational studies, the protective association seen between statin use and AKI may not be causal.” We also thought it worth noting that to be considered a “statin user,” all one had to do was fill a statin prescription in the previous 90 days. Given that someone could have filled a statin prescription on Monday and had surgery on Friday, we don’t think this is a strong enough basis to prove that statins protected kidneys from failing. We don’t think the story intended to engage in disease-mongering, but the story is framed in such a way that the risk of renal failure following surgery is overly hyped. The second sentence of the story says, “For reasons doctors don’t completely understand, this complication, which is called acute kidney injury (AKI) or acute renal failure, is on the rise, and it dramatically increases a patient’s risk of dying during recovery.” It isn’t until later in the story that we are told, “Overall, about 2% of patients experienced renal failure within two weeks of their procedures.” That should ease patients’ concerns a bit until later in the story it says, “Depending on how researchers define it, studies have shown that it may occur in up to 40% of patients.” This sort of whipsawing can turn readers off to a topic and leave them feeling scared and confused. There are no independent sources quoted in this story. There was nothing in the story about current treatment approaches for reducing the risk of renal failure. This leads readers to believe that there is nothing they can do to prevent a renal injury or death other than take statins. Statins are such a widely prescribed class of drug that we feel most readers will understand their availability. The story does hint at this by noting that one-third of the patients who had surgery in this study were taking statins. The story, like the study, points out that the connection between statin use and renal protection has only been seen in animals. We think the story makes it clear to readers that what’s new and important here is showing a relationship in humans as well. The story does not rely solely on a news release, but we do think the story relied too heavily on the study’s abstract. It should have gone deeper into the story to provide readers context.


A year on, Indian anti-Vedanta protesters say still await justice.

Explanation: A year after Indian police killed 13 people protesting against pollution from a copper smelter in this hardscrabble southern port city, tensions within the community and between residents and the police are still running high.

No officer has been arrested or charged in connection with  the shootings, and a judicial commission set up to investigate  has provided no updates on its progress. The incident was one of the deadliest environmental protests in India in a decade. A working group of United Nations’ human rights experts last May condemned the “apparent excessive and disproportionate use of lethal force by police”. India’s National Human Rights Commission has dropped its inquiry, citing “adequate compensation” paid to victims and attempts by the state to restore law and order, according to a document reviewed by Reuters. At the same time, people surrounding the Vedanta Ltd smelter, since shuttered by the state authorities for allegedly poisoning groundwater, say they are still being intimidated by local police. The company has consistently denied the pollution allegations. Some residents allege they have been detained and beaten by the police, and that they have been refused the right to protest. One activist, S Mugilan, who released a video critical of the police shootings, has been missing since Feb. 15 – the day he held a news conference in state capital Chennai. “People have been intimidated and forced into silence by the police,” said 79-year-old A W D Thilak, the head of the Thoothukudi Bar Association. “This is not real peace, there has been no compromise,” he said. Local police say that all their actions since the shootings have been aimed at keeping the lid on any potential trouble, even if that means curbing some rights to freedom of speech or protest. However, they denied allegations of abuse by officers. Police shot at the protesters without warning on May 22, 2018, according to interviews with multiple witnesses at the time. On that day and on May 23, 12 people were killed with shots to the head and chest, half of them from behind, according to a Reuters analysis of post-mortem reports in December. Another protester died after being allegedly beaten by the police, according to family members. Police said at the time they were overwhelmed and had opened fire because they feared the protesters were about to attack people in government offices and apartments housing Vedanta workers. The Madras High Court in August asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Indian equivalent of the FBI, to file charges within four months. Nine months later, no action has been taken. A senior CBI official declined to comment on why no charges have been filed. A CBI spokesperson did not respond to a request seeking comment. The Judicial Commission declined to comment. The National Human Rights Commission did not respond to a request seeking comment. Meanwhile, Vedanta executives have been pushing to restart the smelter, which was run by its Sterlite subsidiary, with social media postings under hashtags such as #knowthetruth and #reopenSterlite. The smelter was shuttered by a Tamil Nadu government order soon after the killings. The company, which is controlled by the billionaire Anil Agarwal, has said it regretted the shootings occurred and has consistently denied the plant polluted its surroundings. Vedanta did not respond to specific queries on its executives campaigning for reopening its smelter, but said in a statement it had a “strong track record” of corporate social responsibility interventions. The statement listed community schemes it was currently funding, including a plan to plant a million trees and a drinking water project. Santhosh Raj, a 22-year-old protester who witnessed the death of the first man shot that day, said that in mid-January he was abruptly blocked by men on motorbikes who dragged him by his collar and forced him into a jeep, where he was blindfolded. “They started hitting, from all sides. My back hurts even today,” Santhosh told Reuters at his residence in Pandarampatti, a village on the outskirts of Thoothukudi. He said he was switched to a different vehicle and taken to an unknown location where his blindfold was briefly removed so that police could take his photograph. The officers made him sign a document, though he does not know what was in it. Santhosh says police threatened to kill him for campaigning against the smelter’s reopening, and says he was subject to beatings throughout the day. Murali Ramba, the superintendent of police in the Thoothukudi district, said Santhosh had been arrested because he was instigating protests and disrupting law and order. He denied that Santhosh had been abused or threatened. Local residents say the police are clamping down on any attempts to discuss the shootings or the plant shutdown. When villagers hoisted black flags on their terraces in a protest, police seized the flags, the residents said. “If anybody wants to provoke or instigate, the police will not allow it,” Ramba said. The Madras High Court ruled last week that a gathering of up to 500 people would be allowed to mark the anniversary of the shootings on Wednesday. That was despite opposition by the city’s government and the police, who said it could disrupt law and order. In the days and weeks following the protest, local police detained 277 people, mostly aged between 18 to 30, though they were all subsequently released following a court order. The families of the 13 people killed received 2 million rupees ($28,430) each in compensation, according to Sandeep Nanduri, the district’s top administrative official. None of the families are known to have hired a lawyer to seek more, though the Madras High court said in an order in August that the CBI could decide to award higher compensation if it thinks it is warranted following an investigation. Many of those killed, injured or arrested came from  villages around the plant, which is about 10 km (6 miles) from the center of the city. It has meant losses of income, hurting local businesses, and disrupted education. Some have been unable to take up jobs abroad because they face charges. People seeking justice are still being picked up by police, said Hari Raghavan, an activist lawyer. The police “summon people without paying heed to basic things like giving them time to ask for leave from their employer”, said Raghavan, who was himself detained for protesting against Santhosh’s disappearance.


Choose Omega-3s from fish over flax for cancer prevention, study finds

Explanation: This news release reports on a study of tumor growth in mice with an aggressive form of breast cancer who were fed varying types of omega-3s. The news release offers plenty of unwarranted medical advice such as “choose omega-3s from fish over flax for cancer prevention” while failing to caution about the limitations of using mouse studies to predict human outcomes. The study points out that previous research has focused on the protective role of eating fish and other marine life against breast cancer, with little evidence regarding the impact of plant sources of omega-3s. Yet there’s no conclusive evidence that eating fish reduces cancer risk, and no mouse study can prove otherwise. News releases shouldn’t extrapolate from the evidence as this one does by conferring benefits seen in a few unusual mice onto all humans looking to prevent any form of cancer. Such misleading news releases tend to produce misleading coverage such as the Daily Mail’s Salmon may help to prevent breast cancer more than flax seeds as scientists discover fish-source omega 3 fatty acids prohibit tumor growth by up to 70%.

cancer prevention,omega-3,University of Guelph

The additional cost of adding fish and seafood to the diet aren’t discussed. There aren’t benefits to quantify, only results, but the news release reports even those in confusing fashion. It states in the second paragraph that “marine-based omega-3s are eight times more effective at inhibiting tumor development and growth” without giving any sort of baseline for what’s being measured. Further down it states that “exposure to marine-based omega-3s reduced the size of the tumors by 60 to 70 percent and the number of tumors by 30 percent” without saying how much omega-3s the mice consumed or giving the sizes or frequency of tumors. Also, there’s no data on how many mice died. The Cochrane Collaboration (a non-profit that researches and reports on evidence-based medicine) looked at many different human studies and says that so far there is no proof fish oil can treat or prevent cancer-related weight loss, depression, dementia and many other conditions. Some fatty and farm fish contain significant levels of mercury, PCBs, and other contaminants and experts recommend limiting their consumption and avoiding them entirely if you’re pregnant. That isn’t mentioned. The release also conveys an endorsement of fish oil tablets, which can have side effects such as heartburn, nosebleeds, hot flushes, leg cramps, nausea and bad breath. Not until the fifth paragraph does this news release mention that this is a study of mice with an unusual form of breast cancer, not healthy humans. It doesn’t explain how those limit the usefulness of the results. The news release states that the HER-2 form of breast cancer “affects 25 percent of women.” That number seems over-inflated according to other sources. The Mayo Clinic website states “in about 1 of every 5 breast cancers, the cancer cells have a gene mutation that makes an excess of the HER2 protein.” And Cancer Investigation journal put the number of women with HER-2 positive at 19% for women under 49 years and 15% for those over 50 years old. Funding sources and conflicts of interest aren’t mentioned. According to the study, which is behind a paywall, funding came from the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research-Institute of Cancer Research, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund, Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Canada is a world leader in both seafood and flax seed exports. The authors reported no competing interests. The news release doesn’t mention evidence-backed strategies to reduce breast cancer risk such as limiting alcohol consumption and getting exercise. Fatty fish is widely available. The news release notes in the seventh paragraph that it’s the first to compare the impact of different omega-3s on breast cancer tumor growth in mice. The news release gives premature medical advice to “choose omega-3s from fish over flax for cancer prevention” and “consume two to three servings of fish a week,” and suggests without evidence that “omega-3s will likely be beneficial for other types of cancer.” It veers even further astray by conveying a researcher’s view that “supplements and functional foods, such as omega-3 eggs or DHA milk, can offer similar cancer prevention effects.”


Study: Stroke deaths higher where fried fish aplenty

Explanation: This story could have been botched so easily. Instead, this story covered the study and sought multiple independent perspectives which provided important analysis of the possible limitations of the research and the questions remaining. Association does not equal causation, and this story nailed that point, explaining it clearly for readers. Nice job. To others who still don’t understand the difference, see our primer on this topic.

The story doesn’t discuss the cost of fried fish, but we think this is common knowledge. Not applicable in this case. Not applicable. The story was about a potentially harmful association, not about benefits of any intervention. Not applicable. The story was based on an observational study and the story was appropriately cautious about any causal link. We love the analysis provided by independent experts: “This is good stuff. It’s a well-done study, but I think one thing to bear in mind is that it’s not specifically a study of stroke risk. You’re looking at a community and seeing how it’s behaving on the whole,” says Daniel Labovitz, a stroke neurologist at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. “This study can’t tell you causation. It can’t tell you there’s a direct link between one thing and another, it just tells you they’re associated,” says stroke neurologist Victor Urrutia, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. How might eating fried fish impact stroke? It could be that frying the fish leaches out the omega-3s, says Jeremy Lanford, stroke director at Scott & White Healthcare in Roundrock, Texas. Or the increased fat calorie content from the frying oil may contribute to stroke, says author Nahab. He also notes that fish used for frying, such as cod and haddock, tend to be the types lower in healthy fats. More research is needed to tease out whether cooking methods affect stroke risk, Labovitz says. “In other words, is fried fish a problem, or is it another red herring?” he says. No disease mongering of stroke, and especially not about the concern in the “stroke belt.” The independent experts quoted made the story complete. Terrific analysis of the evidence by the independent experts. A helpful sidebar included this information about alternative sources of omega-3 fatty acids: There isn’t any question about the availability of fried fish, especially in the regions in question. The story explained that this study is “part of a large government-funded study, Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS).” It’s clear that the story didn’t rely on a news release.


Blue-green algae (known scientifically as cyanobacteria) are capable of poisoning dogs and other pets.

Explanation: Toxic algae blooms typically occur in stagnant, warm waters. If you suspect a harmful algae bloom in your area, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a list of state-level authorities to whom you can report the potential occurrence, or to check for local algae alerts.

On Aug. 8, 2019, a Facebook user posted an account of her three dogs’ apparent deaths from algae poisoning, stating that the dogs “contracted blue-green algae poisoning and there was nothing they could do”:  Blue-green algae — cyanobacteria to the scientific community — are a massive, diverse, and ancient group of bacterial species ubiquitous in nature. Massive blooms can occur in environments when significant amounts of nutrients, either from fertilizer or other natural processes, run off into waterways, producing conditions that allow the organisms to overwhelm a body of water. Though not all species of cyanobacteria produce toxins, “species within several genera produce potent toxins, known as cyanotoxins […] all of which can induce severe or fatal illness in animals and people,” according to a review paper published in the scientific journal Toxins. Though equally susceptible to toxic effects of these cyanotoxins, humans are less likely to suffer deadly consequences because they generally do not drink large amounts of algae-contaminated water or roll around in it. Val Beasley, a professor of veterinary, wildlife and ecological toxicology sciences at Pennsylvania State University, told The New York Times that cyanobacterial poisoning of animals is common and occurs seasonally: It happens every single year in the U.S. and around the world. … A lot of times, the neurotoxins will kill the animal before they can get to the veterinarian. … This time of year is when you have the most numbers of cases and people are out and about with their animals and the conditions are ripe for the cyanobacteria to grow.


Explanation: Republican Governors Association blasts Sink's record, compensation as bank executive

Candidate Biography, Florida, Republican Governors Association,

On Feb. 23, 2010, the Republican Governors Association -- the gubernatorial campaign arm of the national GOP -- fired a shot at Alex Sink, the Democratic candidate for governor of Florida. The RGA, which is backing Republican Bill McCollum, took aim at Sink's career as a top executive at Bank of America and its predecessor in Florida, NationsBank.Here's the entire text of the 15-second advertisement, to be aired on broadcast and cable television outlets:"As bank president, Alex Sink eliminated thousands of Florida jobs while taking over $8 million in salary and bonuses. Alex Sink. Not one of us. One of them. "In a fundraising e-mail sent several hours after the ad was launched, the Sink campaign attacked it as "full of dodges and distortions" and said it "misleads Floridians about Alex Sink's record as a business leader." We see three questions to probe here. One is whether her banks eliminated "thousands of Florida jobs" on Sink's watch. The second is whether the ad correctly describes Sink's compensation. And the third is whether it's fair to lay the blame for the job losses on Sink.We'll take these questions individually.Job lossesWe were unable to track down any official NationsBank documents addressing the issue of job losses from the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank's August 1997 acquisition of Jacksonville-based Barnett Bank. But news coverage at the time is consistent in reporting that the company planned to eliminate 6,000 jobs as a result of the merger.A Jan. 1, 1998, Miami Herald article quotes Rusty Rainey, who led the NationsBank-Barnett transition, saying that the merger would cut more than 6,000 jobs. Before the merger, the Herald reported, Barnett employed about 22,000 people and NationsBank had between 8,500 and 9,000 employees in Florida.It's worth noting that the 6,000 figure involves a bit of uncertainty. It's a prediction, rather than an after-the-fact accounting, so the final number may have been higher or lower. (In other reports, the Herald noted that new jobs might be created in back-office processing facilities in Jacksonville and with the expected addition of 60 to 80 supermarket branches.) In addition, Rainey said in the Herald article that the 6,000 target would be met largely by attrition rather than layoffs -- not an implausible goal, given the high rates of employee turnover in the banking industry and the relatively low unemployment levels at the time.Also, the subsequent merger of NationsBank with Bank of America in 1998 created an expected 8,000 job cuts. But that was a national number; the number of jobs lost in Florida specifically was not reported.Ultimately, none of these caveats matter much because the RGA ad was carefully worded. It speaks of "thousands of Florida jobs," rather than citing a specific number of job losses, and it refrains from describing the eliminated jobs as "layoffs." So we find this description accurate. CompensationHere too, we were unable to obtain original tax forms from the Sink campaign, but their contents were widely and consistently reported in 2002, when the gubernatorial campaign of Sink's husband, Democrat Bill McBride, released them to the public.The McBride campaign released Sink's tax returns for 2000 and 2001, which had been filed independently of her husband. Earlier, the campaign had released the couple's jointly filed return from 1999.When her income from these three years is combined, Sink earned in excess of $8 million. According to various news reports at the time, which were based directly on the tax returns released to the media, Sink earned $2.6 million in 1999, $3.4 million in 2000 and $2.8 million in 2001. (She took early retirement in a management shakeup in 2000.) That equals $8.8 million over three years. While that amount squares with the dollar figure cited in the ad, it's worth noting two caveats.One is that this income was earned between two and four years after the merger was announced. However, Sink held the same position at the time -- president of Florida operations for the bank -- and was presiding over the merged entity. So that doesn't strike us as being a major flaw.The other caveat concerns the ad's use of the term "salary and bonuses." In 2002, the Associated Press reported that Sink's 2000 income included "stock-options and lump-sum pension payments" and that her 2001 income included "stock options, deferred compensation and pension" payments. None of the coverage mentions "bonus" payments, and the campaign was not able to clarify whether she received any bonuses or not for those years. The RGA stands behind its characterization. "To most normal people, any compensation that is over and above your typical salary would be called a bonus," said spokesman Tim Murtaugh. "Very often, these bonuses take the form of some combination of stocks and other compensation. "But we think the distinction is worth mentioning because in today's post-Wall Street crash environment, saying that a financial-services employee received a lucrative "bonus" at the same time the company was cutting jobs is a pretty loaded accusation. Absent any hard evidence that she received what experts would consider a "bonus," we'll downgrade the accuracy of this part of the ad slightly.Who's to blame?So our analysis suggests that the core facts in the ad are pretty accurate. But what about the larger context? Two banking experts noted that Sink did nothing unusual compared to other bank executives during that period of aggressive mergers. Stanley D. Smith, a finance professor at the University of Central Florida, said that the elimination of those jobs in the merger "would have and should have occurred no matter who the Florida CEO was. That merger was what is called an intramarket merger, where the two banks’ branches and operations overlapped. The premium that NationsBank paid was based on the savings that would occur from the elimination of overlapping branches and operations. Any competent banker would have done the same thing, and those unfortunate job losses are just a normal part of that type of merger. "James McNulty, a finance professor at Florida Atlantic University, agreed. "Bank mergers very often involve job losses," he said. "The major reason that banks merge is to improve efficiency, and that involves eliminating positions that are redundant in the combined organization. In many cases jobs are reduced by attrition rather than by firing people -- those who leave are not replaced, and good people that the bank wants to retain are moved to new positions. This happens in most large bank mergers. Blaming it on Alex Sink is preposterous. "There's one other issue worth considering: Was Sink as personally responsible for slashing jobs as the ad claims?Last May, Sink told reporters in the St. Petersburg Times-Miami Herald Tallahassee bureau that the decision to merge with Barnett was made by corporate executives at NationsBank headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. "I got a call one day just like the people at Barnett did that said an agreement has been reached," she said.Murtaugh of the RGA responds that "Sink was the president of the bank. Of course she was responsible for decisions made. If she says she wasn’t responsible and was only following orders, what does that say about her ability to tout her business experience? She can’t claim that she wasn’t in charge of decisionmaking and then also claim that she has business decisionmaking experience. "On that point, we agree. Even if she were not the architect of the deal, she helped implement the merger over the next few years, and received a generous compensation package at the same time. With the exception of the term "bonus," which we think is a bit of a stretch, the RGA ad strikes us as generally accurate.


Say Oregon Reps. Peter DeFazio and Earl Blumenauer are "socialists who are openly serving in the U.S. Congress.

Explanation: Bloggers claim Peter DeFazio and Earl Blumenauer are socialists

Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio has been called a lot of things over his 12 terms in Congress -- hot head, visionary, renegade, principled, effective and determined. Now, if a burst of activity on websites and blogs in recent weeks is to be believed, DeFazio is something else -- a socialist. And he’s not alone. The posts, all of which piggyback from a single offering that has been replicated on dozens of websites in recent weeks, says there are 70 card-carrying Socialists in the House of Representatives, including Rep. Earl Blumenauer, another Democrat from Oregon. (The number actually varies. Some posts say 70 while others insist it’s either 73 or 76. One post used both 76 and 75 in the same entry.) An Aug. 12 post on the website for a group called Sovereign Citizens United mentions DeFazio and Blumenauer by name. It also says this: "I’m sure if you asked random people on the street if we had open socialists in the US Congress, they would say – well only Bernie Sanders (Senate). But the right answer is much, much worse." "This should come as a surprise to absolutely no one,"  says an Aug. 16 post on ConservativeByte.com. "The radical Marxist-progressives (communists) took control of the Democrat party some time ago. They’ve only become more emboldened with the election of Barack Obama, who was raised as a communist from birth." In case you miss the point, the post comes equipped with a large and very bright hammer and sickle emblem. While most of the names politicians are called are opinions, calling a congressman a Socialist sounds both emphatic and exact, which always gets our attention here at PolitiFact Oregon. Another thing that gets our attention is when a claim gets spread far and wide. This one meets that test, too. Here’s a blog post on Aug. 17 by Texas radio host Dan Cofall, whose show airs out of Fort Worth:  "The magic number ‘70’ is the number of members of the 111th Congress who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). These are not just politicians who vote left of center; these are card-carrying members of ‘The Democratic Socialists of America’." Cofall did not respond to an email asking for comment. And we couldn’t reach anyone from ConservativeByte. Before we get to our ruling, let’s begin with some basics. Congress resets itself every two years, which means the current edition is the 112th Congress, not the 111th. Why does that matter? Because the new Congress that begins in January every two years always follows an election and some of the people on the list are no longer in office. Cofall acknowledges this but then continues to list names from the 111th Congress anyway. Those listed as "card carrying" socialists who are no longer serving include: Robert Wexler (Florida), Phil Hare (Illinois), John Hall (New York), Alan Grayson (Florida), and Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii). Then there’s this: Real card-carrying Socialists say those members, including DeFazio and Blumenauer, aren’t Socialists. The list that Cofall and dozens more rely upon "is completely fraudulent," said Frank Llewellyn, who served as national director of the Democratic Socialists of America for 10 years until stepping down July 5. There is not one member of Congress who is a formal member of the DSA, Llewellyn said. In order to join, a person must fill out a form and pay dues. Even Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, is not a formal member of the DSA, Llewellyn said. The last member of Congress who was an actual card-carrying member, he said, was California Democratic Rep. Ron Dellums, who served 28 years in the House until leaving in 1998. Llewellyn and DSA’s new national director, Maria Svart are chagrined for two reasons. First, they have to spend time knocking down reports that never seem to go away. Second, Llewellyn said, "if we had formal political relationships with 70-odd members, we would be making a lot more money’’ from dues. For the record, both DeFazio and Blumenauer say they’ve never been associated with the Democratic Socialists of America. "This is another made-up Internet rumor that has no merit," DeFazio said. "I am a proud Democrat who has taken many independent stands over the years. I am anti-so called free trade, pro-American jobs, pro-infrastructure investment, pro-fair taxation, anti-amnesty, pro-balanced budget amendment, pro-Wall Street re-regulation, and pro-audit the Pentagon and Federal Reserve. I am an Oregonian and an independent thinker." Blumenauer was equally annoyed. "No matter which side of the political aisle it comes from, this kind of name calling and rhetoric represents exactly what is wrong with our democracy today," he said. "Rather than bringing people together to solve our nation's problems, it spreads false and divisive allegations throughout the media and the public. It is a major distraction from the real work that needs to get done." Bad information gets spread all the time. But where did the number, or numbers, come from? The list purported to have originated with the DSA says this on page two:  Q: How many members of the U.S. Congress are also members of the DSA? A: Seventy  It then lists them by name. What it does not say is that the names are simply lifted en masse from the membership of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a collection of liberal-leaning lawmakers that includes DeFazio and Blumenauer but officially, not a single socialist. According to its website, the Progressive Caucus is one of the largest in Congress and works for such causes as economic justice, civil rights and civil liberties as well as global peace and security. Llewellyn said that DSA supports some of the policy positions of the caucus. Voicing support for positions embraced by a group of lawmakers is a routine part of business on Capitol Hill and is employed by organizations as disparate as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Rifle Association and NORML, a group devoted to legalizing the use of marijuana. But agreeing with some positions doesn’t make a member of Congress a card-carrying Socialist. Llewellyn says similar accusations of Socialism (with a capital S) have surfaced every election year since 1991 when the Progressive Caucus was created. "There’s nothing we can do to stop it, Llewellyn said. "I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve tried to stop it." Misinformation and smear campaigns also are part of political life. But these persistent claims about socialists are riddled with errors and outright lies. Any one of the problems would be sufficient to discredit the report, but taken together, the effort is flagrantly false.


New blood test may predict cardiovascular events in patients with or without coronary artery disease, research shows

Explanation: The news release reports on research suggesting that testing for plasma ceramides, a type of blood lipid, might enable doctors to identify individuals at higher risk for heart attacks and strokes even though they have healthy cholesterol levels and no evidence of coronary blockage. It provides a readable and reasonably straightforward account of what the researchers did and why it might be important, but there are a number of significant omissions. First, the release should have acknowledged that this test — even if it does effectively identify individuals at increased risk of a heart attack or stroke — may not lead to treatment that actually lowers that risk. Knowing about an increased risk doesn’t mean that risk can be reduced. Many other similar risk markers have been proposed over the years and so far haven’t been found very useful for actually guiding treatment that improves outcomes. Moreover, the research discussed in the release was being presented at a scientific meeting, meaning it has not yet gone through the peer-review process for publication in a journal. In addition, the news release provides no information about the costs of the new test, which appears to be available only through Mayo Medical Laboratories. It also does not discuss the possibility of false positive results, potentially leading to unnecessary treatment. Cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and strokes, kills more Americans than any other disease, including cancer. Although health experts have long advised people to try to maintain low cholesterol levels – especially for low-density lipoprotein (LDL) – research suggests that as many as half of all heart attacks occur in individuals who have normal cholesterol levels. In addition, heart attacks can occur in individuals, especially women, for whom angiograms show no blockage of the coronary arteries.

The news release provides no information about how much the blood ceramide test costs. The primary benefit of the test is that it might enable doctors to identify people who are at higher-than-normal risk for heart attacks and strokes even though they have normal levels of cholesterol and show no evidence of heart blockages. The news release does a good job of explaining the likelihood of having a cardiac event for those with low versus high levels of blood ceramides. In particular, it reports both absolute and relative risk, noting that, among individuals with low LDL (bad cholesterol) levels, cardiovascular disease occurred in 3.7% of those with low ceramide levels but in 16.4% of those with high ceramide levels. Presumably, there is little risk to individuals from the blood test itself. However, it’s important to note that among individuals with low LDL and the highest levels of blood ceramides, 83.6% did not experience cardiovascular disease. This raises the concern that use of the blood ceramide test might increase overtreatment, depending on what a patient’s doctor recommends if the test reveals high ceramide levels. It is not clear what, if anything, individuals can do to reduce their blood ceramide levels. While there’s certainly no harm in encouraging people to change their lifestyles to reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke, some health experts now argue that statins, often prescribed to decrease patients’ cholesterol levels, might do more harm than good for individuals at lower risk of heart disease. The news release wasn’t clear about what this study cannot tell us, which is that we don’t know if the results of the blood test would make doctors change how they treat patients. Given that most patients are already on medication to treat their cardiac risk factors, measuring ceramide levels might not lead to any treatment and would just increase costs. Moreover, it’s not clear whether any changes in treatment would actually produce measurable benefits for patients who are at increased risk according to the test. Another concern here is that the research discussed in the news release was being presented at a scientific conference and had not yet gone through the peer review process for journal publication. Research findings may change when a study report is published in a journal, and for this reason, journalists often are cautioned against building stories around conference reports. In this case, the association between ceramide levels and heart disease has been documented in other research. However, the news release’s contention that those with low LDL but high ceramide levels are four times as likely to have a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular event would still be considered a preliminary finding, given the lack of rigorous peer review. Heart disease is a serious and common problem. However, the news release skirts the line here by stating in the second paragraph that “individuals with the highest levels of blood ceramides were found to have a 3- to 4-times greater risk of having a cardiovascular event compared with those with the lowest ceramide score, regardless of their LDL cholesterol level or the presence of a blockage in the heart’s arteries.” Five paragraphs later, it provides the absolute risk information mentioned earlier. What’s missing here are data explaining how heart disease risks for individuals with low LDL cholesterol, no blockages and high ceramide levels compare to the risks among individuals with high LDL cholesterol levels and/or evidence of heart artery blockage. Those numbers would’ve helped put the “3- to 4-times greater risk” in context. The news release states that Mayo Clinic funded the trial and notes in the same paragraph that the ceramide test is available through Mayo Medical Laboratories, making the potential conflict of interest quite clear. It also notes that the study’s senior author is a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and chair of the “Division of Clinical Core Laboratory Services” and that Mayo Medical Laboratories collaborated with Finland-based Zora Biosciences to develop the test. The news release doesn’t mention that over the past few years many new blood tests for refining cardiac risk have been researched. Independent expert guidelines do not endorse their use. How well ceramides compare to these blood tests will have to be determined by future studies. The news release states that the “new test is available to health care providers worldwide through Mayo Medical Laboratories.” It is not entirely clear whether this is the only commercially available test of its kind. The news release notes that Mayo Medical Laboratories first released this test in August 2016, and that “the present study is also the first to test its clinical utility in a U.S. population.” However, while this test is new, many similar biomarkers for refining cardiac risk have been proposed over the years. None of the language in the news release rises to the level of what we’d flag here.


1,000 GP practices have closed since 2010.

Explanation: Malaysia will push its Southeast Asian neighbors to strengthen  cooperation in finding a long-term solution for smog wafted across the region from forest fires in Indonesia, its environment minister said on Thursday.

In the past few weeks, Malaysia and neighboring Singapore have been choked by smoky air blown in from forest fires started to clear land for plantations, forcing schools to shut and many people to wear masks so as to avoid inhaling smog particles. “I will have a conference call with the ASEAN secretary-general to raise our views and also express our hope for a more effective mechanism at the ASEAN level for a long-term solution,” Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin told a news conference, but did not elaborate on other participants. All three countries belong to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which set up a regional haze action plan in 1997, but Malaysia thinks the grouping has not done enough to evolve a long-term solution. Among its efforts to tackle the hazard, Malaysia could pass a new law to punish any of its companies responsible for starting fires, but only international cooperation could yield a lasting solution, Yeo added. “Cloud seeding is only temporary. A law here would only deal with Malaysian companies. What we need is international cooperation for a long-term solution.”  On Tuesday, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had said Malaysia was considering a new law to compel its companies to tackle fires on land they control abroad. Yeo said Malaysia will keep up cloud seeding efforts to bring temporary relief in badly-hit areas. This involves spraying chemicals, such as sodium chloride and magnesium oxide, from aircraft in order to spur rainfall. Malaysia will also consider deploying drones to help in cloud seeding, Mahathir told a separate news conference. Malaysia’s Islamic Development Department issued the text of a special plea for divine intervention to disperse the smog, to be recited after weekly prayers on Friday by mosque congregations nationwide.


China's blood donations dry up as coronavirus outbreak quells giving.

Explanation: The coronavirus epidemic is draining China’s reserves of a life-saving commodity: blood.

Blood collection centers around the country have reported sharp drops in donations, with one even issuing a “red alert” as stocks dwindle. Doctors and other medical personnel have been donating, according to doctors and reports in state media. “Blood reserves have reached their lowest levels in history, and the blood supply for clinical use is facing an unprecedented challenge,” warned the blood collection center in the city of Jining on Feb. 10 on social media platform WeChat. While hospitals are postponing elective surgeries until after the epidemic is controlled, cancer patients, people suffering from blood diseases and critical care patients still need transfusions. The shortage highlights how the epidemic has exacerbated existing problems in China’s healthcare sector. Blood supplies have long been tight. With quarantine measures to prevent the coronavirus spread limiting large gatherings, donation centers are struggling to match regular levels of giving by students, military members, employees at state-owned companies and walk-in contributions. “The number of people on the street has dropped abruptly, the amount of blood donated has dropped suddenly,” a blood collection center in the city of Linyi, in northeast China, warned on WeChat earlier this month. The city of Nanjing needed daily donations from 300 people to meet demand, but only about 10 people a day had donated blood recently, the Jiangsu Province Blood Centre noted on its website on Feb. 6. The Jiangxi Province Blood Centre, which recently issued a “red alert” of low blood supply, sent text messages to more than 30,000 people urging them to donate, according to a Feb. 4 post on its website. Most of the requests are for traditional blood donations, but at least one blood center said it was also collecting plasma from recovered coronavirus patients for use in treating the disease. Shanghai’s collection center noted in a WeChat post this month that more transfusions could be required for coronavirus patients with severe respiratory failure that have to rely on machines to support their heart and lung function. Reached by phone, blood centers in Shanghai, Jiangxi and Jining declined to comment. Jiangsu’s blood center confirmed that donations had slowed dramatically. With many surgeries postponed, the real increase in demand for blood could come after the epidemic is controlled. Some collection centers promoted donations as a way of supporting the fight against the epidemic. Bloodline, a Shanghai-based donation group, launched a drive earlier this month to help address the shortage. “We are trying to give back to the community,” said Ashish Maskay, an orthopedic surgeon and the founder of Bloodline.


Explanation: This is a first-rate piece of magazine journalism. The article, as much about basic stem cell science as about medical treatment, focuses on one key researcher’s efforts to advance understanding of stem cells. The article puts those efforts in the context of politics, past and current research and the potential for clinical application. It personalizes the story without generating false emotion or hope. It’s a strong example of how journalists can educate the public about the importance and difficulties of scientific research–something that’s very useful against a backdrop of so much out-of-context, misleading reporting about the benefits and dangers of drugs and treatments. It’s particularly useful in an area where political interests have distorted some underlying scientific issues. The story could have been made even stronger if the author had talked to politically neutral people who for scientific reasons are less sanguine about the outcomes of stem cell research. The scientific community has endured years of having to defend the importance–indeed, the legality–of work with stem cells. This has resulted in a nearly united front in the field advancing the message that stem cell research is on the cusp of life-saving application and a transforming force in the history of medicine. This may turn out to be accurate. It may not. Only at the very end does the story explore the safety and efficacy issues that are important barriers to clinical application. It would have been better to have a little more of this a little earlier and to have it supplemented by an independent voice.

No treatments exist yet. Since there are no treatments yet, this criterion is not applicable. Near the end of the story, a paragraph states that successful treatments are not guaranteed, and that the safety of using the cells in humans has not been proven. The paragraph mentions the possiblity that cancer may be a side effect, and that the most promising type of stem cells have not been shown to develop fully into their original counterparts. This information comes late, but it is satisfactory. The story does an excellent job of describing the history and current status of stem cell research. Readers understand that the evidence of any benefit is preliminary and knowledge still developing. The story generates emotion and sense of urgency by describing how Douglas Melton’s children, who have Type 1 diabetes, could benefit from treatments that may grow out of his research. But Melton does appear to be motivated in part by his children’s stories, and there are many other people in the same situation, hoping for clinical stem cell treatments. In this case, using those anecdotes to frame the piece is not inappropriate. The author quotes four sources, including the subject of the story. All are experts in the field who are familiar with Melton’s and others’ research. All of the sources have some interest in positive outcomes of the research, either personal, professional, political or [presumably] financial. The author should have indicated this. It would have been useful to have the voice of someone who is more skeptical about the safety and imminence of stem cell therapies, but overall the sourcing is satisfactory. The story says that Type 1 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease, two targets of stem cell therapies under development, do not have cures. Because the story is not about the treatments, however, it is not necessary to discuss how these patients are currently treated. The story focuses on basic stem cell research conducted in vitro and in animals. It makes clear that clinical applications are not available. It mentions that the FDA has just approved the first small trial of stem cells in patients with severe spinal cord injuries. The story’s detailed history and context allow a reader to appreciate what aspects of stem cell research are new and novel. It is clear that this article did not rely on a news release.


Explanation: Patients with HIV may develop dementia as a result of the virus in the brain or inflammation as a result of the illness. The typical symptoms of HIV-associated dementia include short-term memory loss, slowing of thinking, difficulties with complex tasks, and social withdrawal. Neurological symptoms such as hand tremor and gait difficulties are also common. This story is about a study that tested an anti-seizure medication, valproic acid (Depakote), on cognitive functioning in 22 patients in over a 10-week period. 16 people in the study had HIV-related cognitive impairment, while 6 did not. Valproic acid is FDA approved to prevent seizures, but it is currently also used off-label for treatment of certain mental illnesses and in Alzheimer’s patients, as it is thought to prevent or reverse cognitive decline. The storyâ€™s description of study design and results is incomplete and there is no quantitative data presented on benefits or side effects. The study only lasted 10 weeks, and while there was a trend towards improvement, the story made no explanation of what â€œimprovementâ€ means or how it was measured or in how many people it was observed. It is important that the journalist mentions the need for a larger clinical trial to replicate results. 22 people is a very small sample to suggest generalizability of the results in terms of treating HIV dementia with valproic acid, so the headline is overzealous. There is still no “cure” for HIV-related dementia and current non-experimental options for treating this condition are not mentioned. The story doesnâ€™t mention side effects of taking valproic acid. The quote that it is “safe and well-tolerated by this population” does not provide enough information for a piece reporting the results of a published study. Also, 10 weeks is not enough time to assess long-term side effects for this medication in HIV patients. Anti-convulsant drugs like Depakote can have serious side effects when taken long term. These include weight gain, edema, sleepiness, gastrointestinal problems and liver toxicity.

The story doesn’t specifically mention the cost of treatment. However, this piece focuses on a very preliminary trial of an off-label use of an anti-seizure medication. Cost of drug would be useful, but not essential for this piece. No mention of quantitative data from the study. The story says “Those who took the drug showed some improvement in mental function. Brain scans also showed positive changes in brain metabolism.” But it doesn’t tell readers how many people showed improvement or how much improvement or how improvement was measured. How many brain scans showed positive changes? How positive? How was positive measured? The story doesn’t mention side effects of taking valproic acid, which may include liver toxicity. Other side effects include dizziness and upset stomach. One study participant developed acid reflux disease during the trial. The quote that it is “safe and well-tolerated by this population” does not provide enough information for a piece reporting on the results of a published study. Also, 10 weeks is not enough time to assess long-term side effects for this medication in HIV patients. Anti-convulsant drugs like Depakote can have bothersome side effects when taken long term. These include weight gain, edema, sleepiness, and gastrointestinal problems. The story’s description of the study design is incomplete. Of 22 patients, 6 had no cognitive impairment while 16 did. The study only lasted 10 weeks, and while there was a trend towards improvement, measurements of cognitive improvement did not change significantly between the placebo and valproic acid groups. There was, however, an increase in frontal white matter in the treatment arm of cognitively impaired participants, which is viewed as evidence of the effectiveness of the drug. It is important that the story mentions the need for a larger clinical trial to replicate results. 22 people is a very small sample to suggest generalizability of the results for HIV patients with dementia, so the headline is overzealous. And the story allows an interviewee to say that the treatment is well-tolerated and safe. It’s difficult to make that judgment after a trial in just 22 patients. There is still no “cure” for HIV-related dementia. No evidence of disease mongering. The story only discusses treatment limited to patients with HIV-related dementia. However, the story could have provided more explanation of the prevalence or progression to dementia in HIV. The article says the study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and sources are named as the study investigators. The journal article upon which the story is based states that the researchers have no conflicts of interest, but we are not told this in the news story. Stories should include such information. Nonetheless, we give this a satisfactory score. The story doesn’t mention other established or experimental options for treating HIV-related dementia. Mentions study is preliminary to larger clinical trials of valproic acid in HIV-related dementia, so this is not currently a readily available treatment. However, since valproic acid is readily available for use in seizures, this new use would be an “off-label” use. No information on how to enroll in these trials. The story could have improved on these points, but we give it a satisfactory score. By saying that researchers “may have found a new trick for an old anti-seizure drug,” the story is clear on this point. Valproic acid (trade name Depakote) for seizures is not new. Experimental use to improve cognitive function in HIV-related dementia is new. Not yet FDA approved for this use. We can’t be sure if the story relied solely or largely on a news release. However, we can say that story includes no input from any independent sources – only from two co-investigators.


Judge blocks NY ban on flavored vaping products.

Explanation: A judge has blocked New York state from enforcing an executive order banning flavored vaping products.

Legislature, Albany, Health, Public health, New York, Business, General News, Vaping, State legislature, Executive branch, Tobacco industry regulation

Acting state Supreme Court Justice Catherine Cholakis ruled that the state Public Health and Health Planning Council overstepped its authority last September  when it issued a ban on e-cigarettes and e-liquids flavored with anything other than tobacco or menthol. In a ruling issued this week in Albany, Cholakis said regulating the vaping industry is a job for the state Legislature, not the executive branch, whose function is to implement policy set by lawmakers. The emergency ban was challenged by the Vapor Technology Association, an industry group, and two of its member businesses. The judge granted their request for an injunction against enforcing the ban. The e-cigarette industry argued that the ban would have forced vaping businesses across the state to close. But Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called vaping a public health crisis and accused “unscrupulous vaping companies” of targeting young people with flavors like cotton candy and bubble gum. Cuomo said last month that he would introduce legislation to ban flavored nicotine e-cigarette products as well as vaping advertisements aimed at youth. He said the legislation would also empower the state Department of Health to ban the sale of vaping carrier oils that have been blamed for respiratory ailments. A spokesman for Cuomo called Cholakis’ decision “unfortunate” but noted that the judge said in her ruling that she understood the seriousness of the vaping issue. “That said, we’re reviewing the decision, evaluating our procedural options and moving forward with comprehensive legislation to address the public health concerns related to vaping,” the spokesman, Kyle Kotary, said Saturday. A message seeking comment was left with the vaping association. Regulating e-cigarettes has gained urgency in recent months as vaping illness has risen nationwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that as of Dec. 17, more than 2,500 people across the United States have reported respiratory issues related to vaping and 54 people are known to have died.


Wisconsin woman to celebrate 100th birthday.

Explanation: Hard work and a positive attitude seem to be the secret to longevity for Jane Makholm, who turns 100 on July 19.

Wisconsin, Chicago, Health, Beloit, Birthdays, Occasions

Makholm, who moved to Beloit Senior Living a year ago from Suring, Wisconsin, lives independently in her on-site apartment, is on the go and is in almost perfect health. She attends exercise class and book club, does crafts and stops in at happy hour. She enjoys an occasional nip of gin. To celebrate her many happy years, she will be heading up to Suring for a week of birthday festivities including a “doughnuts with Jane” event at her church, where members will tell their favorite stories about her. On July 26, Beloit Senior Living is having a big party for Makholm complete with pink moscato by request. Makholm was a city girl who grew to have a rural heart. She grew up in Chicago as an only child. Her parents had divorced and she grew up with a single mother, unusual at the time for a Catholic family. She worked for John Hancock Insurance in Chicago after graduating high school in 1937. The city girl’s life took a sharp turn after she married her husband Austin in 1941 and the two decided to take over Hill View Jersey Farm in Suring. She moved into the farm house with her in-laws and learned how to cook, wash and milk cows. In the community of 660 people, she became Lutheran and adjusted to rural life. Nearing 100 years of age, Makholm smiles about her farm days which she considered a lot of work but also fun. “They had notoriety of being the second highest producing Jersey herd for butterfat in the state of Wisconsin,” her daughter Alice Olson told the Beloit Daily News . With her kids not wanting to be farmers, the Makholms sold the farm after 35 years. However, Makholm was a long ways off from retirement. Her husband got a job assessing and she had jobs as a CNA, receptionist and in medical records. After surviving a heart attack in her late 60s, her doctor encouraged her to retire to reduce stress. That same doctor then turned around and hired her for five years. Makholm worked into her late 70s. She only stopped working when the doctor passed away. During her many years on the payroll, Makholm also kept busy by acting as general contractor on a new house and put in a pond, shed and island with a bridge. When her husband passed away in 2003, she did renovations and sold the house. At age 86, Makholm would again become general contractor for a double wide mobile home for herself. She obtained all the permits, got people to build the basement and driveway and hired electricians and plumbers. Makholm lived in her latest home for 15 years where she maintained gardens and mowed two acres. She finally decided it was time to consider moving when she was age 98 and her riding lawn mower broke. With her daughter living in Rockton, the plan was for Makholm to move nearby. Always a Packers fan and loyal Wisconsin resident, she opted to stay north of the border and loved what she found at Beloit Senior Living. Makholm can share meals twice a day with residents, but does her own cleaning, takes her own medications and runs her apartment independently. Although it was a big adjustment, Makholm said she keeps moving forward. She’s made friends and participates in all activities. “I just keep busy,” Makholm said. “She’s goes to everything,” her daughter added. “If I try to call her, it’s hard to catch her.” Makholm also goes to Florida with her daughter and son-in-law Larry for three months in the winter. Her daughter credits her longevity to good genes, a smile and a can-do attitude. ___ Information from: Beloit Daily News, http://www.beloitdailynews.com


Eating watermelon could lower your blood pressure

Explanation: This story may have graded much lower, but we think we were generous with a couple of our scores. It is difficult to understand why a news organization would devote time and space to such a preliminary story about a controversial "condition" or "diagnosis" without even mentioning the controversies. In effect, the paper turned over part of its pages this day to a university news release. That used to be called advertising. Except that the university got it for free. But controversy over "pre-hypertension" aside, this story didn’t evaluate evidence, didn’t tell readers about how difficult it is to draw any conclusions from a study in just 9 people, didn’t have independent sources, and didn’t disclose that the watermelon research was funded by the National Watermelon Promotional Board. Rather than reporting on such preliminary research, journalists may want to consider asking tougher, broader questions about the supposed diagnosis of pre-hypertension, which critics such as public health professor Curt Furberg of Wake Forest University says is "not a condition” but rather "a way of increasing markets for pharmaceutical companies.” Or, in this case perhaps, watermelon producers.

Not applicable. The cost of watermelon is not in question. The story only reported that "researchers found that eating six grams of watermelon extract a day for six weeks lowered blood pressure in all nine middle-aged subjects with prehypertension." It didn’t say by how much. Was it a difference of159/99 down to, say, 120/80? Exactly how much of a difference in both systolic and diastolic pressures did it make? We’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt for at least mentioning that the researchers "reported no adverse effects." Even if there had been any, though, there’s a good chance they may not have shown up in just 9 people. There is no discussion of the limitations of drawing any conclusions from a study of just 9 people. The story mentions "pilot" and "preliminary" but doesn’t tell the reader anything about the limitations therein. The story states that "Approximately 60 percent of U.S. adults are prehypertensive or hypertensive." No source is cited for that estimate. More importantly, there is no discussion of concerns about the labeling of "prehypertension" as a disease. It’s not difficult to find criticism – even from other journalists such as Ray Moynihan, in a recent issue of the journal BMJ. Excerpt: It also allowed one of the researchers to say "Cardiovascular disease [CVD] continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States. Generally, Americans have been more concerned about their blood cholesterol levels and dietary cholesterol intakes than their overall cardiovascular health risk factors leading to CVD, such as obesity and vascular dysfunction characterized by arterial stiffening and thickness –– issues that functional foods such as watermelon can help to mitigate." But this story didn’t investigate any evidence about arterial stiffening and thickness. And it was not about all cardiovascular disease. It was about 9 people with "pre-hypertension." There were no independent sources in the story. The story also failed to disclose that the researchers are supported by grants from the National Watermelon Promotional Board. There was no discussion of any other methods that might be used or have been researched to lower levels of so-called "pre-hypertension." Not applicable. The availability of watermelon is not in question. We’ll again give the story the benefit of the doubt for explaining that there had been some prior research: "While watermelon or watermelon extract is the best natural source for L-citrulline, it is also available in the synthetic form in pills, which Figueroa used in a previous study of younger, male subjects." But it didn’t tell readers whether any of these findings had been confirmed by any other independent research team(s). Entire portions of the story appear to be lifted directly from a Florida State news release.


Under a new law regulating abortions, "Even if you're raped, if you don't report it in the first 30 days, the Republicans will force you to have an ultrasound.

Abortion, Health Care, Women, Wisconsin, Peter Barca,

Democrats in the state Legislature protested in June 2013 when majority Republicans introduced and quickly passed a bill requiring women seeking an abortion to get ultrasound scans. Two months later, the gaping divide between the two parties on abortion -- seen in the bitter floor debate over the bill -- remains wide. That was evident when Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) and the Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) were interviewed together on Wisconsin Eye Aug. 7, 2013. Vos said he was proud the new law means that "every single mother has the opportunity to see the child" before making a "final decision to end the life of that baby." Democrats who sued to block the law, he added, are "out there saying it’s more about getting rid of the child than it is about giving information to the mother, and I think that’s sad." In response, Barca called the new law "so irresponsible." "I think it's maybe the first time we've dictated a medical procedure a woman has to go through, whether she can afford it or wants it or believes it’s necessary. In the case of rape … even if you're raped, if you don't report it in the first 30 days, the Republicans will force you to have to have an ultrasound." The bill passed on party-line votes, and Gov. Scott Walker signed it into law July 5, 2013. Besides ultrasounds, Act 37 requires doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles. The law’s authors say that means better care if abortions result in urgent medical problems. A judge has temporarily blocked the requirement on doctors, but the ultrasound provision remains in effect. Abortion providers argue the admitting requirement would force closure of two clinics because their doctors don't have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The result, they say, is that abortions in Wisconsin would not be available north of Madison or -- after the 19th week of pregnancy -- anywhere in the state. While the ultrasound provision has drawn much attention, the treatment of sexual assault victims under the bill has drawn relatively little. Is Barca right that women who do not report a rape within 30 days would be required to have an ultrasound? More about the law Under the law, the person performing the ultrasound must describe what is being shown and provide the woman an opportunity to see the ultrasound images. But the woman can't be required to view the images. PolitiFact Wisconsin previously rated False a claim by activist Rachel Campos-Duffy that more than 90 percent of women seeking an abortion decide not to get one after seeing their ultrasound. Research indicates that some women change their mind, but no solid evidence backs her sweeping claim. Barca’s statement was specific to sexual assault victims. The new law explicitly grants an exception -- a "waiver" in the bill’s parlance -- from pre-abortion ultrasounds when a pregnancy is the result of sexual assault or incest, or in cases of medical emergencies. The bill’s definition of "sexual assault" includes rape. It covers assaults of the first, second and third-degree. The reporting requirement drew criticism from some lawmakers and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, which said that for victims who don’t report a rape, an ultrasound "only serves to remind them of the trauma caused by the perpetrator." Several things have to happen before sexual assault victims qualify for the waiver. -- The woman must state that a report alleging the assault has been made to law enforcement. -- A physician or qualified assistant must confirm the report has been made and make a notation in the woman’s medical file. -- Law enforcement officials must confirm -- confidentially -- that they received the report. So it’s correct to say that rape victims who seek abortions would be required to have an ultrasound unless they report to police. But Barca runs into trouble on part of his statement. He frames his claim around a specific time limit, saying that rape victims don’t just have to make a report to avoid an ultrasound, they have to do so within 30 days. To be sure, that reporting timeframe is the norm in Wisconsin. In 2010, 72 percent of the 4,857 reported sexual assaults were reported within 30 days, state figures show. Still, another 12 percent of those reporting did so after a month but before one year, and another 5 percent did so after a year. No data was available on the rest. But our search of Act 37 and related statutes, plus checks with legislative officials and interest groups, found no evidence of any specific timetable in the law enforcement reporting provision. Rather, victims can report the crime and thereby avoid an ultrasound scan without regard to any time limits. Barca aide Erik Greenfield told us the lawmaker misspoke in mentioning a 30-day time limit. It’s unknown exactly how many rape victims seek abortions but do not report being assaulted. But there is evidence that many sexual assault victims do not report file a report with police, for a variety of reasons. Nationally, a large survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, an arm of the U.S. Justice Department, showed that 64 percent of rapes or sexual assaults against females were not reported to the police from 2005 to 2010. The leading reasons for not reporting: feared reprisal (20 percent); considered it a personal matter (13 percent); felt police would not help (13 percent); reported to  different official (8 percent); not important enough to report (8 percent); did not want to get perpetrator in trouble (7 percent). In Wisconsin, evidence suggested that only 19 percent of sexual assaults are reported to law enforcement, the state Office of Justice Assistance, said in 2011. OJA was an independent state agency eliminated in the 2013-’15 state budget. Critics of the bill say these numbers strongly suggest that some abortion-seeking assault victims will be non-reporters and therefore will be forced to get an ultrasound. State Sen.  Mary Lazich, the bill’s sponsor, doesn’t deny the possibility, but said victims could avoid that. "They need to report sexual assaults," Lazich, R-New Berlin, told us. Our rating Barca said that a new law passed by Republicans regulating abortion deals with sexual assault victims this way: "Even if you're raped, if you don't report it in the first 30 days, the Republicans will force you to have to have an ultrasound." The law does require an ultrasound when such victims do not report the assault to law enforcers, but there is no 30-day deadline for doing so. Barca’s claim is partially accurate but misses on an important detail that muddles his message.