US biologists eye unusual deaths of Alaska ice seals.

Explanation: Seals that rely on sea ice off Alaska’s northwest coast have been dying at uncommon rates, and federal marine mammal biologists Thursday declared an “unusual mortality event.”

Bering Sea, General News, Oceans, Alaska, Seals, Science, U.S. News

The cause of death for nearly 300 ringed, bearded and spotted seals since June 1, 2018, is not known, according to the fisheries arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the management agency for the marine mammals. “We’re looking at a broad spectrum of possible causes and trying to rule out what we can and narrow it down,” NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Julie Speegle said. Viruses, bacteria and algal blooms are possible causes. Water temperature in the northern Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea the last two summers have been higher than normal. The agency is looking at possible ecosystem influences, including diminished sea ice, Speegle said. Alaska Native coastal communities hunt all three seals for meat and hides as part of a subsistence life. NOAA Fisheries received reports of 282 dead seals, almost five times more than the average number of reported strandings, according to the agency. The count included 85 bearded seals, 66 ringed seals, 40 spotted seals and 91 seals that were not identified. The deaths occurred over all age groups. The deaths both years occurred mostly from June to September. Some stranded seals were missing fur or were skinnier than normal, but the time between death and discovery of a carcass hinder investigators. “Many of the seals have been pretty badly decomposed so it’s been hard to identify exactly what the fat layer is,” Speegle said. Federal law defines an unusual mortality event as strandings that involve a significant die-off and demand an immediate response. The declaration allows the agency to focus resources on an investigation. Bearded seals get their name from short snouts covered with thick, long, white whiskers. Bearded seals give birth and rear pups on drifting pack ice. Ringed seals are the smallest of Alaska’s ice seals and are the main prey of polar bears. They get their name from small, light-colored circles on their coats. Ringed seals are the only seals that thrive in completely ice-covered Arctic waters. They use strong claws to maintain breathing holes in thick ice and give birth in lairs dug in snow that accumulates on top of ice. Young pups cannot survive in cold water until they have grown a blubber layer. Spotted seals are medium-size seals with light coats and dark spots. They often are found at the outer margins of shifting ice floes. NOAA Fisheries also declared an unusual mortality event following abnormal molting and deaths of ice seals and walruses from 2011 to 2016. A definitive cause was not identified. But biologists don’t believe that event, marked by animals with hair loss and skin lesions, is connected to the current event. The agency estimated that 657 seals were affected over those six years. Ringed seals and some populations of bearded seals are listed as threatened species because of the loss of sea ice due to climate warming. The Center for Biological Diversity in June sued the Department of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries Service for not designating critical habitat for threatened ringed and bearded seals.


States look to lower drug costs, consider Canadian imports.

Explanation: Lawmakers in more than two-thirds of the states are considering ways to reduce prescription drug costs, including importing them from Canada, as they strive to balance budgets without knowing for sure what their government’s share of the tab will be.

Vermont, Health, Utah, Prescription drug costs, Prescription drugs, U.S. News, Canada, United States

A total of 87 bills in 34 states of all political stripes seek to save money on prescription drugs, according to the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy. Six of those states are considering bills that would allow drugs to be imported from Canada, where they cost an average 30 percent less than in the United States. One is liberal Vermont, where lawmakers have revived a nearly 2-decade old proposal. Conservative Utah is considering a similar proposal. Maryland is looking at creating a commission that would regulate drug costs. “States have to balance budgets,” said Trish Riley, executive director of the health policy academy, based in Portland, Maine. “You budget a certain amount of money for drugs in a state employee health program or a Medicaid program, and you’re surprised by the mid-year increases that are unpredictable and huge.” The stakes are high not only for state governments, government employees and Medicaid recipients, but also for anyone else paying for prescription drugs. The federal government does not control drug prices, which are set by drug companies and are subject to costs and competition, while Medicaid negotiates cheaper drugs for low-income Americans. But one hope is that importing drugs can put downward pressure on domestic costs for all, said Utah state Rep. Norm Thurston, a Republican who introduced a drug-import bill in his state. “It’s not a liberal-conservative thing,” he said. “It’s not a Democrat-Republican thing.” Of the pharmaceutical industry, he said, “it makes them compete against themselves.” The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group for drugmakers, argues the proposals would threaten people’s health because quality could not be assured. Safety has nothing to do with the potential for tainted drugs from Canada, said Thurston, whose bill could be debated by the Utah House on Monday. “The No. 1 threat to patient safety related to prescription drugs in our state is that the drugs are so expensive that people don’t take them,” Thurston said. “We don’t have any widespread problem in our state with counterfeit drugs.” Allowing patients to buy medication from other countries with strict drug standards, such as Canada, is an idea that has long been floated in Washington by lawmakers of both parties. But each time, it has been blocked by the powerful drug lobby. President Donald Trump has supported opening up imports, and in his State of the Union speech called drug prices an “injustice” and promised action this year. But it’s still unclear whether his administration will take the importation route. New Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has favored other steps to increase competition domestically. Federal law since 2003 has allowed the U.S. health secretary to give states permission to import drugs, but such permission has never been granted. Federal drug-import legislation, introduced by Vermont’s independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders last year, is once again being considered by Congress, though states are taking the bolder approaches. The drug-import concept was highlighted almost two decades ago by Sanders, at the time a U.S. representative, when he took busloads of Vermonters to Quebec to visit Canadian doctors and fill prescriptions. Leukemia patient Jayne Rivera, 59, of Lyndonville, Vermont, has been living on Social Security disability, and her medical costs have been paid by Medicare. While most costs are covered, a year ago she was still paying $60 to $70 a week for about 20 prescriptions. She just learned a $2,000 a month prescription will be covered, bringing her monthly drug bill down to about $40 a month. But the affordability question still nags at her. “It’s that worry,” she said. “OK, I need this medicine because it’s keeping me alive. I live on disability. With all my other bills and everything, I don’t have extra money for medication.” While many states are focused on their budgets, the New Hampshire legislature is considering a proposal designed to ensure pharmacists are allowed to tell customers whether they are getting the best deal. In Vermont, a Senate committee Feb. 4 approved a proposal to create a bulk purchasing program that would import drugs from Canada, following strict safety guidelines, so they could be distributed by pharmacies at a fraction of their American price. State Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, a liberal, said the idea isn’t as far-fetched as it once was. He pointed to Utah, a conservative state with a powerful congressional delegation, as being furthest down the path toward legalizing prescription drug imports from Canada. “There seems to be a bipartisan coalition that the American people are getting ripped off,” Ashe said, “and these huge spikes in prices in recent years have been a more egregious story than what we knew back in the ’90s when Bernie was starting to take those road trips.”


Malaysia vaccinating for polio after first case in 27 years .

Explanation: Malaysia began a vaccination campaign in a rural town on Borneo island after a 3-month-old boy was confirmed to have polio in the country’s first case of the highly infectious virus in 27 years.

Health, Philippines, Asia, Malaysia, Asia Pacific, General News

The infant from Tuaran town in Sabah state tested positive for vaccine-derived polio virus type 1 on Friday after he was hospitalized with fever and muscle weakness. He is on respiratory support but his condition is stable, Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said in a statement Monday. Malaysia is the second Asian country to have reported a polio case after an outbreak in the Philippines in September. The World Health Organization says polio, which has been largely eradicated, remains endemic in only Pakistan and Afghanistan. Dzulkefly said tests showed the baby’s strain had genetic links to the polio virus detected in Philippines and investigations are ongoing to determine the cause of the infection. Malaysia’s last polio case occurred in 1992 and the country was declared polio-free in 2000. The health ministry said the strain was believed to have originated from a weakened virus contained in oral polio vaccine that was excreted from the body through feces and possibly spread in an unsanitary environment to those who haven’t been immunized. Dzulkefly said Malaysia switched from oral vaccine to inactivated polio vaccine since 2008, that is given to children via injection in a combination with several vaccines for other infectious diseases including diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus. The government fully halted the use of oral vaccine three years ago, but he stressed the country has not had any reports of vaccine-derived polio cases from the use of over 80 million doses of the oral vaccine. “The first polio case since Malaysia was polio-free upset us,” Dzulkefly said. Vaccination has been stepped up in the infant’s home village after investigations showed 25 out of 204 children, aged between 2 months and 15 years, were not vaccinated against polio, he said. “All of these children are non-citizens and have been given polio vaccines. This activity is being expanded to other risky areas to prevent transmission,” he said. Officers are also educating villagers about polio and preventive measures, he said. Tests have been carried out to those close to the infant and from the environment, he said, adding that so far wastewater samplings from six sewage treatment plants in Sabah showed no presence of wild polio virus or vaccine-derived strains. Health officers are also bolstering surveillance to detect those who has muscle paralysis, a symptom of polio, though none have been detected so far, he said. There is no known cure for polio, which can only be prevented with vaccines.


Biogen's secret campaign to bring its Alzheimer's drug back from the ashes.

Explanation: Biogen Inc’s (BIIB.O) shock decision this week to bring its experimental Alzheimer’s drug back from the scrap heap was born out of “top secret” meetings, non-disclosure agreements and six months of hashing over trial data with scientists, regulators and statisticians, researchers told Reuters.

Biogen had announced in March that it would terminate two large clinical trials of aducanumab because they were likely to fail. Within weeks, a group of company researchers set out to understand what went wrong. As they studied data from a larger pool of patients who received the drug, they began to question that conclusion. In the months that followed, Biogen kept its own trial investigators and committee overseeing the trial in the dark about the possibility that some patients had benefited from high doses of the therapy, researchers told Reuters. The company said it brought in outside Alzheimer’s experts and statisticians to help it parse the new findings, and sought feedback from U.S. regulators on whether it could be considered for approval. The result, made public on Tuesday, was an astounding reversal. Biogen will seek U.S. approval for the therapy early next year, once again raising hopes for patients suffering from the brain-wasting disease. Biogen shares gained 27% on investor hopes for a multibillion-dollar blockbuster. The risks for Biogen remain high. Wall Street analysts cast doubt on whether Biogen’s analysis would pass muster with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration without an additional years-long trial to confirm the findings. Several Alzheimer’s researchers questioned why one trial appeared to succeed, while another with the same design failed. Many experts say they are reserving judgment until Biogen presents more detailed data in December. Company executives are reluctant to characterize their interactions with the FDA, but said they worked closely with the agency until they were confident in the findings. Biogen was only willing to move forward with seeking approval for aducanumab after meeting twice with FDA. The final decision was made immediately after the second of those meetings, which took place on Monday, Biogen officials said. For the FDA “to say it’s reasonable to file an application after two extensive discussions with them, formal meetings as well as a number of informal discussions, I think it’s significant,” Biogen research chief Al Sandrock said in an interview. Biogen’s earlier decision to terminate the trials was viewed as the final nail in the coffin for the so-called “amyloid hypothesis” - the theory that removing a protein associated with Alzheimer’s could stave off this fatal form of dementia. Many similar drugs had previously failed. Globally, 131 million people are expected to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s by 2050, up from 50 million today. Any successful treatment could be worth $10 billion or more in annual sales, industry analysts say. The March announcement also raised concerns about a second therapy, BAN2401, that works in a similar way. Biogen is partnering with Japan’s Eisai on both drugs. Ivan Cheung, Eisai’s chief executive, said in an interview that he expects aducanumab’s revival will energize enrollment in a late-stage study of BAN2401, with results expected in 2022. Patients taking the highest dose of BAN2401 showed some encouraging results in a midstage trial last year. “That’s why in the Phase III trial, we are only studying the highest dose,” Cheung said. The two aducanumab trials - Engage and Emerge - started a month apart in 2015. Each had about 1,640 patients. As they progressed, the company made changes in the trial that expanded the number of patients who received a higher dose. As part of a planned “futility analysis,” outside monitors reviewed half of the data as of December 2018 to determine whether the drug had a reasonable chance of success. “So many of us felt that this might be the drug that would cross the finish line,” said Dr. Sharon Cohen, director of the Toronto Memory program, who led one of the studies. In March, she received the answer: the therapy looked like a dud. However, patients continued to receive treatment in the interim. Cohen believes the fact that some patients got a higher dose for longer helped swing results in the Emerge study, which ultimately showed a benefit. A month after announcing the failure, Biogen began analyzing results from both trials, including additional data from patients who later completed treatment. By the time Biogen had its first FDA meeting in mid-June, the company knew that one of the studies had succeeded, and understood that dose was important, said Samantha Budd Haeberlein, who runs Biogen’s Alzheimer’s program. “We did a great deal of analysis in close contact with the FDA to really understand what occurred in these trials,” Haeberlein said. “It took several months to work through that.”  During that entire stretch, Cohen said she and fellow investigators were waiting to hear why the drug had failed. They expected a presentation in July during the Alzheimer’s Association annual meeting, but none came. “I was completely unaware of what had been discovered until last Sunday,” said Dr. Anton Porsteinsson, a principal investigator for the trials from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Porsteinsson said Biogen asked him to sign a non-disclosure agreement before sharing the new analysis. Cohen said she first reviewed the new data on Monday in what she called a “top secret” meeting. She said the company wanted a few investigators to hear the findings ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, but had concerns about insider trading. Many still question why only one trial succeeded. “The signal from the positive trial was kind of convincing,” said Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s expert Dr. Ronald Petersen, who has been a paid adviser for Biogen. It showed a 23% reduction in a key measure of cognitive decline. “But the other study, which was meant to be identical, didn’t show it,” he said. “That’s the challenge there.”


Officials worry about Nebraska children’s health care fund.

Explanation: A Nebraska state fund that pays for children’s health insurance, aid for people with developmental disabilities and more than 20 other government programs is slowly losing money and will eventually be depleted because lawmakers are withdrawing too much from the account, according to several top state officials.

Legislature, Pete Ricketts, Health, General News, Nebraska, Government programs

State officials said they’re concerned about the Nebraska Health Care Cash Fund, which covers the cost of a variety of programs, from compulsive gambling assistance to biomedical research. “The Legislature keeps drawing more money out of it than what’s going in,” Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts said in a recent interview. “For long-term stability, you’re going to have to set priorities about what you’re going to spend money on.” The fund holds money from Nebraska’s share of a 1998 settlement with tobacco companies as well as excess Medicaid dollars the state received under a federal program that was discontinued in 2005. State investment officials have warned in recent years that the $477.8 million fund faces a long-term risk and lawmakers are eating into its principal as well as the interest from its investment returns. Nebraska State Investment Officer Michael Walden-Newman sent a memo to lawmakers in September warning that the fund will steadily decline unless spending is reduced. Walden-Newman predicted that, by 2035, the fund will be 80% of its current size, or 50% when adjusted for inflation. Walden-Newman said the money from the fund is already invested aggressively and suggested that lawmakers cap their withdrawals at no more than $54 million annually. Nebraska distributed $62.9 million from the fund in the last fiscal year. Sen. John Stinner, the chairman of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, said lawmakers may eventually have to trim the fund if tobacco payments decrease, but he argued that it’s currently sustainable because settlement payments are flowing into the fund and replenishing it each year. Stinner said lawmakers will convene a hearing this fall to discuss the issue. “We think (the tobacco settlement payments) may go down over a period of time, and we may have to adjust the fund in the future,” he said. Ricketts said he was also concerned that the fund was being used for expenses other than what was originally intended. A 2018 report by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids found that states were spending just a small fraction of their tobacco settlement money on anti-smoking programs. States collected $27.3 billion in revenue from the settlement in the fiscal year that ended in June, but spent only 2.4% of that amount on prevention and cessation programs, according to the report. Under the settlement, states had no restrictions on how they could spend the money, and many have used it to pay for unrelated programs or to plug budget holes. Of the $62.9 million that Nebraska spent last fiscal year, about $2.6 million went to tobacco prevention programs, according to a September report from the Nebraska State Investment Council. The rest went to reimbursement rates for behavioral health care providers, children’s health insurance aid, public health centers and other programs. The issue surfaced earlier this year when Nebraska lawmakers voted to pull an additional $500,000 a year from the fund to pay for community-based services for people with brain injuries. The chairwoman of the Health and Human Services Committee, which monitors many of the programs that receive health care cash fund money, said the proposal would worsen the problem for future lawmakers. “We have got to stop taking that money,” Sen. Sara Howard, of Omaha, said during legislative debate. “It will not be there when we need it most.” Supporters of the proposal argued that community-based services could ultimately save the state money by keeping people with brain injuries out of more expensive institutional care. Howard said she would like to see the fund replenished by raising Nebraska’s 64-cent-per-pack cigarette tax. ___ Follow Grant Schulte at https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte


Regarding the surgery that saved Jimmy Kimmel's son, "Medicaid has stopped providing this kind of service.

Children, Health Care, PunditFact, Margaret Hoover,

On CNN, a panel of commentators discussed some of the health-policy issues surrounding Jimmy Kimmel’s revelation the night before that his newborn had to have surgery for a rare heart defect. In a video clip that went viral, Kimmel devoted the monologue of his ABC late-night show to telling the story of the birth of his son, Billy. Shortly after he was born, doctors discovered a serious congenital heart defect known as tetralogy of Fallot. The doctors were able to operate on Billy, and their efforts appear to be successful, though additional surgeries may eventually be needed. In addition to drawing widespread popular interest in his son’s story, Kimmel touched on the current debate over whether or how to overhaul the Affordable Care Act. In the monologue, he urged lawmakers not to return Americans to the days before the law, when a pre-existing condition -- like his son’s -- could prevent you from securing health insurance. "If your baby is going to die and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make," Kimmel said. "I think that’s something that whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or something else, we all agree on that, right?" Kimmel’s monologue inspired a discussion of health care policy on a CNN segment moderated by anchor Kate Bolduan the following day. At one point, CNN commentator Margaret Hoover noted that, for all the concern about Kimmel’s situation, poor families would be less likely than a celebrity to have access to a world-class surgical team. Referring to the Kimmel surgery, she said, "Medicaid has stopped providing this kind of service. Our health care system is broken, and the poorest of us cannot afford it." We wondered whether she was correct, so we started contacting experts. Before we could finish our research, Hoover emailed us to say that she had misspoken. "The point I had intended to make was that poorer families, especially those who have received health coverage under the ACA, have largely received it through Medicaid expansion, which increasingly isn't accepted at hospitals," she said in an email. "Sadly, in an emotional segment, I misspoke," Hoover told us. Hoover said she realized she had said something wrong when she began seeing criticism in her Twitter mentions. Hoover tweeted a correction shortly after our email exchange: "Correction to misspeaking w/ @KateBolduan: I accidentally said Medicaid has stopped providing ‘that kind of service.’ … Point I intended to make was that hospitals increasingly don’t accept Medicaid. … Which means poor families have a harder time getting Kimmel’s level of care already." For the record, the experts we contacted agreed that Medicaid has not done anything to cut off its beneficiaries from complex pediatric surgeries like the one Kimmel’s son underwent. Hoover’s initial remark on CNN was "totally incorrect," said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health law and policy at George Washington University. In fact, she said, "Medicaid is the major source of health insurance coverage for children’s hospitals and the specialized services they offer." MaryBeth Musumeci, associate director of the Kaiser Family Foundation, added that Medicaid covers a broad range of services for children under its Early Periodic Screening Diagnostic and Treatment benefit, called EPSDT. Any state that accepts Medicaid funding must offer EPSDT to children from birth through age 21, she said. As a practical matter, this means that Medicaid must cover necessary services for children’s physical or mental health, even if that service is not covered by Medicaid for adults in that state, she said. At PolitiFact, our policy is to correct a speaker’s original misstatement while noting subsequent corrections by the speaker. Hoover, for her part, did have a point when she mentioned the relative lack of access for Medicaid beneficiaries. A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that while 85 percent of physicians accepted new patients with private insurance, only 69 percent accepted new patients with Medicaid. Hoover pointed to this column, by Scott W. Atlas, a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University, to support her point. "People on Medicaid have more challenges accessing specialists than the privately insured, and the more high-tech and innovative, the more challenging that may be," said Gail Wilensky, who headed Medicare and Medicaid under President George H.W. Bush. Our ruling Hoover said that, regarding the surgery that saved Kimmel’s son, "Medicaid has stopped providing this kind of service." That’s wrong -- Medicaid does cover this kind of service, and indeed, the federal-state program is a key source of reimbursement for children’s hospitals. Hoover quickly acknowledged that she was wrong and tweeted a correction.


Penn team finds success with talk therapy for schizophrenics

Explanation: The story delivers multiple success stories, but fails to point out serious limitations in the design of the trial (single-center, no comparable “placebo” control and no blinding, for example) that raise questions about the claims made by researchers. While the journal article reporting the trial results highlights that the participants were selected from the “extreme end of the low-functioning continuum,” the story implies that the tested therapy would be beneficial to anyone with schizophrenia. Experimental results are only as good as the design of the trial that produced them. This story should have highlighted study limitations that call into question the conclusions of this test of cognitive therapy. People with schizophrenia often have shortened lives and very high costs for treatments including powerful drugs and other intensive interventions. Effective psychotherapy would be a welcome addition to treatment options.

The story appears to deal with cost by including an estimate used by the researchers that treatment for people with schizophrenia costs $26,000 to $31,000 per year on average. However, there is no estimate of the cost of the weekly cognitive therapy sessions that are the central point of the story. Also, the story includes a claim by the lead researcher that this therapy would replace and be more effective than current therapy, and gave it credit for preventing an expensive hospitalization, but cost-comparisons were not part of the experiment nor is any other evidence provided in the story to support the claims. The story presents a series of success stories that gives readers a one-sided view of the results and glosses over the limitations of the design of this trial and the narrow selection of patients with extreme symptoms that raise questions about the conclusions and the relevance of these results to typical patients. The benefits reported in this trial are not quantified. Perhaps the only potential harm of cognitive therapy would be wasting time and money on something that turns out not to produce the desired benefits. Still, since resources for mental health treatment are extremely limited and often not well covered by private insurance plans, the story could have addressed this potential downside. As noted above, the story does not make clear that the patients included in this trial were not average patients. A more serious shortcoming is the failure to explain to readers that there was no “placebo” control treatment or that with this sort of treatment it is not possible to blind the clinician to the type of treatment the patient is receiving. The researchers noted these important limitations in their journal article: “The [cognitive therapy] condition involved more patient contact than the [standard treatment] condition, raising the possibility that nonspecific patient contact factors are contributing to the observed group differences. Additionally, both therapists and patients were aware of the condition and participation in an experiment, introducing possible bias in the reported outcomes.” Readers should have been told that this trial does not actually prove that cognitive therapy alone explains the observed improvements. It could be that getting a weekly session with a PhD therapist using another type of approach could also produce benefits; that’s a question this trial did not address. This trial was done at just a single center. The therapists were more highly trained than therapists seen in routine clinical care. Both the duration of the trial and the outcome measured used were changed during the study. These are red flags raising questions about the quality of the science and the relevance to routine clinical practice. This story presents the results as far more conclusive than the study design warrants. This trial included only low-functioning patients with problems much more severe than the average patient. In their journal article the researchers described them as “patients with chronic schizophrenia selected from the extreme end of the low-functioning continuum,” but the story implies that the therapy could benefit anyone with schizophrenia. There were other special characteristics of the study population which raise questions about whether the results apply to the general population: two-thirds of the participants were African-American, and men outnumbered women 2-to-1 (a more extreme difference than seen in the general population). Also, the researchers ended up randomizing only a third of the patients initially invited to participate, further raising questions about how relevant the result are to average patients. The story does include independent sources. And while the story does not mention who funded the trial, the disclosure section of the journal article does not reveal obvious serious conflicts. However, it appears that all of the quoted experts use cognitive therapy in their practices, which may have limited the critical examination of the limitations of this trial. The story mentions some of the strengths and weaknesses of drug treatment for schizophrenia. However, it gives the reader no sense of the magnitude. “Most medications affect the delusions and hallucinations”…. but how much of an effect? The article notes that it is difficult to find therapists trained in cognitive therapy. The story puts this trial in the context of a half-century of study of cognitive therapy. It reports that testing cognitive therapy with this type of patient is new. The story does not appear to rely on a news release.


Explanation: What's true: In the right conditions, the snakehead fish can survive on land for a few days. What's false: However, the snakehead fish can not live on land indefinitely.

On Oct. 10, 2019, many readers came across news stories about an invasive species of fish called the snakehead fish that had been discovered in Georgia. While these stories largely dealt with wildlife officials’ attempts to eradicate the species, what caught the attention of most readers were brief mentions of this fish’s unique ability to survive on land. CNN reported: A snakehead fish that survives on land was discovered in Georgia. Officials want it dead An invasive fish species that can breathe air and survive on land has been found in Georgia for the first time. And officials are warning anyone who comes into contact with the species to kill it immediately. An angler caught the northern snakehead fish this month in a pond in Gwinnett County, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division said Tuesday. “Thanks to the quick report by an angler, our staff was able to investigate and confirm the presence of this species in this water body,” said Matt Thomas, chief of fisheries for the Wildlife Resources Division. “We are now taking steps to determine if they have spread from this water body and, hopefully, keep it from spreading to other Georgia waters.” The snakehead fish can truly survive on land. However, some readers may have been left with the impression that this species of fish can live on land for an indefinite period of time. There are approximately 21 species of snakehead fish. The northern snakehead (Channa argus) is a bimodal breathing fish thanks to a lung-like labyrinth organ near its gills. The snakehead can store atmospheric oxygen in this organ and then draw from this supply as it swims. This allows the snakehead to survive in low oxygen water. This fish can also use its unique bimodal breathing ability to move between bodies of waters. The Smithsonian writes: Unlike most fish, the northern snakehead has little sacs above its gills that function almost like lungs; the fish can surface and suck air into the sacs, then draw oxygen from the stored air as it swims. The air sacs are handy for surviving in waters that are low in oxygen, and even allow the fish to survive out of water for a couple of days, as long as it doesn’t dry out. A research article published in Biology Open in 2018 elaborated on the air-breathing abilities of the snakehead:  The northern snakehead (Channa argus) is a species of air-breathing fish that is widely distributed in East Asia. This fish has a peculiar accessory breathing organ, the suprabranchial chamber, by which the fish breathes air at the water’s surface using a cough-like mechanism (Ishimatsu and Itazawa, 1981; Lefevre et al., 2014), making possible short-term survival out of water (Nagata and Nakata, 1988). The suprabranchial chamber of Channa possesses a richly vascularized wall for gas exchange. It communicates with the buccopharyngeal cavity through a ventral opening guarded by a ‘shutter’ plate bone outgrowth of the first branchial arch, which can close the inhalant aperture of the suprabranchial chamber during expiration (Munshi, 1962). While a snakehead’s ability to breath air may certainly come as a surprise to many, this is not the only species of fish with this ability. Andy Turko, the co-author of a 2015 study into one such species, the mangrove rivulus, spoke to National Geographic about these amphibious fish:  Fish use gills to take in oxygen from the water. But many fish, like the mangrove rivulus, have adaptations that let them breathe air. For instance, mangrove rivulus “have specialized skin that takes on many of the roles of gills,” such as maintaining salt levels, Turko says. […] The walking catfish, a Southeast Asian native that’s invaded South Florida, has an extra organ that supports its gills and helps it take in oxygen from the air. This is not the first time that the snakehead has made national news. In 2002, there was a bit of a panic after snakeheads were found in a pond in Crofton, Maryland. The snakehead fish’s ability to survive on land, its scary-sounding name, and the fact that it is considered an invasive species, led to a full-blown media circus about the discovery as the public imagined “monster fish” stalking the woods in search of prey. The incident even inspired a couple of horror movies, such as “Frankenfish” and “Snakehead Terror”:   The snakehead can truly survive out of water for a few days. However, this fish does not have the ability to traverse long distances over land, nor is it an adept ground hunter. Whit Gibbons, professor emeritus of ecology at the University of Georgia, wrote in 2017: Young snakeheads eat a variety of zooplankton and small aquatic insects. Adults eat other fish, sometimes one-third the length of their own bodies, as well as crawfish and frogs. Snakeheads are different from most other fish, which cannot survive for long out of water. Adult northern snakeheads have gills but can also gulp air and have been documented to live out of water for up to four days. However, although a young one may travel overland for several feet, a full-grown adult is too large to move effectively, so your pet chihuahua will probably be safe if it can make it to the pet door. Here’s a video of a snakehead in Thailand as it “walks,” crawls, or wiggles its way back to the water:


More than 1,000 people ... move to Texas every day.

Explanation: Perry says 1,000 people move to Texas daily

Immigration, Census, States, Texas, Rick Perry,

Gov. Rick Perry touts Texas as a model state that escaped the recession with few battle scars and a lot of jobs, if you're looking for one. An unemployment rate significantly below the national rate is one reason folks are coming here — 1,000 people daily, according to Perry. "I am pleased to receive the endorsement of the Southwest Movers Association, which plays a key role in supporting the more than 1,000 people who move to Texas every day," he said Dec. 29. "As our state continues to grow, I look forward to working with members and stakeholders of SMA to ensure that Texas remains a top destination for job seekers." Matthew Thompson, a senior writer and editor at the Office of the Governor, said the governor's staff divided the state's annual population growth by 365 days to estimate how much the population swells daily. The statistics came from the U.S. Census Bureau. Between July 1, 2008 and July 1, 2009, Texas gained 478,012 more people — more than any other state (California, still boasting the biggest population overall, was second with 381,000 new people). That's about 1,300 people per day, by Thompson's calculation. But 478,000 is the net population change. It includes births as well as people relocating to Texas, after accounting for deaths and people leaving the state. So, what part of that net figure represents newcomers? With help from the U.S. Census Bureau, we learned that about 635 people come to Texas every day, on average. A census official based that number on average daily net migration from other states (393) plus average daily net migration from other countries (242). A separate estimate of the actual number of people entering the state comes from the Internal Revenue Service, which tracks the addresses of people who file taxes each year, and reports that information to the Census Bureau. The IRS found that 493,840 people switched their residence to Texas between the time they filed in 2007 and when they filed in 2008 — that's about 1,353 people each day. (The IRS' data are slightly older than the figures Perry cites as evidence for his claim.) In the end, Perry came close to getting it right, though he didn't take into account in-state births or people moving away. Statistically speaking, of course, a set number of people aren't moving to Texas every day because that number varies. But if you rely on IRS data collected in 2007 and 2008, more than 1,300 people on average were relocating here during that time frame. We rule Perry's claim , even if he wasn't using the right data as evidence.


WWE wrestler Ric Flair was declared brain dead on 16 May 2019.

Explanation: Flair’s wife, Wendy Barlow, told TMZ that the wrestler was expected to make a full recovery: “Due to ongoing health complications, Ric was taken to the hospital and is expected to undergo a procedure tomorrow morning, after which he expects to fully recover.”

On 16 May 2019, the entertainment website TMZ reported that former WWE wrestler Ric Flair (real name Richard Fliehr) was rushed to the hospital for a medical emergency. As Flair’s fans fretted over the news, a few opportunists started to spread false rumors about “Nature Boy’s” condition. The official-looking Twitter account @WWEUmiverse, for example, posted an image of Flair and asserted that the wrestler had passed away. This account used a handle resembling the WWE’s actual account (at @WWEUniverse) in order to fool viewers with hoax stories. The fake account misspelled “Universe” with an “m”:  The disreputable website LFRSolutions also posted a fake news story about the wrestler’s health. Shortly after Flair was hospitalized, the website published a story claiming that Flair had been declared brain dead:  WWE Ric Flair has been declared brain dead after a medical emergency led him to being hospitalized earlier today. According to several news reports, it’s unclear what medical emergency led him to the hospital to begin with but sources have now said that the wrestling legend’s is no longer functioning although his other organs are still working at this time. Ric Flair is still on a breathing machine until his family gives permission to disconnect him but as of now, he is declared brain dead, thus legally dead. LFRSolutions is not a genuine news source. This website frequently publishes misinformation, and although it does carry a disclaimer, that disclaimer is so small that most readers would need a magnifying glass to decipher it:  The disclaimer reads: “The stories posted on LFRSolutions.com are for entertainment purposes only. The stories may mimic articles found in the headlines, but rest assured they are purely satirical.” Ric Flair was hospitalized on 16 May 2019, but reports about his dying or being declared brain dead were hoaxes that originated with disreputable sources.


Pulsed radiofrequency relieves acute back pain and sciatica

Explanation: The main problems with this news release promoting an abstract from a radiology meeting are that it fails to mention the research is unpublished, and there are significant limitations which may well preclude a headline such as: “Pulsed Radiofrequency (pRF) Relieves Acute Back Pain and Sciatica.” The touted benefits of pRF (pulsed energy applied to nerve roots of the spine by a probe) noted in this study are based on difficult-to-reproduce patient questionnaires, and framed with language that makes it very difficult for readers to place in an understandable context. Although alternatives are nicely covered — benefits, costs, availability, and potential harms of the outpatient probe procedure are not. We also reviewed a HealthDay news story about the study. Both the story and news release would have been improved with more discussion about cost, benefits and harms. Chronic back pain that does not respond to conservative treatment, and sometimes includes shooting pain into the buttocks and leg (sciatica), is difficult to treat, a leading cause of disability, and poses a huge economic burden to both individuals and the health care system. Although the search for treatments that are “minimally invasive” are well-intentioned and much needed, this catchphrase can be quite misleading. As we’ve written before, many readers erroneously equate “minimally invasive” with more advanced and effective, and involving fewer complications and recovery time. Rather than prey on this notion, releases should clarify if procedures touted in this way even come close to meeting such expectations. Many back patients have very straightforward questions they need answered: Do I need surgery? If not, what are my alternatives? How effective are those alternatives? What are the benefits vs. risks involved? What will it cost me? Not answering those questions clearly (or making it clear if the answers are unknown) does readers a disservice. Back pain creates tremendous personal, family and economic burdens. In the majority of individuals, the source of the pain cannot be identified, and undoubtedly there are many different causes of back pain. If the source of pain in any individual can be identified accurately, specific interventions may be able to be developed to treat that subset of patients resulting in improved quality of life for those individuals and less economic burden. But it’s also important to keep in mind that in the vast majority of individuals, the pain resolves spontaneously without any residual disability.

back pain,pulsed radiofrequency,Radiological Society of North America,sciatica

Costs are not included. Comparing the cost of the three treatment options mentioned in the release — CT-guided pRF, CT-guided steroid injections, and lumbar disk surgery — would have been appropriate and helpful. An assumption is made that the cost of this procedure is less than a surgical intervention. This is often not the case, and “minimally” invasive approaches can cost more. The news release reports these 1-year outcomes: The terminology here is very vague. It would have been helpful to clarify what the rate and probability of “perceived recovery” mean, and how they’re measured. The release leads with a phrase we find problematic: “minimally invasive.” For many readers this connotes a quick, “safe and effective” intervention as mentioned in the release. But “minimally invasive” can potentially have more complications than a prior “more invasive” approach. No instrumentation close to the spine or its nerve roots is risk-free. Nerve damage and infection are two potential complications that should have been mentioned. This is a major weakness of the news release because the following key points are omitted: No disease mongering. Chronic lower back pain is not only very common and very difficult to treat, but it’s also one of the leading causes of disability and missed work days. Study funding is not included. A review of the meeting abstract reveals no conflicts of interest disclosed by the seven authors. The news release defines what alternatives are available for acute back pain with sciatica, including pain medications, cortisteroids and surgery. It details outcomes in patients treated with steroid injections compared with pRF. It’s not made clear for readers if this is an experimental therapy, or if it is widely available. The procedure is, in fact, a refined technique of an older procedure. The release doesn’t explain what’s novel about the research. The rPF procedure has been used extensively for a variety of chronic pain conditions for years. The headline is misleading. The source of back pain is usually unknown and even if an imaging study demonstrates a disc herniation it is usually not the identifiable cause of the pain. The title could lead people to seek treatment for their imaging finding but not resolve their pain. It’s unjustified to make broad claims as found in the headline based on unpublished data.


The government "knowingly" injected a birth defect-inducing vaccine into epidurals between 2010 and 2014 to hurt Black women

Explanation: Fammtv.com has previously reported (without substantiation) that Congress is preparing “to equip every gun with a tracking device” and that “a source from Facebook” revealed the social media network was planning to launch their own tuition-free online school.

A new variant on anti-vaccine paranoia emerged on 26 October 2016, when a dubious news site published an article linking a vaccine to what it described as a government effort to hurt black women. The three-paragraph “story” was based on statements from “government anesthesiologist” Henry Rothschild but didn’t contain any actual quotes from that putative doctor, let alone provide any links or citations for his alleged remarks. According to Rothschild, the government “knowingly” injected black women with an epidural during childbirth the contained a birth defect-inducing vaccine called Terminar which it notes is “Spanish for terminate.” (This translations is technically true, but the verb is most often used in the context of finishing a task.) Rothschild also allegedly said that the vaccine was used between 2010 and 2014, with no accounting for the years since, or any reason identified for the furtive plot besides this bombastic claim:  Terminar was design [sic] to break down African American/Black women ovaries exposing them to different germs and multiple diseases which will likely produce a child with serious birth defects and serious illnesses. We contacted Fammtv.com to ask for more information that might substantiate their claims, but they had not responded as of the time of publication of this article. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has not published epidural use statistics for the years mentioned in the story, but a study of epidural use rates in 27 states in 2008 showed that 62 percent of Black women used epidurals during childbirth. (We have contacted the CDC seeking epidural usage rates between 2010 and 2014.) However, a 2014 study by the American Public Health Association (APHA), tracking 13.5 million live births in the U.S. between 1999 and 2007, undermines Fammtv’s allegations: the APHA study showed “much higher ocurrences” of more birth defects among American Indian/Alaska Native children (and not African-Americans) compared to white children. The existence of a drug “breaking down Black womens’ ovaries” would presumably have led to a greater incidence of birth defects being reported in African-American communities.


China reports one more H7N9 bird flu death.

Explanation: China reported one more death from the H7N9 strain of bird flu in eastern Fujian province, state news agency Xinhua said on Friday.

A 38-year-old man from Quanzhou city died after being found infected earlier on Friday, Xinhua said, citing the province’s health and family planning commission. Xinhua said this was the first human case of H7N9 in Fujian this year. Separately, Xinhua said two people were infected with H7N9 in eastern Zhejiang province — a 79-year-old woman and a 30-year-old man. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday that seven more people in China have been found to be infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu in the past week, taking to around 150 the total number of cases so far. The H7N9 bird flu emerged last year in China and has infected around 150 people there and in Taiwan and Hong Kong, killing at least 45 of them. Experts say there is no evidence as yet of any easy or sustained person-to person transmission of the strain. But an early scientific analysis of probable transmission of the new flu from person to person, published last August, gave the strongest proof yet that it can at times jump between people and so could cause a human pandemic. The WHO said the source of the human infections was still being investigated. It stressed it does not advise any special screening for people going in and out of China, nor does it recommend any travel or trade curbs.


A 31-year-old Cincinnati woman was taken to the hospital after the 14-month-old toddler she was babysitting got stuck in her vaginal cavity.

Explanation: All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people –  are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any persons, living, dead, or undead is purely a miracle.

Junk News, babysitter, fake news, world news daily report

On 1 May 2017, the web site World News Daily Report (a notorious purveyor of fake news) posted an article seemingly reporting that a babysitter in Cincinnati, Ohio was admitted to a local hospital after paramedics found a toddler wedged in her vagina: Latifah Brown called 911 around 9:30 PM last night, reporting that she had a baby stuck in her vagina. The operator first assumed that she was giving birth at home and dispatched an ambulance to the site. The paramedics had quite a surprise when they arrived on the site and saw what was actually happening. One of the paramedics, Brian Whitmore, related the incident in an interview with WBNS-10 TV. “The little boy wore a diaper and pyjamas, but he had his legs and abdomen stuck in the woman’s vagina.” The paramedics spent more than an hour on the site trying to release the child from his difficult position but were unable to get the toddler out. After being transported to a hospital, where doctors successfully removed the baby (the article continues), Brown confessed to “deliberately inserting the child in her vaginal cavity” and was charged by police with “aggravated child neglect.” Not a word of which is true. As we have noted on many occasions (and as World News Daily Report states on its own disclaimer page), all of the content on the site is fictional:


Study Shows Limited Benefits From Calcium

Explanation: This piece reports on the outcomes from the Women’s Health Initiative about the effectiveness of calcium and vitamin D to prevent hip fracture. Although the results showed that the level of calcium and vitamin D supplementation did not significantly reduce hip fracture, they did find that this level of supplementation did increase the risk of kidney stones. There were several interesting points raised in the study that were not reported on in this story. This first is that the methods used to encourage supplement use was only adequate to get a subset of the women studied to take the supplements. The results also point out the discrepancy between the common measure of ‘bone health’ (bone density) and the outcome of importance (fracture rate). Lastly, the study also showed that women who fell were significantly more likely to have a hip fracture than those who never fell. This raises the question of whether an intervention to reduce the likelyhood of falls would be useful for reducing risk of hip fracture. The overall tone of the article is suggestive that women beyond menopause should still take these supplements, though this is not consistent with the results of the study.

No cost of calcium and vitamin D supplements was provided. Did not present estimate of absolute risk or benefit. Article failed to mention that calcium and vitamin D supplementation increased the risk of kidney stones. Although the experts quoted were clear that the trial was not a ringing endorsement for the use of these supplements to reduce fracture rate, they also cast the use of these supplements in a light more positive than the current study suggested. Though mention was made that these results come from the Women’s Health Initiative and that it was a comparison of women taking supplements to women taking dummy pills, the story never mentioned that this was a randomized clinical trial. Benefits of calcium and vitamin D supplement were presented as percent reduction in hip fracture rates without the context of how often they occur. The reduction in hip fracture rate reported in the study was 12% (as compared to 29% for those who took the supplements regularly). However the article presented the 21% reduced rate for women over 60 but the story never reported the overall 12% rate. No mention made of other approaches to bone loss such as engaging in weight bearing exercise, or prescription medications to enhance bone building or inhibit bone resorption. This article reports on a study to test the common use of calcium by women to ensure bone health. Given the multiple sources cited, it does not appear this story was based solely on a news release


In January 2020, Paula White prayed for all "satanic pregnancies" to "miscarry right now.

Explanation: What's true: During a church service in January 2020, Paula White did say, "We command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now." What's false: She may have been speaking figuratively.

In January 2020, readers asked us about the accuracy of reports that claimed Paula White, a televangelist and spiritual adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, had prayed for “all satanic pregnancies to miscarry.” On Jan. 27, for example, Business Insider published an article with the headline “Paula White, a White House Employee and Trump’s Spiritual Advisor, Calls for ‘Satanic Pregnancies to Miscarry Right Now. '” That piece reported that: Paula White, a controversial televangelist who joined the White House in an official capacity last year, is arguing that the content of a sermon she delivered on January 5, which mentioned adversaries of President Donald Trump and soon after advocated for divine forces to cause the miscarriage of babies in “satanic wombs,” was taken out of context. In a video of the sermon posted by Right Wing Watch, a news outlet that “monitors and exposes the activities of Radical Right political organizations,” White can be heard mentioning adversaries of the president before calling on God to miscarry babies convinced by what she called “satanic wombs.”   Similar articles were published by CNN and TIME magazine. The 94-second video clip first emerged on the Twitter account of Right Wing Watch, on Jan. 24. The footage was then posted by Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimons, a left-leaning writer on religion, who captioned it as follows: “‘We command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now’ — Special Adviser to the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative Paula White.” In response to Graves-Fitzsimons tweet, White herself wrote: “I don’t normally respond but clearly this has been taken out of context. I was praying Eph 6:12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Anything that has been conceived by demonic plans, for it to be cancelled and not prevail in your life…” I don't normally respond but clearly this has been taken out of context. I was praying Eph 6:12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Anything that has been conceived by demonic plans, for it to be cancelled and not prevail in your life… https://t.co/tKEUs4muwZ — Paula White-Cain (@Paula_White) January 26, 2020  The clip appears to show White in the middle of a stream of pronouncements, invocations, and prayers during a service at her church, the New Destiny Christian Center, in Apopka, Florida. CNN reported that the service in question took place on Jan. 5, but as of Jan. 28, the original, full-length video was no longer available on the website or social media profiles of White or the church. Bearing in mind the video shows a 94-second excerpt from a much longer service, the following is a transcript of that segment: We interrupt that which has been deployed to hurt the church in this season, that which has been deployed to hurt this nation. In the name of Jesus, forgive us for our sins. Come on, I need you guys to pray. We cancel every surprise from the witchcraft [sic] and the marine kingdom — any hex, any spell, any witchcraft, any spirit of control, any Jezebel, anything that the enemy desires through spells, through witchcraft, through any way that is manipulation, demonic manipulation. We curse that. We break it, according to the word of God. In the name of Jesus, we come against the marine kingdom, we come against the animal kingdom, the woman who rides upon the waters. We break the power, in the name of Jesus, and we declare that any strange winds, any strange winds that have been sent to hurt the church, sent against this nation, sent against our president, sent against myself, sent against others — we break it by the superior blood of Jesus right now. In the name of Jesus, we arrest every infirmity, affliction, fatigue, weariness, weakness, fear, sickness, any self-righteousness, any self-serving action, God. Let pride fall, let pride fall, let pride fall, let pride fall, in the name of Jesus. We command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now. We declare that anything that’s been conceived in satanic wombs, that it will miscarry, it will not be able to carry forth any plan of destruction, any plan of harm … We put a series of questions about those remarks to Paula White Ministries, asking her to elaborate on her claim that she had been taken out of context, and also asking her to clarify whether she was referring literally to miscarriages, pregnancies, and wombs, or instead using figurative or symbolic language. We also asked her organization to share a copy of the full-length video of the service in question. Unfortunately, we received no response.


Johns Hopkins Hospital issued a "cancer update" detailing how cancer spreads and recommending methods for treating the disease.

Explanation: Interested readers are directed to a point-by-point debunking of the “Cancer Update” e-mail published by the Kimmel Cancer Center.

Just as urban legends and rumors eventually become attached to the most famous exemplars of the subjects they discuss (e.g., any fast food-related legend, no matter where it originates, will inevitably be told about McDonald’s), so do many of the spurious medical articles circulated on the Internet eventually become attributed to the world-renowned Johns Hopkins university, medical school, and hospitals. A putative “Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins Hospital” began as an e-mailed preface to another piece about the supposed dangers of using microwave ovens to heat food stored in plastic containers:  CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS HOSPITAL, US – PLEASE READ  1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size. 2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person’s lifetime. 3. When the person’s immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors. 4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors. 5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system. 6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc. 7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs. 8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction. 9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications. 10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites. 11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply. CANCER CELLS FEED ON: a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg’s aminos or sea salt. b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer cells are being starved. c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer. d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C). e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it. 12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup. 13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer cells. 14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body’s own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body’s normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells. 15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life. 16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells. Both of those articles were said to have originated with Johns Hopkins, but neither was issued by (or had any connection to) the Johns Hopkins university or hospital, and Johns Hopkins has disclaimed the contents of both:  Information falsely attributed to Johns Hopkins called, “CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS” describes properties of cancer cells and suggests ways of preventing cancer. Johns Hopkins did not publish the information, which often is an email attachment, nor do we endorse its contents. The email also contains an incorrect spelling of our institution as “John” Hopkins; whereas, the correct spelling is “Johns” Hopkins. Another hoax email that has been circulating since 2004 regarding plastic containers, bottles, wrap claiming that heat releases dioxins which cause cancer also was not published by Johns Hopkins. The web site of Johns Hopkins’ Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center also noted of the “Cancer Update” e-mail that:  It has become such a problem that the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, and individual cancer centers like the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have posted warnings on their Web sites. Emails offering easy remedies for avoiding and curing cancer are the latest Web-influenced trend. To gain credibility, the anonymous authors falsely attribute their work to respected research institutions like Johns Hopkins. This is the case with the so-called “Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins.” The gist of this viral email is that cancer therapies of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy do not work against the disease and people should instead choose a variety of dietary strategies. Traditional therapies, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, work. The evidence is the millions of cancer survivors in the United States today who are alive because of these therapies. We recognize that treatments don’t work in every patient, or sometimes work for awhile and then stop working, and there are some cancers that are more difficult to cure than others. These problems are the focus of ongoing cancer research.


Japan defends cautious approach on coronavirus testing amid concerns.

Explanation: Japan’s health ministry on Wednesday defended its cautious approach to coronavirus testing as domestic cases increased and South Korea prepared to test more than 200,000 members of a church at the heart of a surge in its outbreak.

Japan had 175 domestic cases of infection from the virus as of Wednesday evening, separate from 705 from a cruise liner quarantined near Tokyo early this month and 14 from returnees on charter flights from Wuhan, China, public broadcaster NHK said. The northern island of Hokkaido, the most affected area in Japan with 38 cases, reported another death while a Tokyo man in his 80s also died, bringing the country’s total fatalities to seven including four from the cruise liner. “We know that this virus will only spread even more and yet we can’t even get tested,” said one mother in Hokkaido’s Sapporo city, adding she hoped testing capacity would be expanded. Government guidelines say people should call designated hotlines for consultation on whether they should get tested if they have cold-like symptoms, a fever of 37.5 Celsius or extreme tiredness or breathing problems for four days or more. In the meantime, they should stay at home. The elderly, pregnant women or those with certain medical conditions that put them at risk should make the call if they have such symptoms for two or more days, the guidelines say. “The most important goal of testing is to test those with symptoms, especially the elderly or those with pre-existing conditions who are at risk of becoming seriously ill,” a health ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “I think there are people who are worried and want to be tested but ... that would overwhelm the capacity of medical facilities and we couldn’t treat those who need treatment.”  South Korea, besides testing members of the church at the center of a surge in cases, advises people to get tested if they have a fever or respiratory problems. Japan Medical Association President Yoshitake Yokokura told a news conference the group would investigate reports that people referred by doctors to local health centers for tests were being turned away due to manpower shortages, NHK said. Grilled in parliament by opposition party leader Yukio Edano, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said that 6,300 tests were conducted from Feb. 18 to 24 for an average of 900 per day, while up to 3,800 tests could be done daily. “There are many people who say they cannot be tested although their fever continues,” Edano said. “Our country’s resources are not being fully mobilized.”  Masahiro Kami, a doctor and head of the non-profit Medical Governance Research Institute, said the government should test more people sooner to prevent deaths. “They should test early and treat early but instead they are testing after people have pneumonia to confirm the virus,” Kami said. But some other independent experts agreed with the government approach. “It isn’t good to do tests just to ease public anxiety,” said Kentaro Iwata, an infectious disease specialist at Kobe University who this month criticized Japan’s handling of the virus-hit cruise liner. “If they test everyone with light symptoms, the medical system will puncture,” he said, adding authorities needed to do more to explain the guidelines and gain public understanding. (This story corrects paragraphs 5-6 to say guidelines are for people to call hotlines, not to get tested.)


Claims of virgin births in U.S. near 1 percent: study.

Explanation: Nearly 1 percent of young women in a U.S. study who have become pregnant claim to have done so as virgins, according to a report in the Christmas edition of Britain’s BMJ medical journal.

The authors of “Like a virgin (mother)” - whose prose is devoid of irony - say such scientifically impossible claims show researchers must use care in interpreting self-reported behavior. Fallible memory, beliefs and wishes can cause people to err in what they tell scientists. Based on interviews with 7,870 women and girls ages 15 to 28, 45 of the 5,340 pregnancies in this group through the years - 0.8 percent - occurred in women who reported that they conceived independent of men. The figure does not include pregnancies that result from in vitro fertilization or other assisted reproductive technology. Each year, the BMJ Christmas edition publishes untraditional science papers. In addition to the report on virgin pregnancies, the latest BMJ includes papers on whether there is a local baby boom nine months after home sports teams triumph (only a small one, but statistically significant) and whether an apple a day would keep the British doctor away (yes, saving about 8,500 lives in the United Kingdom each year, about as many as would expanding the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs to everyone over 50). For the study of putative virgin pregnancies, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill analyzed data from the thousands of teenage girls and young women who took part in the long-running National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The girls were 12 to 18 years old when they entered the study in the 1994-95 school year and were interviewed periodically about their health and behavior over 14 years, including via computer as a way to encourage them to be candid when answering questions about their sexual history. The 45 women and girls who became pregnant despite, according to what they told interviewers, being virgins at the time of conception differed in several ways from peers who acknowledged that men had had a role in their procreation. Of those who said they became pregnant as virgins, 31 percent also said they had signed chastity pledges; 15 percent of nonvirgins who became pregnant said they had signed such pledges, in which a girl vows not to have sex until she marries. The 45 self-described virgins who reported having become pregnant and the 36 who gave birth were also more likely than nonvirgins to say their parents never or rarely talked to them about sex and birth control. About 28 percent of the “virgin” mothers’ parents (who were also interviewed) indicated they didn’t have enough knowledge to discuss sex and contraception with their daughters, compared to 5 percent of the parents of girls who became pregnant and said they had had intercourse. The ostensibly chaste mothers were also less likely to know how to use condoms, according to the report. UNC biostatistician Amy Herring and public health expert Carolyn Halpern led the group. The researchers found that although the mothers in question were more likely to have boys than girls, and to be pregnant during the weeks leading up to Christmas, neither similarity to the Virgin Mary was statistically significant.


Mobile clinics seen as way to cut U.S. health bill.

Explanation: Every Monday afternoon, a 40-foot (12-meter) motorhome converted to serve as a mobile health clinic pulls into Boston’s gritty Roxbury neighborhood and opens its doors to people like Angie Santiago.

Client Julius Wayne Dudley (L) reacts as volunteer Jeffrey Pierre-Paul picks his finger for a cholesterol test in the Family Van in Boston, Massachusetts August 9, 2010. REUTERS/Brian Snyder “I work from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. I don’t have time to go to the hospital. Here I can just walk in,” the 34-year-old teacher’s assistant said recently as she waited during her lunch break for a test. “I have kids to support. I can’t afford to take a day off from work.”   Santiago is one of some 3,000 people each year who visit the Family Van for free checks of their blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol level. The nonprofit clinic affiliated with Harvard University provides simple tests that can give an early warning of an impending health problem or help manage an existing condition, such as diabetes. The van — which visits six low-income neighborhoods around Boston weekly — is one of about 2,000 such mobile clinics in the United States. Advocates say the approach can help control the rising cost of health care by helping people with chronic diseases to stay out of the emergency room, often the first recourse for inner-city residents. “Our medical system in this country is focused on illness. What we are doing is helping people when they’re sick,” said Jennifer Bennet, executive director of the Family Van, which is backed by Harvard Medical School. “It would be a lot less expensive and people’s quality of life would be vastly improved if we as a society and as a country start to look at addressing these problems long before they get to that acute stage.”   The United States spends some $2.5 trillion on health care each year. That works out to about 15 percent of gross domestic product, considerably higher than any other developed economy, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. A growing number of clinics like the Family Van operate in the United States, according to the Mobile Health Clinics Network, which has been tracking clinic numbers for six years and finds more each time it conducts its informal census. “There is no doubt about it, it’s growing,” said Darien DeLorenzo, executive director of the San Francisco-based group. The mobile clinics are largely nonprofit and most provide general medical care, though smaller numbers specialize in dentistry or mammography. Many urban clinics keep budgets tight by relying on healthcare educators and students as staff, referring patients to doctors or hospitals when more is needed. Their rural counterparts more frequently have doctors and nurses on board, to serve communities without health care facilities. The Family Van estimates that every dollar it spends on its operations pays off $36 in economic benefits, including the effect of averting nonemergency visits to hospital emergency rooms and the value of the tests it provides. The average visit to the Family Van costs $117, versus $923 for a nonemergency visit to a hospital emergency room, according to an analysis by the clinic, Harvard Medical School and other experts. These programs can also help push the nation’s overall medical tab down by alerting people to nascent health problems before they become critical, advocates said. “When you’re serving the underserved, healthcare is a luxury,” said Kathy Ficco, executive director of community health at the St. Joseph Mobile Health Clinic in Rohnert Park, California, which operates a similar clinic. “Their main focus is food and shelter ... It’s not until a problem creates pain or suffering that they will seek care.”   A visit to the Family Van can take as little as seven minutes, though staffers will spend as much as 45 minutes with people who have questions about their conditions. “Going to the hospital takes a long time,” said Badshah Rahman, 38, who stopped in on an August afternoon for a regular blood pressure check. “This is really easy.”   Many of the Family Van’s patients are regular visitors who drop in every few weeks. That level of frequency may be the clinics’ greatest benefit. “What you need there is ongoing monitoring of folks with chronic conditions and to the extent they don’t have that kind of ongoing monitoring in the traditional health care system, the van fills in that gap ... that’s terrific,” said Michael Sparer, chair of the department of health policy and management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Still, he noted, clinics staffed by educators cannot provide the same level of care as a visit to a doctor. “They are a stopgap solution,” Sparer said. Even in Massachusetts, where a law passed in 2006 requires almost every resident to have health insurance, many inner-city residents turn to hospital emergency rooms first. This is a problem that may play out across the United States in the wake of the healthcare reform law, which aims to extend health insurance to 32 million uninsured Americans. “Everybody has a doctor on paper but they can’t get in,” the Family Van’s Bennet said. “The number of doctors hasn’t changed, just the number of people who have insurance.”


Chance the Rapper giving $1M to boost mental health services.

Explanation: Chance the Rapper says he’s donating $1 million to help improve mental health services in Chicago.

Mental health, Chicago, Chance the Rapper, Entertainment, Illinois, Health, North America, Music

The Chicago native made the announcement Thursday during a summit for his nonprofit organization SocialWorks , saying those involved “want to change the way that mental health resources are being accessed.” Six mental health providers in Cook County will each get $100,000 grants and SocialWorks is starting an initiative called “My State of Mind” to help connect people with treatment. Members of the Illinois Department of Human Services and the Chicago Department of Public Health were on hand for the announcement. Also Thursday, the rapper whose real name is Chancelor Bennett, announced plans to give money to 20 additional Chicago Public Schools. His nonprofit has given millions to Chicago schools in recent years .


New nonprofit tackles COVID-19 in Native, rural communities.

Explanation: A new public health advocacy organization in Montana is targeting the needs of rural and Native communities responding to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Health, General News, Montana, Virus Outbreak, Public health, Steve Bullock

The nonprofit, called We Are Montana, was started by Cora Neumann, a public health expert who ran for U.S. Senate earlier this year, the Helena Independent Record reports. Neumann, as a first-time candidate, raised more than $643,840 and left about $200,600 in the bank when she dropped out of the race upon the entrance of Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock. She’s now using some of that money to kick-start the organization, which will serve as a public health information and training hub for rural and Native communities in the state. “Getting timely and comprehensive public health information to local leaders makes a huge difference in a community’s ability to respond, and to not respond from fear but grounded knowledge,” Neumann said Wednesday. While Neumann said the state has done a good job of getting information out in the immediate response to COVID-19, the focus needs to shift to building a strong public health infrastructure to prepare for any potential surges in cases going forward and help people adapt to the new normal. “There’s the immediate response and then there’s the long-term mitigation and control and management,” Neumann said. ” … We should have a public health infrastructure that’s strong enough to handle something like this without having to shut the economy down. There is a real tension and concern between shutting down the economy as a pandemic mitigation tool.” As the state begins to lift some of the regulations it had in place, Neumann said rural and Native communities remain at acute risk in part because of existing challenges around sufficient access to health care, the prevalence of preexisting conditions and lack of economic resources that come with their own host of health side effects. We Are Montana will hold regular meetings on policy and to strengthen connections around the state. Neumann said the organization will also conduct a public health assessment with local and county-level leaders in frontier, small and medium-size communities, in partnership with the Montana Public Health Association. In addition to working with local public health leaders, We Are Montana is partnering with organizations like Western Native Voice. Among early efforts of the project will be a COVID-19 relief fund, an effort led by Western Native Voice. The relief fund has a goal of raising $50,000 to help tribal nationals in Montana meet immediate needs and acquire supplies such as personal protective equipment, food and medication. One of the first things identified is a need for water heaters in homes on some tribal nations, said Marci McLean, the executive director of Western Native Voice. The heightened need for hand-washing has shown how many homes lack sufficient hot water. Other pressing needs are masks, gloves and cleaning supplies. Money should also be directed toward medication delivery, McLean said. With the Indian Health Service limiting how many people can enter facilities at a time or the need for self-isolation, getting medications to those who need them can be a problem. Another reason Indian Country faces challenges from COVID-19 are the high number of people who can share a single house and the frequency of several generations living under one roof. “Where do you go isolate? We don’t have the luxury of having a camper trailer in our driveway or vacant house or vacant room,” McLean said. “We need to provide isolation space should we have an outbreak on one of our tribal nations.” McLean said while COVID-19 comes with its own set of challenges, it’s also putting a bright spotlight on ongoing, long-term problems Indian Country has faced. “One Band-Aid covers up one issue but it doesn’t cover up the root cause,” McLean said. “A long-term accomplishment I would like to see is getting to those root causes, addressing those root causes and having that long-term plan from a public health perspective to address the root causes of the disparities in our communities. We have root causes that are being exposed and we’re talking about how to address them at a broader level than just small pockets of people in some communities talking about them.”


VW ramps up China electric car factories, taking aim at Tesla.

Explanation: Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) is ramping up production of electric cars to around 1 million vehicles by end of 2022, according to manufacturing plans seen by Reuters, enabling the German carmaker to leapfrog Tesla Inc and making China the key battleground.

Volkswagen is readying two Chinese factories to build electric cars next year. The Chinese plants will have a production capacity of 600,000 vehicles, according to Volkswagen’s plans, which have not been previously reported - revealing VW’s ability to industrialise production faster than other pioneers in the electric vehicle market. Tesla is still trying to reach its goal of making more than 500,000 cars a year by building a new factory in Shanghai, China, while VW can rely on an established workforce in two of its plants in Anting and Foshun to build zero-emission cars. The scale and speed of VW’s electrification push marks a shift in favour of established manufacturers that can use existing factories and profit from combustion-engined sport  utility vehicles (SUVs) to scale up faster than startups. “The truth is barriers to entry in autos remain high,” said Max Warburton, an analyst at Bernstein Research. “Making cars is hard. The move to electric vehicles will be expensive, but will probably be led by traditional manufacturers.”   VW is leveraging its large infrastructure of suppliers, factories and workers, long a handicap to its profitability, more aggressively than rivals BMW, Renault SA, General Motors Co and Tesla, which were all quicker to sell a custom-designed electric car. Rather than adjusting production gradually, and using multi-powertrain platforms, Volkswagen is making a massive bet on a dedicated electric vehicle architecture, known as MEB, in the hope of increasing economies of scale sufficiently to push down the price of electric cars to around 20,000 euros ($22,262). The Wolfsburg, Germany-based carmaker is retooling eight plants across the globe by 2022 to specialise in manufacturing electric cars, and license its electric MEB platform to rivals, senior VW executives told Reuters, putting it on track to become the world’s largest maker of zero-emission vehicles. Tesla has emerged as a serious competitor with a credible car, its Model 3, Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess told Reuters last week. But startups have a hard time entering mass production without sufficient production facilities, he said. “The question is, can you expand your production quickly enough? The capital intensity is increasing,” Diess said. To fund its own electrification shift, the German carmaker aims to increase sales of VW SUVs, with combustion engines, to 40% of overall sales by 2020 from 23% in 2018. The powerstation that supplies energy for VW’s flagship e-vehicle factory in Zwickau, Germany, marked by two tall chimneys, was built to power production of the combustion-engined Volkswagen Golf. Now Zwickau can piggyback off this infrastructure to ramp up production to 330,000 VW ID electric cars by 2021. Volkswagen Group will increase economies of scale by rolling out electric vehicle platforms to its Audi, Skoda and Seat and Porsche brands. Volkswagen Group will be in a position to build 22 million electric cars by 2028, of which 11.6 million could come out of Chinese factories, VW said. For a graphic version of story "Global automakers invest in electric vehicles", click: tmsnrt.rs/2Hcr3H4  VW’s expansion push comes at a time when investors have started to question businesses delivering growth without real profit, a change in sentiment that is crippling the ability of several electric car pioneers to raise more cash. Back in 2016, Tesla said it wanted to build more than 500,000 Model 3 cars by 2018, a goal it has failed to meet. This year it expects to deliver 360,000 to 400,000 cars, a target that includes selling all models. Tesla’s struggles have dampened optimism about how easy it is to enter the car business, making it harder for China’s NIO, backed by internet company Tencent Holdings Ltd, as well as others like Faraday Future and Byton Ltd, to fund the next stage of growth: capital-intensive volume production and sales. “So much respect for those doing high volume manufacturing, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted earlier this month. “It’s insanely hard, but you make a real thing that people value. My hat is off to you.”   After starting trial production runs at its factory in Shanghai, Tesla now hopes to reach its 500,000-vehicle  target in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2020. Tesla is also looking for a site to start production in Europe. Volkswagen is converting two German plants, Hanover and Zwickau, to build electric vehicles and will retool other factories including plants in China: Foshan which VW runs together with its joint-venture partner FAW-Volkswagen, and another in Anting, which VW runs together with SAIC. It will retool plants in Emden and Dresden in Germany, Mlada Boleslav in the Czech Republic, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, in United States, as part of a 30 billion-euro ($33.24 billion)investment push into e-mobility by 2023. As a result, Volkswagen Group will be the No. 1 electric vehicle producer globally by 2025, while Tesla is likely to remain a niche player, according to UBS autos analyst Patrick Hummel. The cutthroat rivalry between automakers and software companies started when Alphabet Inc’s Google presented a prototype autonomous vehicle in 2012, leading analysts and industry executives to fear a so-called Nokia moment. This occurs when a new player from the tech sector unveils a superior design, in the way that Apple Inc presented the iPhone in 2007, ending Nokia’s dominance of the mobile handset business. Today, Tesla’s cars are generally perceived as cutting-edge and potentially more sophisticated than VW’s. Volkswagen’s ID.3,  which starts production this year, has an operating range of between 330 and 550 kilometers (205 to 341 miles), below the 560 km long-range Model 3 version offered by Tesla. That is because Tesla has a sophisticated software algorithm to control how much electricity goes to the electric motor, air conditioning, seat heaters, in-car infotainment, and cooling system. Volkswagen’s edge is more blunt: price and massive economies of scale. The ID.3 has a starting price of under 30,000 euros  ($33,363) in Germany. By contrast, Tesla’s Model 3 had an average selling price of $50,000 in the second quarter. The long-range version retails for 52,390 euros in Germany. The VW vehicle’s lower price comes from the carmaker’s ability to place large orders which, by nature of their size, help drive down the price. Volkswagen is investing 50 billion euros ($55.5 billion) to buy battery cells and will also license its MEB electric car platform to rival carmakers to further increase economies of scale. That is, Volkswagen will make that huge investment if suppliers can keep up. “There is a lot of investment,” Stefan Sommer, Volkswagen Group’s board member responsible for procurement, told Reuters last month. “But even the big companies like Samsung, CATL, LG Chem, the big guys, SK, they hesitate to take so much money and invest because they are not seeing the market on the other side.”   “We are now seeing the first battery plants, LG in Poland, CATL in Germany, they don’t have the skilled workforce. That will be the bottleneck,” Sommer said. “It’s a learning curve everybody has to work through. This will cause some lags in supply. We have no other choice.”  VW plans to license its electric MEB vehicle platform to rival Ford Motor Co, which will give VW $10 billion in revenue over the next six years. Thomas Ulbrich, Volkswagen’s member of the board who oversees production of electric vehicles, told Reuters, “Ford and Volkswagen’s agreement will be a blueprint for further licensing deals.”   In the short term, Volkswagen and its Chinese joint venture partners will invest 15 billion euros to produce 15 different electric cars for China alone by 2025. “The first MEB-based vehicle is an SUV model,” Volkswagen said about its China push. For a graphic version of story "Global automakers invest in electric vehicles", click: tmsnrt.rs/2Hcr3H4


Britain gives scientist go-ahead to genetically modify human embryos.

Explanation: Scientists in Britain have been give the go-ahead to edit the genes of human embryos for research purposes, using a technique that some say could eventually be used to create “designer babies”.

Less than a year after Chinese scientists caused an international furor by saying they had genetically modified human embryos, Kathy Niakan, a stem cell scientist from London’s Francis Crick Institute, was granted a license to carry out similar experiments. “The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has approved a research application from the Francis Crick Institute to use new ‘gene editing’ techniques on human embryos,” Niakan’s lab said on Monday. It said the work carried out “will be for research purposes and will look at the first seven days of a fertilized egg’s development, from a single cell to around 250 cells”. The scientists will not be allowed to develop the modified embryos for clinical purposes or implant them into any women. Niakan plans to carry out her experiments using what is known as CRISPR-Cas9, a technology that is already the subject of fierce international debate because of fears that it could be used to create babies to order. CRISPR can enable scientists to find and modify or replace genetic defects. Many experts have called it “game-changing”. David King, director of the UK campaign group Human Genetics Alert, said Niakan’s plans would eventually lead to “a future of consumer eugenics”. “This research will allow the scientists to refine the techniques for creating GM babies,” he said in a statement. But Sarah Norcross, director of Progress Educational Trust, which campaigns for ethically sound research in genetics, said the HFEA’s decision was “a victory for level-headed regulation over moral panic”. Niakan says she has no intention of genetically altering embryos for use in human reproduction, but wants to deepen scientific understanding of how a healthy human embryo develops, something that could, in the long term, help to improve infertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF). The work will be carried out on embryos that have become surplus to donor patients IVF treatment. At a briefing for reporters in London last month, she said the first gene she planned to target was one called Oct4, which she believes may have a crucial role in the earliest stages of human fetal development. Bruce Whitelaw, a professor of animal biotechnology at Edinburgh University’s Roslin Institute on Scotland, said the HFEA’s decision had been reached “after robust assessment”. “This project, by increasing our understanding of how the early human embryo develops and grows, will add to the basic scientific knowledge needed for devising strategies to assist infertile couples and reduce the anguish of miscarriage,” he said in an emailed comment.