Facebook post Says news stories referencing 322 and COVID-19 are proof cases are being “synchronized”

Explanation: The volume of media coverage and the number of local and regional government units around the world provide ample opportunities for cases or deaths to sum to any number. You can find this “connection” for any low three-digit number. A Google News search shows 322 isn’t even a particularly common tally.

Facebook Fact-checks, Wisconsin, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,

Some people can’t resist a good conspiracy. Turns out, many also can’t resist one that’s exceptionally easy to disprove. An array of Facebook posts recently surfaced singling out the number 322 and a purported connection to COVID-19. In a social media landscape rife with claims about manufactured COVID case and death tallies, and conspiracies related to vaccines, 5G cell towers and whatever else, the clear implication is there’s something nefarious going on. "Nothing to see here except synchronized cases all over the world," said one post from June 15, 2020. "Google 322 Covid! Why is 322 a magic number!?!" screamed another post from the same day. "How is it that an additional 322 cases of Covid have been reported in Massachusetts, South Korea, Philippines, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Equador, Thailand, Oklahoma, China, Colorado, Armenia, Oman (Middle East), Onondaga (NY), Kerala (India), Simerset (NJ), Kentucky, Wyoming, Borders (UK), Amritsar (India), Thane (India), Camden County (NJ), Iraq, Khaleej (Dubai), and Dakota County (Nebraska)!" That post was accompanied by 17 different photos noting the number 322 in headlines dating back to March. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook). We found at least 15 different versions of this claim scattered across Facebook, together shared thousands of times. The comments on the various posts offer a smorgasbord of explanations. Some noted the "Skull and Bones" secret society at Yale University is also called "Order 322." Others noted the numbers add up to seven, or that terrorist attacks in London and Brussels occurred on March 22 (3/22). Sigh. Allow us to point out the obvious. You can find this supposed connection to COVID-19 with just about any number in the low three-digit range. We’re in the midst of a global pandemic that is unprecedented in this age of media saturation. All manner of local and regional publications have been reporting on COVID-19 case and death numbers for months. There is no time in history where this many media outlets have been so focused for this long on one singular topic — particularly one in which counting stats are so critical and readily available through online searches. In other words, there are a lot of media outlets posting a lot of numbers. And America really loves units of government. Across the nation you’ll find more than 3,000 counties. Beyond that, there are nearly 20,000 incorporated places (primarily cities, towns, villages, boroughs), about 3,000 of which have at least 10,000 people. Add that to the 50 states and, well, the entire rest of the world, and you’ve got a lot of places tallying COVID data that could potentially add up to 322. But in case you’re somehow not convinced yet, we’ll follow the advice of one poster and Google this. We ran a Google News search using the terms "322 cases" AND COVID, to find online references to where "322 cases" appeared as a unit on a page that also referenced COVID. Then we did the same with the numbers around 322. Here’s what we found as of about noon on June 16, 2020. "320 cases" AND COVID — 8,660 results (larger, since many reports round off the numbers) "321 cases" AND COVID — 1,170 results "322 cases" AND COVID — 1,960 results "323 cases" AND COVID — 2,240 results "324 cases" AND COVID — 1,600 results "325 cases" AND COVID — 2,530 results We’ll spare you another set of bullets, but searches with the word "deaths" in place of "cases" yields the same type of results. In other words, you can find COVID-19 media reports citing any number in that range. An array of Facebook posts claim a link between the number 322 and COVID-19 in media reports. The implication is that there is something shady or manufactured in the way these tallies are reported. But even in the context of social media in 2020, this is ridiculous. The volume of media reports on COVID-19, the number of cases and the number of local and regional units of government means there is ample opportunity for tallies to add up to just about any number, particularly in the low triple digits. Google searches prove out that 322 isn’t even a particularly common number. We rate this .


3 Nebraska Medicaid providers honored for serving patients.

Explanation: Gov. Pete Ricketts is honoring three Nebraska health care providers for outstanding service to patients within the state’s Medicaid program.

Health, Pete Ricketts, General News, Nebraska, Medicaid

Ricketts announced the winners Monday of the inaugural Nebraska Medicaid Provider Awards. The doctors recognized were Dr. Henry Sakowski, an internal medicine specialist at CHI Health Clinic; Dr. Sharon Hammer, a psychiatrist and assistant psychiatry professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center; and Dr. Rebecca Lancaster, a family physician with Methodist Physicians Clinic. Nebraska Medicaid and Long-Term Care Director Matthew Van Patton says each provider has helped the program’s goal of improving health care, improving patient experiences, improving the cost effectiveness of care and improving the provider and staff experience.


The reaction between metallic mercury and aluminum, which produces a dramatic chain reaction popular on YouTube science channels, is evidence that vaccines are not safe.

Explanation: A fascinating series of events, to be sure, but ones that are ill-suited for commentary on vaccine safety.

Medical, aluminum, anti-vaccine, mercury

On 3 September 2017, a Facebook page promoting the anti-vaccine movie “Vaxxed” shared a video of an undeniably cool science experiment (which they appear to have since removed). This video, which featured a chemical reaction between aluminum and mercury resulting in the creation of a grotesque, gothic looking tower of aluminum oxide, is irrelevant to vaccine safety in myriad significant ways. Despite this irrelevance — and without actually offering a concrete scientific principle of which to be afraid — the video was captioned: Hmmm… What mandated medical injections also combine thimerosal (mercury), which still remains in several vaccines and aluminium, used in almost all vaccines? It’s time to reject vaccine MYTH and embrace the truth. The answer to the post’s unnecessarily rhetorical question, which attempts to exploit fears over the mercury based preservative thimerosal and a series of aluminum-containing ingredients in some vaccines, would have been fairly easy to look up prior to posting and then deleting: none. Of all the vaccines approved for use in the United States, only one — a tetanus and diphtheria vaccine — contains both the mercury-derived thimerosal and an aluminum compound (aluminum phosphate). This vaccine, however, is not mandated. It is also irrelevant, because a reaction between thimerosal and aluminum phosphate is fundamentally different than the one in the video. In the original version, posted by YouTube chemical reaction filmer NileRed on 13 August 2017, the two reactants were metallic mercury (Hg) and metallic aluminum (Al). In contrast, the theoretical reactants hypothesized by the post would be thimerosal, a mercury-containing organic compound (C9H9HgNaO2S), and aluminum phosphate (AlPO4), a mineral. These two chemicals share little with the elemental metals used in the video, because they are literally different chemicals. Just because two compounds might share the same element does not de facto mean they will behave in similar fashion. Metallic elemental sodium creates a wildly dangerous explosion if it comes into contact with any moisture. Sodium when chemically bonded with chloride, however, becomes table salt. Finally, the edited version of the video neglected to show how challenging it was to get the reaction started in the first place, as well as to mention the rather significant fact that it included a third chemical to initiate the reaction. Because metallic aluminum, when exposed to oxygen, is naturally coated in aluminum oxide, the mercury needs to be in contact with freshly exposed aluminum metal. The YouTube scientist first tried scraping at the aluminum while the liquid mercury rested on top, then turned things up a notch with the use of a drill. No luck. He finally solved the problem chemically by reacting the aluminum surface with hydrochloric acid, as narrated in the original video: Under normal conditions, aluminum is surrounded by a protective oxide layer. Metallic mercury isn’t able to penetrate through this barrier, so it kind of does nothing. Sometimes it’s possible to get things going by manually scratching away the oxide layer. I tried doing this about two or three times, but it wasn’t working for me. I even tried to bruteforce things using a drill, but that didn’t get things going either. […] I took out all the mercury and I added some dilute hydrochloric acid. The hydrochloric acid quickly reacts with the oxide layer and dissolves it away. This exposes fresh aluminum metal. Needless to say, these are not the conditions (or even the chemicals) one would find in a vaccine of any kind or within the human body. NileRed described the process behind the footage in his video, as well: The major thing going on here is the combination of the mercury with the aluminum to form the amalgam [a chemical term for an aluminum based alloy]. Some of the amalgam that forms gets dissolved in the mercury and makes its way to the top. When it gets there, it comes in contact with oxygen in the air, and it reacts to form white aluminum oxide. This part of the process is pretty short-lived, though, because it quickly gets covered and protected by the oxide. This prevents fibers from growing directly from the mercury, but obviously they continue going out from the sides. […] The dissolved mercury can continue to creep along the surface and amalgamate more aluminum. In theory, this process should keep going until the entire surface is covered with a thick layer of the oxide.


Rumors that Keurig coffee machines harbor bacteria have been circulating the web for years.

Explanation: Health Dangers of Keurig Coffee Machines

Mold and bacteria grows on and in Keurig coffee machines, but the same is true for every other kitchen appliance. Rumors about the dangers of Keurig coffee makers can be traced back to a blog post headlined “Why I Kicked My Keurig to the Curb.” It has appeared on alternative health and wellness websites since 2014. The post reports: When I packed up my kitchen to move 500 miles south, I wanted to make sure that my Keurig was completely empty and dry before it went on the moving truck. IMPOSSIBLE! Keurig.com states, “Once your Keurig home brewer has been primed, you cannot empty the water from the inside. The internal tank of the brewer cannot be drained.” The microbiologist in me is disgusted at the thought. Back in the day when I worked in a hospital lab, we emptied all water reservoirs daily or they would grow bacteria and a biofilm could develop. You are familiar with biofilms if you ever cleaned the goo out of a flower vase after the flowers have died. Biofilms are found wherever there is water and a surface to stick to (like your shower curtain). The author of the post doesn’t make any specific scientific claims about mold or bacteria growth in Keurig coffee makers. Instead, she implies that internal Keurig water reservoirs have to be filled with mold and bacteria because they can’t be emptied. When an ABC news affiliate from Pennsylvania put that claim to the test, however, the bacteria and mold theory didn’t hold water. The station turned to researchers at the Harrisburg University School of Science and Technology to test three Keurig machines for mold and bacteria. The results showed plenty of bacteria on the outside of the machines (mostly from human touching. Swabs from inside the machines came back clean. Leena Pattarkine, a doctor of microbiology at the university, explained: “The internal piping you cannot clean. You cannot completely drain it,” Pattarkine said. We tested water coming out of the machine, it came back clean. But there’s always a chance bacteria or mold could seep out into your cup of joe. “It doesn’t take too long to realize ‘hey I had that coffee, tasted something off or it was smelly,’ or ‘I had that and I felt sick, nauseated or something,’ ” Pattarkine said. In other words, mold and bacteria that can get into your coffee would most likely come from the outside of your Keurig. That much is true for other types of coffee makers and kitchen appliances, too. In fact, scientists in Spain reported in December 2015 that potentially harmful bacteria grows in most types of coffee makers, but coffee itself works as an antibacterial agent: Overall, the bacteria found in coffee waste were similar across all 10 machines, but were highly variable within each community, with up to 67 genera identified in a single machine. The team from the Universitat de València says these bacteria have to be pretty hardy to survive in coffee machines – the coffee itself is an antibacterial agent, and the machines consistently reach temperatures of up to 96°C. So, it’s true that mold and bacteria can grow on Keurig coffee makers, but health risks and warnings have been overblown. That’s why were classifying this one as “misleading.” Comments


Explanation: Rick Perry says employees in three counties left Social Security for alternate savings plans and are faring very well

Promoting his book, Texas Gov. Rick Perry bemoaned a failure  in Washington to confront Social Security's financial shakiness and praised three Texas counties that quit Social Security nearly 30 years ago. Perry said on CNN's Nov. 4 Parker Spitzer: "Here's what I think would be a very wise thing. In 1981, Matagorda, Brazoria, and Galveston Counties all opted out of the Social Security program for their employees. Today, their program is very, very well-funded and there is no question about whether it’s going to be funded in" years to come. Perry said one option going forward would be to let states decide whether to stay in Social Security or take a different approach to retirement savings. A reader asked us if Perry recapped the Texas experience correctly. Last month, we rated Perry's statement that Social Security, the federal program that provides old-age and disability payments, is a Ponzi scheme. The program may be fiscally shaky, but it's not a fraudulent criminal enterprise. In Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington, Perry prefaces a reference to the Texas counties by saying Americans would fare better if they had the choice of making contributions to a private investment plan rather than Social Security. "Employees in those private plans, having exercised their liberty at Washington's sufferance, are reaping the benefits," Perry writes. A footnote points to an April 2005 article on Galveston County's experiences published by a conservative think tank, the National Center for Policy Analysis. That article, co-authored by Ray Holbrook, a former Galveston County judge, says Galveston's county employees "sought a secure, risk-free alternative to the Social Security system, and it has worked very well for nearly a quarter-century. Our retirees have prospered, and our working people have had the security of generous disability and accidental death benefits." According to the article, county employees committed to investing their payroll contributions in fixed-rate guaranteed annuities rather than fluctuating stocks, bonds or mutual funds. The result: Annual rates of return of 6.5 percent averaged over 24 years, the article says, plus substantially better benefits in three Social Security pay-out categories: retirement, survivorship and disability. "To be sure, our plan wasn't perfect, and we have made some adjustments," the article says. "For instance, a few of our retired county workers are critical of the plan today because they say they are making less money than they would have on Social Security. This is because our plan allowed workers to make 'hardship' withdrawals from the retirement plan during their working years. Some workers withdrew funds for current financial problems and consequently robbed their own future benefits. We closed that option (in January 2005)." We learned from Rick Gornto, the certified financial planner who helped start and still oversees the alternate plans, that plan participants can take their accumulated earnings in a lump sum or in regular installments once they retire. "They do have an opportunity to take it out and squander it," Gornto said, adding that the lump-sum option might be eliminated in the future. Gornto said the reason that hasn't happened yet is that the annuities began as a supplement to county employees' primary retirement program -- fixed payments through pension plans managed by the Texas County and District Retirement System, which is based in Austin. Perry didn't mention this plan in his book or on CNN. Gornto said the safety net of the county and district retirement plan made it possible to design the alternate plan with its lump-sum feature. If the other pension plan wasn't in place, Gornto said, he probably would have proposed a plan without a lump-sum feature and offering regular post-retirement payments along with the leeway to invest earnings. The 2005 article mentions 1999 reviews of the Galveston plan by the U.S. General Accounting Office and the Social Security Administration. We turned to them next. Among points the agencies raised:  +Low-paid workers stood to get less in monthly retirement payments under the alternate plan than they would under Social Security. In response, the 2005 article says the studies assumed a low 4 percent return on the plans' annuities; actual returns have been substantially higher. +Workers with higher earnings and fewer or no dependents who qualify for Social Security generally fare better under the Galveston plan, particularly in the near term, but workers with lower earnings and more dependents tend to receive more money under Social Security, the report says. +Galveston's retirement funds are invested at the county's discretion and employees do not control investment decisions. During 1981-97, annual interest earned on the plan's fixed annuity contracts averaged an inflation-adjusted 4.62 percent. During the period, annual interest earned on Social Security's investments averaged 4.88 percent, the administration report says. On the plus side, the GAO review notes: "The alternate plans' benefits are fully funded, while Social Security's promised benefits cannot be met without increasing program revenues." Finally, we chased up-to-date information per the Texas plans' health. The county treasurers for Brazoria and Matagorda counties, Amy Perez and Sharon Reynolds, respectively, told us their plans work well. Like a Galveston County official, Perez and Reynolds suggested we gather particulars from Gornto. Gornto said in an interview that a key to the alternate plans' appeal is their guaranteed annual return, now at least 3.75 percent. He added that unlike Social Security, which needs changes to remain financially viable in the long term, the counties' plans don't confront a money-gone date: "We don't have an 'out-year' question issue because people put their money in, they match it, and whatever it grows to is what they get." He said up-front contributions to the plans will remain stable so long as the counties don't go broke, while pay-outs to beneficiaries are certain unless the United States completely devalues its currency. "The money will be there," Gornto said. Gornto forwarded a summary of his firm's review of the Galveston County plan for October 2008 through September 2009. In an interview, he noted that by the end of that year, the plan had $54.1 million available to be paid employees in deferred (or retirement) compensation. Employees and the county combined pitched in about $6 million in payroll contributions through the year. "The county has adopted this program to replace Social Security," Gornto said. "Until they make a decision to disband the plan, it will always be there." For outside expertise, we talked to Keith Brainard, who's the research director for the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. After reviewing the materials Gornto shared with us, Brainard explained that the alternate plan is a defined-contribution plan, similar to a 401k plan, in which benefits are determined solely based on contributions and investment earnings. "By definition, the plan is always fully funded because the plan pays out only as much as it collects," Brainard said in an e-mail. That said, Brainard wrote, the plan lacks three features that are part of Social Security: a minimum benefit for lower-income workers; protection from inflation; and required annuitization, meaning that participants must receive at least some of their benefit as a lifetime income stream, rather than as a single lump-sum. On the other hand, he said, the long-term cost of the Texas plan is clear and certain. Also, unlike Social Security, plan participants own their retirement assets, rather than being entitled only to a monthly benefit for the remainder of their lives. The basic difference between the Texas plan and Social Security, Brainard said, is that the Texas plan is a "retirement savings plan that provides benefits based on contributions and investment performance, while Social Security is an insurance plan intended chiefly to prevent stark poverty in old age. Social Security promises a certain level of benefits based on salary and other factors, with a minimum benefit for lower-income workers and a maximum for higher-income workers. Both plans present relative advantages and disadvantages, and an argument could be made for providing elements of both plan types for all working Americans." And how does Perry's statement fare? Far as we can tell, the alternate plans are healthy and should remain so. But the Texas plans serve employees also eligible, depending on years of service, for the Austin-based pension plan. Perry's larger point, that Americans stand to benefit from swapping out Social Security for alternate plans, doesn't acknowledge this pre-existing safety net in the Texas counties.


10 people treated after chemical spill in science building.

Explanation: At least 10 people had to be decontaminated after a worker at a university in Atlanta spilled a chemical, creating a white cloud inside a science building.

General News, Atlanta, Chemical spills, Science

News outlets report everyone was evacuated Friday from the building at Clark Atlanta University. Police say some complained of skin and respiratory irritation. Officials say the injuries were not life-threatening. Nine went to a hospital to be checked out. Police did not say how many patients were students. Police say the chemical was in a container that fell off a cart. The worker pushing the cart had been hired to dispose of chemicals in the building. It’s unclear what was in the container. Hazmat crews were called to investigate. They gave the all-clear Friday evening.


Experimental treatment helps 2 out of 3 peanut allergy sufferers, study finds

Explanation: This CNN News story describes a new treatment for kids with peanut allergy called AR101, which could help protect against severe reactions to small amounts of peanut ingestion. It’s one of two stories we reviewed about this important and newsworthy study. The other is from Fox News. This report is appropriately cautious, emphasizing that the treatment is not a cure but reduces the threat from accidental exposure. In addition, the story details the commitment that treatment requires and the side effects that can occur. However, it could have done a better job by addressing the cost of this drug and giving the dropout rate of those on the treatment. Peanut allergy is one of the most common food allergies. It typically presents early in life, is known for severe reactions, and is rarely outgrown. There currently are no treatments for peanut allergy, besides emergency care in the event of a reaction. So a treatment with the potential to make reactions from accidental exposures less severe is certainly of interest.

The story does not mention costs — particularly important since the treatment might have to be taken for life. It’s reportedly due to come on the market next year. The story reports that two-thirds of people who underwent months of treatment were able at the end of the study to tolerate the equivalent of two peanuts. Unlike the Fox News story, CNN reports on how the control group fared, saying that 53% of those subjects required rescue epinephrine with the final peanut challenge test compared to 11% of subjects in the treatment group. The story describes harms through the profile of one patient: “Ellis experienced stomach cramps and vomiting multiple times during the study,” and once she had an anaphylactic reaction which required medical attention. And this was a successful patient story. The story also reports that 11% of participants dropped out of the study as a result of side effects. However, it left out important issues such as the higher dropout rate — around 20%, mainly due to adverse events — among those who received the treatment, and unknown long-term effects. The story reports the size of the study. It also emphasizes, repeatedly, the limitations of the protection against peanut exposure — not all those treated were protected, and even the positive outcomes were laced with allergic reactions along the way. The story appropriately characterizes peanut allergy as a “potentially life-threatening” condition, with peanut ingestion. It also says peanut and tree nut allergies affect “an estimated 3 million Americans or more,” although it’s not clear what number of those would benefit from this treatment. The story includes several expert sources, including a doctor who was not involved in the study and who does not appear to be funded by potential treatment-makers. The story makes clear that there is currently no approved treatment for peanut allergy. In addition, the profiled patient is described as having to eat her school lunch at a peanut-free table, showing reader the practice of avoiding exposure — currently the only way to manage a peanut allergy. However, the story doesn’t mention that AR101 is among at least four peanut immunotherapy products potentially entering the market. The story makes clear that the treatment is not yet FDA-approved, and is not currently commercially available. The story says that the treatment would be a new one, making clear that no other approved product exists for treating peanut allergy. It doesn’t explain that immunotherapy — which attempts to desensitize people with food allergies by giving them tiny doses of the food they’re allergic to over time — is an old idea. The story goes well beyond the information provided in a news release.


Mending broken sleep: Sleep apnea, the dangerous cessation of breathing during sleep, is being diagnosed more and more. A simple machine can bring refreshing relief

Explanation: This is an engaging article that may help raise awareness of sleep apnea and the types of problems it may cause. The presentation of a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device as a non-surgical intervention that can be quite helpful is accurate, though a more balanced view would have included some discussion of the difficulties that many have in being able to use these devices to obtain the benefits mentioned in the story.

The costs associated with CPAP technology are not presented. No discussion of costs of sleep lab evaluation. No discussion of insurance coverage for these approaches. Estimates of benefits are presented in general terms , e.g.,”I sleep better”, and “I no longer snore”. But an expectation for the size of the benefits obtained, how reproducible they are, and the time needed to realize them is not presented. Early in the story, the CPAP machine is described as looking like Darth Vader on life support. This at least helps with a reasonable image of what the “simple” device looks like. Although health and quality of life claims are made, there is no mention of the type of evidence to support the anecdotal stories presented. Estimate presented for >12 million afflicted with sleep apnea though most are undiagnosed. There are quotes from three different health care providers who work in the area of sleep medicine; there are also several quotes from people who have experienced benefit from the use of CPAP. Article make clear that lifestyle changes, weight reduction, and surgery are other methods that are available and used to help manage this condition. Article does not mention that CPAP devices are FDA approved for the treatment of sleep apnea. However, it is clear that it is a readily available treatment. The story doesn’t claim that this is a new treatment. Neither does it explain that it’s been in use for a long time. The use of constant positive airway pressure (CPAP), a device used to treat obstructive sleep apnea is not new. Such devices, initially used with neonates, begun being used in this adult population in the 1980s. There is no evidence that this story relied solely or largely on a news release.


Study Finds More Isn't Better for Roche Breast Cancer Drug

Explanation: This Bloomberg story reports study findings that show the targeted breast cancer drug Herceptin may be as effective with a six-month treatment period as it is with the currently recommended 12-month treatment period. The results, slated to be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology, could mean fewer adverse events and significant cost savings for patients. The story also makes clear that this finding is not robust enough to change treatment guidelines yet and that other outcomes, such as quality of life improvement are still being analyzed. Herceptin has been a hugely successful drug, both for patients with a particular type of breast cancer (tumors with HER-2 receptors, which occur in about 20% of all breast cancers) and for the drug’s maker, Roche. Approved 20 years ago, doctors are still learning how best to manage the benefits and harms of the treatment. This study looks at one way of refining treatment — by shortening the duration, saving on costs, and reducing cardiac toxicity events.

The story mentions that currently Herceptin costs $76,700 for 12-month treatment. Presumably that cost would be reduced with 6-month treatment, though it’s unclear to what extent. Readers also are told that the cost is expected to go down as similar drugs by other pharmaceutical companies enter the US market. The story describes the main outcome of the study with numbers: “In both the six- and 12-month groups, about 90 percent of women were cancer-free after four years.” The story makes clear that one motivation for reducing the overall course of Herceptin treatment was to reduce serious side effects, namely cardiac toxicity. Indeed, the shorter treatment halved the number of women who had to stop treatment because of heart issues, to about 4%. The story noted the study size (4,000-plus women), the equivalency of the main outcome, and the reduction of harm. It made clear that analysis is ongoing on other important outcomes, such as quality of life. It also included mostly cautious positive reactions by the sources quoted, including the Chief Medical Officer of Roche, the drug’s maker: “Many, many people in the field have been looking at the question over a number of years, and these data will need to be viewed in the context of that larger group.” However, there was no warning about the fact that the data is preliminary and no one can review it yet (no actual research was “released,” even though the story frames it that way). Important details and concerns may not surface until the complete data are available to be reviewed by the scientific community. No disease-mongering here. The story quotes three sources: a study author, a representative from drug’s maker Roche, and an oncologist not involved in the study. We would have liked to see a bit more information on these people. For instance, the Associated Press reported that the study author, Helena Earl “has consulted for Herceptin’s maker, Roche,” but the company had “no role in the study.” The story informs readers of other studies that have evaluated longer and shorter treatment durations, from six months (inconclusive results) to two years (no benefit). The story makes clear that the current standard of care is 12 months of Herceptin treatment. It also cautions, near the top of the piece, that: “more research will be needed before a wholesale change in medical practice.” The story notes that this is the largest study to date that evaluates a short treatment duration for Herceptin and that it was funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health Research, not the drug company. The story does not appear to rely on a news release.


A tourist's unfortunate bout of stomach upset on a Spanish roller coaster splashed liquid fecal matter on other customers.

Explanation: 8Shit is a satire news and humor website. All its content is fiction (except those under the “serious” category) and shouldn’t be taken as real. All references, names and marks or institutions in this web are used as contextual elements, like in any novel or science-fiction story.

On 17 January 2018, the 8Shit web site published an article reporting that a tourist in Spain had suffered an unfortunate bout of diarrhea while visiting an amusement park: Spain. — A man was enjoying his vacations in one of the most important museums, buildings, gardens, monuments and restaurants in Port Aventura, Spain. He was convinced by his friends to get on the best ride of the park, Ferrari Land. The man, who knew he was suffering from gastroenteritis, accepted, and his nightmare started. On the first slope, at a speed of almost 200km/h (124 mi/h), the man noticed that his stomach was not doing well. At the first looping, he couldn’t stop himself and was forced to let it all out. The shit was flying all over the place and splashed 14 people, who were sharing the exciting ride. Many of them threw up because they had shit on their hair, face and clothing. The man faced no charges because this was involuntarily. The 8Shit article was lifted from information published on the Spanish-language web site Hay Noticia, which read (roughly translated): It happened in an amusement park in Spain. A London family was enjoying their vacation visiting the most important cities, museums, buildings, gardens, monuments, restaurants in the country, and at the request of their two daughters, the Port Aventura amusement park. Candy, the older sister, convinced Sabina to ride in the park’s most thrilling attraction, the Ferrari Land. Sabina, despite suffering from gastroenteritis caused by the change in meals and schedules, reluctantly accepted and accompanied her sister on the ride. Wearing a skirt and flip-flops, they grabbed the rails of the roller coaster car and … their nightmare began. In the first drop, at almost 200km/h, Sabina’s felt sick to her stomach, and she could not control her sphincter, evacuating feces in an almost liquid state that flew out and splashed 14 other people who were also riding the attraction, causing some of them to vomit when they noticed the poop on their faces, hair and clothes. It is still not known if the park’s insurance carrier will be responsible for the damages caused. None of this was true. Hay Noticia‘s disclaimer notes that the site is dedicated to “humor” and “entertainment,” and that all of the site’s content is fiction: The site “Hay Noticia” (http://haynoticia.es) (hereinafter referred to as HN) is a humor site whose purpose is entertainment. The content of HN is fiction and does not correspond to reality. All references, names, brands or institutions that appear on the site are used as contextual elements, as in any novel or other fictional account. Likewise, 8Shit’s disclaimer notes the same of themselves:


Donald Trump Says Israel profiles based on ethnicity and "does it very successfully.

National, Israel, Terrorism, Donald Trump,

In the wake of two bombings in New York, Donald Trump repeated his call for profiling as a way to deter terrorism, citing Israel as a role model. Trump first made the proposal on CBS’ Face the Nation in June 2016, in the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando. He suggested it again in two Sept. 19 interviews on Fox News. "Israel has done an unbelievable job, and they’ll profile. They’ll profile. They see somebody suspicious. They will profile," Trump said on Fox and Friends that morning, adding. "If somebody looks like he’s got a massive bomb on his back, we won’t go to that person and say, ‘I’m sorry’ — because if he looks like he comes from that part of the world. We’re not allowed to profile. Give me a break." "Well, we have no choice. Look, Israel does it. And Israel does it very successfully," Trump said to Fox’s Bill O’Reilly that night. "I am saying, you go in to profile people that maybe look suspicious. I didn't say they were Muslims." The Trump campaign told us Trump did not say ethnic or racial profiling, but this denial is misleading. Trump said "we have no choice" when O’Reilly asked him how profiling "Arab or Muslim men" would work. Israel does perform different types of profiling, but they have other security measures in place as well that experts say are crucial to their success in deterring terrorism. And, the two countries’ security infrastructure are strikingly different. Profiling in Israel Israel practices both predictive profiling and ethnic profiling. The former looks for red flags and suspicious behavior (i.e. arriving for an international flight with no bags) while the latter targets populations seen as more likely to pose risks (i.e. Arab and Muslim men). Amotz Brandes is a former intelligence officer in the Israeli Defense Forces and a security agent and profiler at El Al Airlines, Israel’s flagship carrier. He is now a managing partner at the international security firm, Chameleon Associates. Brandes told PolitiFact that Israeli security almost exclusively profiled Arabs and Muslims until the Lod Airport massacre of 1972. That year, a radical Palestinian group recruited gumen from the militant Japanese Red Army for the terrorist attack that killed 26 people at the airport in Tel Aviv. Using non-Arab, non-Muslim gunmen exploited and exposed a weakness in exclusively focusing on someone’s race or ethnicity, Brandes said. Israeli security now consider a much more comprehensive and specific set of indicators to locate potential threats. But Israel "never really stopped risk-based profiling. They just added threat-based profiling," Brandes said, adding for a Jewish state located in a "very unsafe neighborhood," it’s necessary. "They treat those with Arab ethnicity as higher risk. It’s not a secret. It’s done in many, many ways." For example, Ben Gurion International Airport (formerly Lod Airport) labels passengers with numbered stickers, one representing low risk and six very high risk. All fliers are questioned and searched, but those with higher numbers undergo more intensive security screening. According to Israeli journalist Lia Tarachansky, one’s, two’s and three’s are reserved for Jewish Israelis, Jewish non-Israelis and friendly internationals. Arab Israelis and questionable internationals are given a four or higher. Palestinians and Muslims are typically classified as six. The Arab American Institute has documented numerous cases of detentions of Arabs and Muslims lasting upward of 10 hours. In 2014, Ben Gurion installed an automated system for checking bags that some say has improved access for Arab and Muslim passengers. This prompted the Israeli High Court to toss out a lawsuit from the Association of Civil Rights in Israel over ethnic profiling, a decision that the human rights group says didn’t result in the actual prohibition of discrimination. The U.S. State Department’s country profile for Israel warns that Palestinian-Americans and "U.S. citizens of Arab or Muslim heritage have experienced significant difficulties and unequal and hostile treatment at Israel’s borders and checkpoints." The efficacy of ethnic profiling Whether ethnic profiling is actually productive to counterterrorism is a debated question. "I think it is fair to say that the jury is out and that it would be incorrect to suggest that profiling has been successful in deterring terrorism," said Bernard Harcourt, a law and political professor at Columbia University who specializes in penal law and security. In a much-cited 2006 paper, Harcourt found no empirical evidence that racial or ethnic profiling is an effective measure. (Similarly, William Press, a computer scientists at the University of Texas, Austin, has demonstrated that racial profiling is just as effective as random sampling.) Harcourt argues that profiling one group diverts resources from examining others outside the group. So while it may help detect attacks in the short term, profiling could backfire in the long term as "it may well encourage the recruitment of terrorists from outside the core profile and the substitution of other terrorist acts." Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security secretary from 2005-09, offered a similar take in an Intelligence Squared debate (around the 49:15 mark) over racial profiling, which he called the "lazy man’s way out." After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, "there was a unanimous belief that racial and religious profiling would be not only ineffective, but counterproductive from a security standpoint," he said. "The fact is it would be an engraved invitation to al-Qaida to recruit exactly the kind of people who don’t fit the profile." In Israel, analysts noted a shift in who was carrying out attacks as early as a decade ago. "At first, suicide terrorists were all religious, militant young men recruited from Palestinian universities or mosques. In early 2002, however, the profile began to change as secular Palestinians, women, and even teenage girls volunteered for suicide missions," wrote Jonathan Tucker, an influential national security analyst and expert in nuclear nonproliferation, in a 2003 paper. "Suicide bombers have also sought to foil profiling efforts by shaving their beards, dyeing their hair blond, and wearing Israeli uniforms or even the traditional clothing of orthodox Jews." For these reasons, Chertoff and most national security analysts prefer predictive profiling, based on behavior. This approach led Israeli security to thwart a planned terrorist attack by an assailant who didn’t fit the profile and who didn’t even know she was carrying out an attack. In 1986, Anne-Marie Murphy, a pregnant Irish woman, was cleared by Health Airport security, but El Al guards found her suspicious and discovered a false bottom in her carry-on bag with 10 pounds of explosives planted by her Jordanian boyfriend. Murphy thought she was travelling to Israel to get married. Why Israeli security is effective Ben Gurion is widely regarded as one of the safest airports in the world, and El Al one of the safest airlines. But even barring ethnic profiling, to suggest predictive profiling is the reason ignores the full scope of Israeli security. Israel’s entire security apparatus is much more comprehensive than just profiling, experts told us. For starters, the vigilance of the Israeli public is key to how the country prevents terrorism, and ordinary Israelis foil more than 80 percent of attempted terrorist attacks in Israel, according to Tucker. Israel’s intelligence gathering agencies are also more coordinated and specialized than U.S. agencies, expert said. Yoram Schweitzer, an international terrorism expert at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, listed a number of security measures beyond behavior profiling: Israeli airports are much smaller; their perimeters are monitored and screened around the clock; and the entire system is constantly being assessed and improved. There’s also the rigorous selection process for security officers. The personnel are military recruits who must pass intelligence and personality tests. Then they undergo nine weeks of behavior recognition training. Also, the sheer disparity in scale between Israel and the United States is a hurdle to implementing the type of concentrated, high-skilled security apparatus in Israeli airports. Israel has 47 airports, while the United States has more than 13,000, according to the CIA Factbook. While low-risk fliers at Ben Gurion, Israel’s only international airport, are cleared within a few minutes, the average checking time is 57 minutes. The airport saw about 16.3 million passengers in 2015, while more than 100 million moved through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that year. Brandes also sees institutional differences in how the two countries approach security. For one, Israel’s "entire methodology is based on terrorism" while U.S. law enforcement "is geared towards crime and property crime," he said. For another, average Israelis are proactive about not only reporting suspicious activity but engaging with it, while "everyone in the U.S. holds and waits for the police." And finally, it’s perplexing for Trump to suggest that the United States isn’t "allowed to profile." (Our friends at the Washington Post Fact-Checker rated this claim Four Pinocchios.) The United States does "profile people that maybe look suspicious," and the Justice Department allows airport security and border patrol to consider race in security screenings. When the TSA attempted to adopt Israeli-style behavioral profiling through a program known as SPOT, the results were less than ideal. Former officers in the program reported in 2012 that 80 percent of passengers targeted at Boston’s Logan Airport were minorities. And a year later, the U.S. Government Accountability concluded that SPOT was ineffective and recommended the program be defunded. "I think there is a lot to learn from Israel," said Brandes, who questioned Trump’s grasp of Israeli security. When he suggests emulate the profiling, "Does he know that means?" Our ruling Trump said Israel profiles based on ethnicity and "does it very successfully." This is misleading. Israel takes ethnicity into consideration in their security screenings, but it also takes many other clues into consideration. While Israel is successful at deterring terrorism, profiling is not the sole reason. The country’s robust security apparatus and vigilant population are just as, if not more, key its safety.


Mainland China sees rise in new coronavirus cases.

Explanation: Mainland China reported 30 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, up from 19 a day earlier as the number of cases involving travellers from abroad as well as local transmissions increased, highlighting the difficulty in stamping out the outbreak.

The National Health Commission said in a statement on Sunday that 25 of the latest cases involved people who had entered from abroad, compared with 18 such cases a day earlier. Five new locally transmitted infections were also reported on Saturday, all in the southern coastal province of Guangdong, up from a day earlier. The mainland has now reported a total of 81,669 cases, while the death toll has risen by three to 3,329. Though daily infections have fallen dramatically from the height of the epidemic in February, when hundreds of new cases were reported daily, Beijing remains unable to completely halt new infections despite imposing some of the most drastic measures to curb the virus’ spread. The so-called imported cases and asymptomatic patients, who have the virus and can give it to others but show no symptoms, have become among China’s chief concerns in recent weeks. The country has closed off its borders to almost all foreigners as the virus spread globally, though most of the imported cases involve Chinese nationals returning from overseas. The central government also has pushed local authorities to identify and isolate the asymptomatic patients. The health commission said 47 new asymptomatic cases were reported in the mainland on Saturday, compared with 64 a day earlier.


Australian euthanasia law loses by single parliament vote.

Explanation: An attempt to legalize voluntary euthanasia in an Australian state was defeated by a single vote in parliament on Thursday.

Australia, Health, Assisted suicide, Euthanasia, South Australia, Bills, Asia Pacific, Laws

The South Australian Parliament rejected the bill on Thursday 24 votes to 23, after a heated overnight debate. South Australia almost became the only Australian state or territory to allow assisted suicide. Australia’s Northern Territory became one of the world’s first jurisdictions to legalize mercy killing in 1996. Renowned pro-euthanasia doctor Philip Nitschke helped four people die before the Australian Parliament overturned the law in 1997. While the Australian Parliament can overturn territories’ laws, it does not have the same power over state laws. South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill said on Thursday he felt “gutted” by the defeat. But he was sure a new bill would be introduced in time. The bill was introduced by an opposition lawmaker last month. The major parties do not have policy positions on euthanasia, so lawmakers were given a rare opportunity to vote according to their consciences rather than along party lines. The original bill required patients to have a terminal illness and to be suffering unbearable pain that could not be relieved before they could access medical help to end their lives. They also needed to have their decision endorsed by at least two doctors. Several amendments were passed to tighten access to assisted suicide during the debate, including by making mental health assessments mandatory. The Australian Christian Lobby, a lobby group, described the amended bill as a “cobbled-together compromise” and welcomed its defeat. “As a just and compassionate society, we can find better ways to deal with the suffering which does not draw us into providing state-sanctioned killing,” the lobby’s managing director Lyle Shelton said.


Worried About Dementia? You Might Want to Check Your Blood Pressure

Explanation: This NPR report built around exhortations to control blood pressure by the head of a federal health agency draws attention to the long-documented links between hypertension and some forms of dementia. For many, many reasons, diagnosing and treating high blood pressure are good ideas for maintaining health and preventing strokes and heart disease, and the better news is that there are dozens of drugs and lifestyle changes available — some of them very inexpensive — to help people do so. But this story doesn’t explain that the evidence for an association between high blood pressure and vascular dementia, much less Alzheimer’s disease, is so far mostly observational. And perhaps more significantly, the story carries no data at all to support even the claims or strengths/weaknesses of the association. This NPR story missed an opportunity to offer the data and help the public understand more about risk assessment and probabilities of disease related to blood pressure. And it may mislead people into thinking that if they pop a pressure pill each day, they will avoid Alzheimer’s Disease. That’s unproven.

No specific brand name interventions mentioned, though it’s implied that medication is frequently used. While we wouldn’t expect the story to list the prices of the many drugs for high blood pressure, we do think the story could have discussed this aspect of seeking treatment. Is it a factor in why so many people don’t treat their high blood pressure? The story makes several references to “greatly magnified” and an “increase” in risk of AD or vascular dementia among those with high blood pressure that goes untreated, but there are no solid data offered to support the claim, nor how treating blood pressure reduces that risk (and to what extent). As with costs, we wouldn’t expect a story like this to cover all the side effects of the myriad treatments. But we do think it could have noted that one reason blood pressure drugs are prescription-only is because they can cause side effects that may need medical management. Unlike what the story said, it is not as simple and carefree as taking “a pill… to help keep [your] brain healthy and sharp.” The story, as noted earlier, is based on comments from the director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The story does not say anything about the nature or quality of the evidence on which the advice is based, or make clear that the last word is far from written about the causes of Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias. The story strongly suggets that people should take blood pressure medication to lower their risk of dementia. The evidence in the story wasn’t strong enough to cross that line. At the very least, the story should have provided links to the studies in this sentence: “At least two large studies have revealed an alarming trend among stroke patients.” It’s also worth noting that the threshold for treatment is under debate, with some saying that blood pressure should be even lower than 130/80. New suggestions like this — that BP control can lower dementia risk — may amplify such concerns by driving even more people in for treatment without a full grasp of the tradeoffs between potential benefits and potential harms. The story quotes an official of the Alzheimer’s Association, which has an obvious interest in the prevention and treatment of AD. But NPR would have added much credibility to the story with some cautionary note from outside sources about the nature of the evidence for blood pressure control and AD prevention. The story indirectly discusses alternatives–such as exercise and diet. It’s clear in the story that blood pressure medications and lifestyle changes are readily available. The story makes it clear that the news “hook” is new research to be presented at the Alzheimer’s Association meeting. (Why not wait for that, to make this story meatier?) The Alzheimer’s Association website is promoting its upcoming July annual meeting, but there was no news release specifically addressing the content of this story.


A New Therapy May Cure Kids of Peanut Allergy

Explanation: The story focuses on a long-term follow-up study of patients with peanut allergies who had received immunotherapy and probiotics to minimize allergic response to peanuts. A story in a nationwide publication that suggests there may be a “cure” for peanut allergies — such as the story we are reviewing here — would likely raise hopes for families and individuals living with peanut allergies. But those hopes would be unfounded. The research this story was based on involved fewer than 50 patients, only 24 of whom received the relevant treatment — something the story doesn’t tell readers. And the treatment was not universally successful at eliminating peanut allergy even for those 24 patients. What’s more, there is no discussion in the story of costs or risks associated with treatment. The word “cure” should never be used hastily, something we just pointed out about a different TIME story last week. The NIH states that “peanut allergy is a growing health problem for which no treatment or cure exists. People living with peanut allergy, and their caregivers, must be vigilant about the foods they eat and the environments they enter to avoid allergic reactions, which can be severe and even life-threatening.” A 2010 study stated that 1.4 percent of people in the U.S. report having an allergy to peanuts or tree nuts. In short, peanut allergy poses very real risks for those with peanut allergies, and can pose a particular challenge for parents of children with peanut allergies — who have to maintain constant vigilance regarding the possibility of peanut contamination in places where their kids eat, play or attend school. As a result, new research findings related to addressing peanut allergies garner a lot of attention. This story may leave readers with more questions than answers.

Cost is not addressed. Would this be a relatively inexpensive treatment? A costly one? Is it too early to tell? Readers won’t be informed of this. Here is how the story addresses benefits regarding the follow-up study: “In the follow-up, which tracked the children for four years after they were treated with the combination therapy, 67% of those who got the combination probiotic and peanut therapy were comfortable eating peanuts, compared to only 4% of those who did not get the treatment. Fewer children in the treated group had an allergic reaction to the peanuts, and they also showed smaller reactions to skin prick tests with peanut allergen.” The description does offer some numbers, but does it adequately “quantify the benefits”? We’ll say yes. However, there are significant problems about the evidence discussion, which we’ll go into under the heading of “Quality of Evidence,” below. Harms aren’t mentioned, which is problematic. The type of immunotherapy used in conjunction with probiotics for this study is called peanut oral immunotherapy. In a 2016 research summary document, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology describe this type of immunotherapy as “one of the more promising new treatments” for peanut allergies. Specifically, the summary noted that “Multiple studies have now shown [oral immunotherapy] to be efficacious at desensitizing peanut-allergic children, but this efficacy comes at the expense of high rates of allergic adverse events, and the risk/benefit ratio of [oral immunotherapy] is an area requiring more study.” This is a complex area, and the research summary is worth reading, but the key point here is that there are risks associated with oral immunotherapy — and this story doesn’t acknowledge them. The story focuses on a follow-up study that involved only 48 participants. The story doesn’t tell readers how many people were involved in the study, nor whether the number of participants is important. The study was a follow-up to a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial — all of which is important to understanding how robust these findings are, and none of which is mentioned in the story. And while the story offered numbers on one measure of benefit (how many patients who received the combination treatment were eating peanuts compared to those who received placebo), it offered no numbers on the other outcomes that were assessed. That can affect how readers view the findings. For example, readers may have had a different perspective on the findings if the story had instead focused on these numbers from the journal article: “Four [combination]-treated participants and six placebo participants reported allergic reactions to peanut after intentional or accidental intake since stopping treatment, but none had anaphylaxis.” No disease mongering here. The story does include input from one independent source, and that source highlights some significant questions regarding the study. For example, as the source notes, it’s not clear what role (if any) the probiotics played in the study outcomes. In other words, it’s not clear if the combination therapy achieved better results than would have been achieved using only immunotherapy without the probiotics. But while the story did touch base with an independent source, it did not clearly address conflicts of interest. Here’s a line from the Aug. 16 news release issued by the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI), where the relevant clinical trials were conducted: “This follow up study was initially funded by MCRI and the Australian Food Allergy Foundation. It then received a $15 million funding commitment in 2016 from capital investment firm, OneVentures. A biotech company Prota Therapeutics, was jointly set up by the MCRI and OneVentures to develop [a combined probiotics and oral immunotherapy treatment] towards an FDA approved product with a plan to make the vital treatment available globally to people with peanut allergy.” That’s the sort of thing readers should know. As noted above, the story notes that it is not clear whether the combination therapy works better than treatment that uses only immunotherapy. And the story does refer, briefly, to earlier immunotherapy studies. That’s enough to earn a satisfactory rating here. However, a little more information on standard treatments and up-and-coming immunotherapy research would have made the story much stronger. The story doesn’t address how far along in the development process this combination therapy is, nor how far removed it may be from clinical use. The novelty here would appear to be that this is a long-term follow-up to a study that used probiotics in conjunction with oral immunotherapy for peanut allergy. That’s inferred here, rather than stated explicitly, which isn’t necessarily a deal breaker. But after talking about what impact probiotics might have had in the treatment results, the story ultimately tells readers that figuring out what sets this research apart “may have to wait for another study.” Having to include language like that is likely a sign to steer clear of a headline like this one: “New Therapy May Cure Kids of Peanut Allergy.” Then again, the new therapy may not. By talking to an independent source, the story goes beyond a news release.


Preventive care does not save the government money.

Explanation: Brooks claims that preventive care will cost the government

National, Health Care, Pundits, David Brooks,

The logic behind preventive care seems simple enough: stopping illnesses before they happen will mean fewer pricey procedures at the hospital and lower health care costs for all. Not so, says columnist David Brooks, who was interviewed on the Aug. 14, 2009, edition of the  NewsHour with Jim Lehrer  . He said President Barack Obama claims that "preventive care saves money," but the reality is "that's not . ... If you're testing people, say, for an illness, you have to give 100 people a test to get five people — to find five people. Now, preventive care is good for health. Everyone agrees on that. But if you look at the CBO studies and the other research, it doesn't save you money. We should do it. But because you have to test so many people to get the few you're really going to prevent serious illness from, you're really not adding up to a lot of cost saving." Brooks was talking about a core principle of Obama's health care overhaul: That many costly procedures and treatments can be prevented by catching disease earlier or preventing it all together. Operating under that logic, the House health care bill expands access to procedures such as hypertension screening and vaccines. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer sang the praises of preventive care in an Aug. 10  USA Today  op-ed. "Reform will also mean higher-quality care by promoting preventive care so health problems can be addressed before they become crises," they wrote. "This, too, will save money. We'll be a much healthier country if all patients can receive regular checkups and tests, such as mammograms and diabetes exams, without paying a dime out-of-pocket." Brooks's critique relied on new numbers from the Congressional Budget Office that indicate that preventive care isn't as cost-effective as Pelosi and Hoyer claim. "The evidence suggests that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall," CBO director Douglas Elmendorf wrote in an Aug. 7 letter to Rep. Nathan Deal, the top Republican on a congressional subcommittee involved in the debate. Elmendorf explained that, while the cost of a simple test might be cheap for each individual, the cumulative cost of many tests could be quite expensive:   "But when analyzing the effects of preventive care on total spending for health care, it is important to recognize that doctors do not know beforehand which patients are going to develop costly illnesses. To avert one case of acute illness, it is usually necessary to provide preventive care to many patients, most of whom would not have suffered that illness anyway. ... Preventive care can have the largest benefits relative to costs when it is targeted at people who are most likely to suffer from a particular medical problem; however, such targeting can be difficult because preventive services are generally provided to patients who have the potential to contract a given disease but have not yet shown symptoms of having it." In fact, a new government policy to encourage prevention could end up paying for services that people are already receiving, including breast and colon cancer screenings and vaccines, Elmendorf went on. The CBO did not put a price tag on the costs or savings associated with preventive care measures in the House bills because budgeting rules prevent them from doing so. But a few other studies back up the CBO's analysis, including a Feb. 14, 2008, article in the  New England Journal of Medicine  that was written in response to campaign promises for more preventive care. "Sweeping statements about the cost-saving potential of prevention ... are overreaching," according to the paper. "Studies have concluded that preventing illness can in some cases save money but in other cases can add to health care costs." And a study conducted by researchers from the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society concluded that, while interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease would prevent many strokes and deaths, "as they are currently delivered, most of the prevention activities will substantially increase costs." So, the consensus is that, while preventive care will almost certainly save lives, it's a stretch to say that it will save government spending on health care. As a result, we give Brooks a .


Explanation: Robert Reich says ratio of corporate profits to wages is highest since before Great Depression

National, Corporations, Economy, Jobs, Labor, Workers, Robert Reich,

In an Aug. 29, 2011, column, Robert Reich, the former Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton and a frequent liberal commentator, offered a number of statistics to back up his call for worker protests rather than parades on Labor Day. "Labor Day is traditionally a time for picnics and parades," Reich’s column began. "But this year is no picnic for American workers, and a protest march would be more appropriate than a parade." One of the statistics Reich offered was this: "The ratio of corporate profits to wages is now higher than at any time since just before the Great Depression." A reader asked us to check this out, so we did. We turned to statistics compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the federal office that calculates official statistics about the economy. We found numbers for corporate profits as well as for two measures of worker income -- wage and salary disbursements, and total employee compensation received. We then divided corporate profits by both of the income measurements, all the way back to 1929. (Here are the full statistics from 1929 to 2011 as we calculated them.) For wages, we found that Reich was essentially correct. The ratio in 2010 -- the last full year in the statistics -- was .281, which was higher than any year back to at least 1929, the earliest year in the BEA database. The next highest ratio was in 2006, at .265. (We didn’t find pre-1929 data, so the one part of Reich’s statement that we can’t prove is that the ratio was higher "just before the Great Depression.") We also looked at total compensation, since the portion of worker compensation delivered outside of wages has grown significantly since 1929. The numbers were slightly different, but the general pattern still held. The ratio in 2010 was .226, which was matched or exceeded in only four years -- 1941, 1942, 1943 and 1950. To capture the most up-to-date trends, we also looked at the ratios for the last six quarters. For both wages and compensation, the ratio has risen steadily over that year-and-a-half period. For wages, the ratio has climbed from .274 in the first quarter of 2010 to .290 in the second quarter of 2011. For compensation, the ratio has risen from .220 in the first quarter of 2010 to .234 in the second quarter of 2011. So numerically, there’s little question that Reich is essentially right. (Or, at least for now he is. Economists note that statistics about corporate profits and wages are often revised after the fact.) A more interesting question is what this trendline actually means. First, we’ll note that the ratio has been remarkably steady over the time we studied. In 2010, corporate income was 168 times what it was in 1929, and wages were 124 times what they were in 1929. But despite the dramatic increases for both measures individually, these two numbers have grown pretty much in tandem. While corporate profits have grown faster, they haven’t grown dramatically faster. Over the eight-decade period, the ratio between corporate profits and wages -- at least prior to 2010 -- almost always hovered between .150 and .235, a pretty narrow range, all things considered. Within this range, the ratio has regularly zigzagged up and down. The ratio has peaked during World War II, the early 1950s, the mid1960s, the mid1990s and the middle of the first decade of the 21st century. The 2010 high broke with this history, making the statistic Reich is talking about all the more striking. And as the quarterly data shows, the spike from 2010 has continued into 2011. This spike has its roots in basic mathematics. The ratio can rise for either of two reasons -- because corporate profits rise, or because wages stagnate. To a greater degree than in past recessions, both of these developments have happened simultaneously in 2010 and 2011. That’s the immediate reason for the ratio’s sudden increase. The ratio was well within historical norms as recently as 2009, the second year of the recession. Today, "indicators favorable to workers are either absolutely dreadful, like the percentage of the adult population that is employed, or else improving at a not-very-robust rate, like real compensation per hour, while indicators favorable to business owners, such as record profit levels measured in billions of current dollars, are very delightful indeed," said Gary Burtless, an economist at the centrist-to-liberal Brookings Institution. There are any number of explanations for why businesses are so reluctant to invest their profits today. For instance, Dan Mitchell, an economist at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the pattern of low corporate investment that we’re seeing today has to do with "a climate of economic uncertainty, largely thanks to the threat of more taxes and regulations." But the explanation that seems to mesh best with our numbers has to do with economic cycles. While the ratio Reich points to is exaggerated today due to an unusually deep recession and an especially sluggish recovery, the general pattern follows that of other recent recessions, said J.D. Foster, an economist with the conservative Heritage Foundation. Typically, businesses initially lose ground during a recession, while workers suffer somewhat less, in part due to "sticky wages" -- the tendency for worker pay to increase or stagnate rather than fall, even in hard times. This pattern tends to decrease the ratio of corporate profits to wages. However, when the recovery begins, the reverse becomes  -- businesses tend to gain ground faster than workers do, since soft labor markets prevent workers from reaping the rewards of improved productivity. This pushes the ratio of profits to wages higher. Since the current recovery is particularly weak, the increase in the ratio has been even stronger than normal. The hopeful news for workers, Foster says, is that once a recovery gathers steam and new capital-labor equilibrium is reached, workers tend to accelerate their gains. "Once a strong recovery is under way and labor markets return to normal, total labor compensation tends to catch up, as employers bid for employees out of the extra profit margin they accumulated during the recovery," Foster said. "So once we start heading toward full employment, we can expect total labor compensation to rise very rapidly relative to total income." So where does this leave us? On the numbers, Reich’s claim is essentially correct. And in his analysis, Reich doesn’t over-promise on what the data indicate. Amid evidence that these numbers could turn out to be a temporary spike, he resists the temptation to label it the culmination of a long-term trend. We find Reich’s formulation both factually supportable and appropriately cautious in its interpretation. We give it a rating of .


Rick Baker Says he "made St. Petersburg the state's best maintained large sewer system in 2007.

Former Mayor Rick Baker says his management of St. Petersburg’s sewage system was so good, it earned statewide recognition. Writing on Facebook, Baker plucked a city achievement from his two terms as proof of his management prowess compared with Mayor Rick Kriseman. Kriseman, Baker’s main opponent in the Aug. 29 primary election, has been hampered by the sewage crisis that developed after the city closed a plant. Baker linked to a Tampa Bay Times story about how fixing the sewage system to reduce spills may lead to higher utility bill payments at the start of the next year. "Who do you trust to fix this mess?" Baker asked in a July 28 Facebook post. "A man who caused the mess and is tens of millions of dollars over budget on the pier, police station and public relations staff? Or a mayor who made St. Petersburg the state's best maintained large sewer system in 2007?" St. Petersburg did nab its first Wastewater Collection System Award in 2007 under Baker. But Baker’s claim goes further to say St. Petersburg was the state’s best sewer system — which is not entirely true, because only utilities that applied were considered, and not every utility in the state applied. Further, Baker left out the backstory about why the city was pouring so many resources into the sewers at the time. In an interview with PolitiFact Florida, Baker emphasized he has been more precise with his word choice in other instances touting this accomplishment, saying the city was "named" the best maintained large sewer system. Still, we wanted to take a look at this specific claim. The award came from the Florida Water Environment Association, a nonprofit group that recognizes utilities for significant accomplishments related to the operation and maintenance of wastewater collection systems among other things. Lane Longley, the division manager of St. Petersburg’s Wastewater Collection Division, submitted the city’s 2007 application. Longley said St. Petersburg started adopting maintenance strategies to prevent spills rather than wait for problems to happen on their own, and those steps reduced the number and magnitude of sanitary sewer overflows from 1999 to 2007. But the award doesn’t reflect a real contest among Florida cities. For one thing, not every city applies for the award. The city of Tampa stopped applying for the FWEA awards decades ago, saying it takes up too much time to gather the information and fill out the applications. A spokeswoman for the city of Orlando said the city has heard of the FWEA, but she couldn’t point to any specific awards the city had won or applied for. And a spokeswoman with the city of Jacksonville said the city was aware of the FWEA, but said it hasn’t won or applied for any awards. What’s more, these other cities could point to other awards. Tampa won a 15-year Directors Award from a different group in 2013 for treating water significantly above minimum standards at the David L. Tippin Water Treatment Facility. Orlando won recognition from the Water Environment Federation, an FWEA sister organization. Another major issue with Baker’s claim: St. Petersburg made a lot of the improvements because it was under Florida Department of Environmental Protection consent orders that required changes be made to the sewer system. One order started in 2000 and the other started in 2002. Both went on to cover Baker’s entire tenure. After massive spills in the late 1990s, St. Petersburg entered into its first consent order. A spokeswoman for the FDEP said it covered the city's four facilities for unauthorized discharges and included corrective actions pertaining to the collection system and the facilities to address the discharges. The second consent order covered violations and discharges only from the Albert Whitted Facility. In both cases, the state agency assessed civil penalties against the city, but decided to implement programs for environmental enhancement, education and restoration in lieu of payment. Baker acknowledged the city was ordered to improve, but said the improvements were significant nonetheless. "We invested everything that was recommended to me by either my staff or FDEP under the consent order to get the system to the point where we didn't have spills," Baker told the Tampa Bay Times on June 24. "It was absolutely a success, what we did." According to the Tampa Bay Times, the highest year of sewer spending under Baker was 2005, when the city spent $38.5 million in inflation-adjusted dollars. By the end of his second term, spending had dropped to less than $2 million a year. Baker said he started by doing an analysis of the system to evaluate what needed to be done and to prioritize the repairs — and then developed a funding and operational plan. Along the way, the city charted its progress online. As an example, Baker’s campaign sent a graph showing that the city went beyond the requirements laid out in the consent order. The original goal was to rehabilitate 97,680 linear feet of pipe. By September 2008 a little under 160,000 linear feet of pipes had been rehabilitated, according to the city document. Still, the Baker years haven’t escaped criticism when it comes to sewers. Investigators have traced some of the blame for the city’s sewage woes to the city’s decision to close and not reopen the Albert Whitted treatment plant in 2015. That move was approved by the city council in 2011 and carried out under Kriseman. Taking the plant offline reduced capacity and led to the release of millions of gallons of sewage into the Tampa and Boca Ciega bays after major storms in 2015-16. But a draft report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also places much of the blame for the sewage spills on the Kriseman administration, as well as on the past two decades of city leadership, which includes the Baker administration from 2001-10. The FWC report said the city's many sewage problems were not adequately repaired in the past. During Baker’s tenure, most of the projects recommended in the consent order focused on clearing pipelines and hydraulic improvement to increase flow velocities. Some changes related to inflow happened as a result of a consent order, but the report goes on to blame Baker’s administration and others for not doing enough to fix leaky pipes that contributed to the city's sewage problems. "Claims made by others that they thought the system was fixed and therefore did not need to worry about it were not based in fact," the report said. Baker said he made St. Petersburg the state's best-maintained large sewer system in 2007. Baker’s evidence is that the Florida Water Environment Association gave St. Petersburg a Wastewater Collection System Award. But the award was hardly a comprehensive comparison of similarly situated cities in the state. Nor is it the only award that recognizes excellence in sewage management. St. Petersburg was under consent orders for Baker’s tenure that required the city to make improvements to the system. Outside investigators looking into the current sewage crisis have put some blame on Baker’s years for not addressing some problems with the system. This statement is partially accurate, but needs clarification of additional information. Tampa Bay Times senior researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.


China sends medical supplies, experts to help Italy battle coronavirus.

Explanation: A planeload of medical supplies, including masks and respirators, has arrived in Italy from China to help it deal with its growing coronavirus crisis.

The coronavirus outbreak began in China late last year but has since swept the globe. Italy is now the worst-affected nation in the world after China, with 1,016 dead and 15,113 confirmed cases since the contagion came to light there on Feb. 21. A team of nine Chinese medical staff arrived late on Thursday with some 30 tonnes of equipment on a flight organized by the Chinese Red Cross. “In this moment of great stress, of great difficulty, we are relieved to have this arrival of supplies. It is true that it will help only temporarily, but it is still important,” said the head of the Italian Red Cross, Francesco Rocca. “We have a desperate need for these masks right now. We need respirators that the Red Cross will donate to the government. This is for sure a really important donation for our country,” Rocca said. The outbreak risks overwhelming Italian hospitals and some key supplies are running low. In contrast to China, Italy’s partners in the European Union earlier this month refused Rome’s requests for help with medical supplies as they looked to stockpile face masks and other equipment to help their own citizens.


A morgue worker was accidentally cremated while napping or pretending to be dead.

Explanation: "While he was sleeping, another employee mistook him for the corpse of a 52-year old car accident victim and carried him to the crematory."

Junk News, 8shit, world news daily report

On 1 March 2017, the web site World News Daily Report (WNDR) reported that Beaumont, Texas, morgue worker Henri Paul Johnson was inadvertently incinerated by a coworker as he napped on the job: An employee of the Jefferson County morgue died this morning, after being accidentally cremated by one of his coworkers. According to the Beaumont Police Department, 48-year old Henri Paul Johnson decided to take a nap one a stretcher after working for sixteen hours straight. While he was sleeping, another employee mistook him for the corpse of a 52-year old car accident victim and carried him to the crematory. Before anyone could notice the mistake, he had already been exposed to temperatures ranging between 1400 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit and reduced to ashes. Also depicted in the article was Jenna Davis, a coworker who purportedly heard Johnson’s death screams:  Jenna Davis, one of Henri Johnson’s coworkers, says she heard him scream for about 15 seconds after the crematory was activated. “At first, we didn’t understand where the sound was coming from. When we realised what was happening, it was too late. We shut down the heating system, but he was already dead.” As is the case with all content published by WNDR, a fake news site, there was no truth to the story. The article’s photograph of the supposedly deceased morgue worker “Henri Paul Johnson” was actually a picture of a DeSoto County constable Christopher Plumlee, who was arrested in 2015 for DUI. And the photograph of coworker “Jenna Davis” was actually a picture of forensic pathologist Dr. Lisa Funte, taken from a May 2012 Beaumont Enterprise profile of her. Variations: The story was reposted by a site spoofing ABC News (abcnews-us.com) in December 2017 and March 2018: An employee of a local Huntersville funeral home died this morning, after being accidentally cremated by one of his coworkers. According to the Huntersville medical examiner, 48-year old Kenneth Brooks decided to take a nap on a stretcher after working for sixteen hours straight. While he was sleeping, another employee mistook him for the corpse of a 52-year old car accident victim and carried him to the crematory. Before anyone could notice the mistake, he had already been exposed to temperatures ranging between 1400 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit and reduced to ashes. Although names and locations in the article changed, the basic premise (and its lack of veracity) remained the same. The image reproduced above accompanied the story and was taken from a March 2016 WREG report about a funeral home in Atlanta which had nothing to do with a morgue employee who was “accidentally cremated.” In April 2018, the fake news site 8shit.net repurposed this story as an April Fool’s prank in which a morgue employee pretending to be dead was cremated by co-workers: It’s April Fools. Everyone wants to prank their friends, family and even customers, but this man got it very wrong. 27-year old Thomas McClure is now an ex-employee of a morgue in Boston, after he tried to prank his coworkers by pretending he was dead. To achieve his goal, he took an overdose of sleeping pills, with the idea that he was gonna be so unconscious that there would be no way to wake him up. And everything went exactly as planned: He took the pills in the morning and started doing his job. A few minutes later, he fell asleep on the floor and no one was able to wake him up. They tried pouring water on his face, slapping him, but nothing worked. The prank worked like a charm, and all the employees were sad because they thought their friend was dead. Unfortunately, they reached to the conclusion that he was, indeed, dead, and decided to cremate him.


Mexico ambassador resigns after book theft allegation.

Explanation: A Mexican ambassador who was called home after allegedly attempting to steal a book from a shop in Argentina has resigned, officials said, and relatives reported he may have suffered behavioral changes due to a brain tumor.

Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico, Health, Tumors, Latin America, Caribbean, Theft, Argentina, General News

On Monday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the case “painful”and “sad”. Officials said late Sunday that Ambassador Óscar Ricardo Valero had resigned for health health reasons, and Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, wrote in his Twitter account that Valero “is undergoing neurological treatment”. Mexican news media reported that Valero allegedly also tried to take a T-shift without paying from a shop at the airport after he was called back to Mexico in early December. At the request of relatives, Ebrard’s office published a doctor’s letter saying Valero had been treated for a brain tumor that may have altered his behavior. Ebrard described Valero, 77, a career diplomat with a long pedigree in Mexico’s left, as “a great person.”  A letter by Dr. Ana Luisa Sosa states that Valero was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2012 that resulted in “behavioral changes.” While the tumor was surgically removed years ago, the letter says behavior changes in the last 1 1/2 years — including traffic tickets and “difficulties in personal relationships” — suggests the tumor or its after-effects may have returned or worsened. Video of the bookstore incident earlier this year appears to show the diplomat tucking the book — reportedly worth about $9.50 —  into a stack of papers he is holding and being stopped by security after passing a detector gate on the way out. The incident is especially embarrassing given López Obrador’s main policy aim of promoting honesty among public servants.


Chicago residents use kits to test for lead contamination.

Explanation: Hundreds of Chicago residents have used free testing kits from the city to determine if their drinking water is contaminated by lead.

The Chicago Department of Water Management began giving residents lead-testing kits on request following concerns regarding the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and a 2013 Environmental Protection Agency study of Chicago homes. The kits contain one sample bottle for water drawn after taps weren’t used for at least six hours, a bottle used to collect water after taps were running for three minutes and a final bottle to sample water after five minutes. The results found that lead was detected in nearly 70 percent of the almost 2,800 homes tested over the past two years, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration limits lead concentrations in bottled water to 5 parts per billion. Tap water in 30 percent of homes had lead concentrations above the limit. Lake Michigan water is typically free of lead when it leaves the city’s treatment plants. Water becomes contaminated after passing through service lines and internal plumbing made out of lead. Chicago required using lead service lines to connect street mains and homes until Congress prohibited the practice in 1986. Individual property owners are responsible for maintaining service lines, according to the city’s plumbing code. Residents should flush household plumbing for up to five minutes when water hasn’t been used for several hours, city and EPA officials said. Tests taken since January 2016 found that about 20 percent of Chicago homes had high levels of lead even after water was running for three minutes. It is unsafe to consume lead at any level, according to the EPA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ingesting lead can cause brain damage in children and can contribute to heart disease, kidney failure and other health problems in adults. ___ Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com


Spain overtakes Italy in coronavirus cases, death rate slows.

Explanation: Spain overtook Italy for the first time on Friday for the number of confirmed coronavirus cases, but the overnight death toll fell from the previous day, providing a small glimmer of hope.

With a total 117,710 confirmed cases, Spain is now second in the number of infections only to the United States, which has a population some seven times larger. Spain’s total death toll now stands at 10,935, second only to Italy, with 13,915 fatalities. On a happier note, Friday marked the first time in more than a week that the number of deaths fell from the previous day, to 932 fatalities from 950. “The increase in the number of cases today is 7%, which confirms the reduction trend we’ve been observing,” said Maria Jose Rallo, the deputy head of health emergency. That is down from a  20% increase one week ago. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has imposed one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns, leaving only employees in essential sectors such as health free to travel to and from work. Restaurants, bars and shops are shuttered, and social gatherings are banned. Spaniards have been confined to home since March 14, with an initial 15-day period now extended till April 12. The government is now considering a second extension of the lockdown. The lockdown has frozen business. Fashion giant Inditex’s logistic centres in Spain - the nerve centre of its global retail empire - working at minimum activity. Spain’s largest bank Santander (SAN.MC) said on Friday it had raised its lending capacity to 90 billion euros ($97 billion) after cancelling its dividend. Banks have been inundated with people seeking mortgage holidays. Mortuaries have been overwhelmed, prompting regional authorities to set up a third improvised facility at an ice rink near Madrid on Friday, adapting the 1,800 square-metre space to receive corpses. Soldiers and firefighters set up an emergency hospital on Friday in a sports centre in the Catalan town of Sabadell. The government has set up more than a dozen of these field hospitals around the country to treat patients. “We are at the limit, we are at maximum stress,” said Catalan regional government chief Quim Torra in an interview with Reuters. The region is Spain’s most populous and second worst-hit after Madrid. More than 4,400 people have died in the Madrid region, data showed on Friday. The dead include people in the region’s nursing homes, which house some 50,000 people in the most vulnerable age bracket.


Brazil's mothers left to raise microcephaly babies alone.

Explanation: Ianka Barbosa was 7 months pregnant when she found out her child had microcephaly. Before the baby was even born, the father had gone.

Barbosa, 18, blames the break-up on her baby’s abnormally small head and brain damage that doctors link to the Zika virus she contracted during pregnancy. “I think, for him, it was my fault the baby has microcephaly,” said Barbosa, wearing a blue dress and cradling tiny two-week old Sophia in a cramped bare brick house where she now lives with her parents in Brazil’s northeast. “When I most needed his help, he left me.”   The house, which overlooks a polluted stream on the edge of a poor neighborhood, is now home to a family of nine. Only Barbosa’s father has a job doing occasional building work. Her ex-partner, Thersio, says he does not see Sophia, but avoids discussing microcephaly and blames Barbosa’s parents for the break-up. “I gave her the choice, are you your parents’ woman or mine ... And she chose her parents.”   Single parents are common in Brazil where some studies show as many as 1 in 3 children from poor families grow up without their biological father, but doctors on the frontline of the Zika outbreak say they are concerned about how many mothers of babies with microcephaly are being abandoned. With the health service already under strain, abortion prohibited, and the virus hitting the poorest hardest, an absent father is yet another burden on mothers already struggling to cope with raising a child that might never walk or talk. At a specialized microcephaly clinic in Campina Grande, psychologist Jacqueline Loureiro works with mothers to help them cope with stress and trauma. Of the 41 women she counsels, she says only 10 receive adequate financial or emotional support from their partners. “At first many of the women say they have a partner, but as you get to know them better you realize the father is never around and the baby and mother have effectively been abandoned,” Loureiro said. Loureiro blames Brazil’s macho culture, which she says is particularly strong in the northeast. Gender roles are strictly defined and women still tend to care for the baby and look after the household. The added burden of having a child with microcephaly strains this dynamic, says  Loureiro, and often the man ends up leaving or refusing to help. Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether it actually causes microcephaly in babies. Brazil said it has confirmed 745 cases of microcephaly since October, and considers most of them related to Zika infections in the mothers. It is investigating another 4,230 cases of suspected microcephaly. Until the World Health Organization declared Zika a global health emergency last month, there was little interest in microcephaly and no data for its toll on parents. But studies into children with other special needs shows it substantially increases the chance of marital breakdown. Jennifer Lewis, who runs the U.S. based Microcephaly Foundation and has a 12-year-old daughter with the condition, is not surprised fathers in northeast Brazil are abandoning partners and children. Her charity has a network of around 5,000 families and she says the majority are single mothers. “I see single mothers all the time, where the fathers have left, the fathers have got scared. I even see married couples where the father has pretty much nothing to do with the child,” she said in a phone interview from Phoenix, Arizona. Campina Grande’s health secretary, Luzia Pinto, told Reuters the city is planning to provide housing for mothers and children with microcephaly through a government housing program in order to help with the crisis. She also ensured a psychologist was hired at the clinic to offer support. Few Brazilian jobs give enough flexibility for parents to better share the responsibility of looking after a child with special needs. This is made even more difficult as parents must often travel for hours to visit the few specialized clinics operating in Brazil. At the clinic in Campina Grande, 20-year-old Rogerio dos Santos is one of only two fathers present. Standing in the whitewashed corridor, he says he’s shocked by the tales of fathers abandoning their children but says it has been hard to get time off at the gas station where he works. For fathers like dos Santos, the support network in Brazil is lacking. Whereas the clinic runs a support group for the mothers, there is no specific help offered for fathers. “There is a certain amount of fatalism about fathers leaving, unfortunately,” said Gary Barker, who promotes gender equality though ProMundo, an organization he founded in Rio de Janeiro 19 years ago and which now works in four countries. For Barker, the health sector needs to offer support specifically for men. “There needs to be an understanding that a baby being born with microcephaly is an event that is going to increase the chance the father’s not going to stick around and he’s going to need some extra hand holding,” he said. In the small town of Algodao de Jandaira, an hour from Campina Grande, Josemary da Silva pours a cold bath to relieve her son Gilberto from the relentless heat. The five-month-old baby with microcephaly stops crying briefly as he is washed in a pale blue plastic tub. The father, after whom Gilberto is named, first saw his son one month after he was born and has rarely visited since. Two months ago he stopped contributing the $30 a month he had paid to help da Silva care for the child. “He says he loves him. But what kind of love is this,” she says as Gilberto starts to cry again.


Ohio county to distribute bags that deactivate drugs.

Explanation: An Ohio county is distributing bags that deactivate prescription drugs as part of the fight against the state’s opioid epidemic.

Columbus, Epidemics, Coffee, Health, Ohio, Public health

The Franklin County effort is an alternative to flushing pills or mixing them in coffee grounds or cat litter. The Columbus Dispatch reports that Franklin County’s Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health board is spending $20,000 to buy 5,000 bags. The Franklin County and Columbus public health departments will distribute the bags during training sessions on using naloxone, a drug used to revive overdose victims. The bags can neutralize up to 45 pills, six patches or six ounces of liquid. A record 4,050 Ohioans died of drug overdoses in 2016, a number expected to rise sharply once 2017 figures are complete. ___ Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com