U.S. men less likely to heed health warnings as coronavirus death toll mounts: Reuters Poll.

Explanation: As America converts itself into a nation of shut-ins, one group appears to be less interested than others in following the ever-lengthening list of health tips aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic: men.

According to a March 18-24 Reuters/Ipsos poll, U.S. men are clearly taking the coronavirus less seriously than women, who are more likely to support aggressive steps to combat the virus, as well as take personal, proactive measures such as avoiding physical contact and washing their hands more often. And while U.S. men are nearly as likely as women to say they are familiar with the virus that has killed more than 1,100 Americans, the national poll of nearly 4,500 American adults found that they were more likely to dismiss its potential to hurt them. This gender gap is woven throughout American society: it is clear among men and women of the same race, political persuasion and community type. For example, 54% of women said they were “very concerned” about the virus compared with 45% of men. Women were also much more likely to make big changes to their daily routines, according to the poll, which showed 73% of women reported washing their hands more often and using disinfectants more frequently, compared with 60% of men. Seventy-two percent of women say they have been avoiding large public gatherings, 14 percentage points higher than men, and 65% of women said they are now avoiding close physical contact with others, which is 9 points higher than men. Mieke Beth Thomeer, a sociology professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said women tend to be disproportionately responsible for “kinkeeping” such as checking on parents and grandparents whose health is now at risk. “They are more likely to call their grandmother at the nursing home or have to figure out what store to go to to find toilet paper, or figure out future meals based only on what’s currently in the pantry,” Thomeer said. “Then added to this, is that women do more childcare to begin with, and so the closing of schools is more impactful – and more likely alarming – for women.”   When respondents were asked what the U.S. government should do to slow the spread of the virus, women were more likely than men to support some of the most aggressive restrictions, such as nighttime curfews, bans on public gatherings, and halting all public transportation and overseas flights. For example, 58% of women supported closing all public schools, compared with 52% of men. A sizable minority of men appeared to be more cavalier than women about the potential of the coronavirus to harm them. Twenty-five percent of men said they “strongly agree” that people are “unnecessarily panicking”, compared with 18% of women. Similarly, men are more likely than women to strongly agree that the media is creating panic about something that “isn’t really a big deal for most people.”  As U.S. authorities tell residents to stay at home and limit all but essential healthcare, the directives aimed at saving lives have hit women particularly hard, according to patients and healthcare providers. While about the same number of men and women said they were familiar with the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, men were less likely to show they understood how it spreads. The virus has infected people in all 50 states, with at least 82,000 positive cases so far recorded, the highest number in New York state, followed by New Jersey then California. Yet 32% of men said that the virus is “mostly a problem for people who travel a lot”, compared with 23% of women. And 28% of men said the virus is “mostly a problem for people who live in urban areas”, versus 17% of women. Sara Mohr, 22, of Mountain View, California, told Reuters in an interview that her boyfriend’s idea of stockpiling medicine was handing her two packs of DayQuil cold and flu capsules and telling her, “We’re fine.”  “Does social distancing include changing the locks so I don’t have to come into contact with my boyfriend who is not taking the Coronavirus as seriously as me?” Mohr mused on Twitter two weeks ago. Celia Gisleson, 24, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said she has had to get back to basics with her boyfriend, including showing him that washing hands also means washing his thumbs. “I clean and wipe down everything and for him, he’s just kind of like, ‘It’s fine, it is what it is,’” she said. Click here to see the full poll results: reut.rs/2JbXeVB and reut.rs/3aibesK


Washington state deals blow to plan for coal export terminal.

Explanation: A company that wants to build and operate a large terminal to export coal from the western U.S. to Asia was denied a key permit by Washington state on Tuesday because of environmental concerns.

Longview, Washington, Wyoming, North America, Environment, Environmental concerns, Montana, Science, Water quality, Air quality, Pollution

The Department of Ecology rejected a water quality permit that Millennium Bulk Terminals sought because the proposed facility near the city of Longview would have caused “significant and unavoidable harm” to the environment. The department cited effects to air quality, noise pollution and tribal resources, among others. “There are simply too many unavoidable and negative environmental effects for the project to move forward,” Ecology Director Maia Bellon said in a statement. Millennium Bulk Terminals has long hoped to build a facility along the Columbia River to handle up to 44 million tons of coal a year. Trains would carry the coal from Montana, Wyoming and other states, which would be loaded onto ships headed to Asia. William Chapman, the president and CEO of Millennium, said the company will appeal the decision and expects “a fairer and more consistent interpretation of the law.” “Multiple recent decisions by the agency seem biased against the Longview community, and particularly blind to the need for employment opportunities in Cowlitz County,” he said in a written statement. Environmentalists, tribes and others have fiercely opposed the project — which could increase U.S. exports of coal by 40 percent — because of concerns about global warming, coal dust pollution and potential damage to fisheries on the river. Several of those groups lauded Tuesday’s decision. “The state did the right thing today, standing up for clean water, public health and the Pacific Northwest’s iconic endangered salmon runs,” Power Past Coal co-director Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky said in a statement. Businesses, some labor groups and other supporters say the project would create jobs, add tax revenue and boost the local economy. The governor of Wyoming, the nation’s leading coal-producing state, previously traveled to the Pacific Northwest to pitch the importance of coal exports to the governors of Washington and Oregon. Kris Johnson, president of the Association of Washington Business, criticized the process that led to the decision, saying that the project has faced “unprecedented regulatory hurdles.” “We need companies to invest in manufacturing, construction and infrastructure to support trade,” he wrote in a prepared statement. “Instead of turning away investment, our leaders should be encouraging responsible growth.” Montana’s attorney general said he plans to review the decision to make sure the law has been followed. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said that despite Washington’s decision, “Wyoming will continue to work towards a plan that allows for the safe transportation of coal through coastal ports.” An environmental review released in April by Washington’s ecology department and Cowlitz County analyzed potential harm to fish habitat, wetlands, water quality, local communities and more. Of 23 environmental areas, 19 would face harmful effects, and some could not be offset or reduced, officials said at the time. The review found that coal dust pollution from trains would not be major because emissions levels would be below state and federal standards, but pollution from locomotives would raise the cancer risk for one low-income neighborhood. Residents also would see more noise and traffic delays at rail crossings without a quiet zone or other measures, the study said. At full capacity, the project would add 16 more trains through the area and increase the number of ships by 1,680 a year. Gov. Jay Inslee said he was confident that state ecology officials “based their decision on sound science and in accordance with the law.” “It’s absolutely critical that all projects — particularly of this scale — undergo an objective and extensive review that ensures they are able to meet the standards necessary for protecting our land, air and water,” he said in an emailed statement. ___ Associated Press writers Phuong Le in Seattle, Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana and Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming contributed.


A report of a 7-year-old girl who got breast implants has stirred controversy.

Explanation: 7-year-old Girl Gets Breast Implants

False reports of a 7-year0ld girl who got breast implants can be traced back to a well-known fake news website. The story appeared at World News Daily report under the headline, “7-year-old Girl Receives Breast Implants for Christmas,” in early February 2017. The report claims that a woman named Dana Mason took her 7-year-old daughter, Juliet, to China have the breast implant procedure done: They left for China on December 22, and the surgery was performed two days later. According to the clinic, the operation took less than two hours and went exactly as planned. The young girl now has a 30C cup, and her mother says she’s “extremely happy about her about her new breasts”. The story was widely shared on social media and re-reported by other fake news outlets (in one version Juliet was supposedly 8-yeas-old when she got breast implants). Many people reacted to the story without checking its source, which its disclaimer clearly states is a fake news website that “assumes however all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content.” The rouse about the 7-year-old girl wasn’t a new one, either. In 2014, well-known fake news website Empire News reported that a 10-year-old girl had traveled to Mexico to receive breast implants. That report was also fake. In 1998, there was a factual report published by the U.K.’s Independent newspaper about a 12-year-old girl receiving breast implants. But the procedure was scheduled to correct a deformity in the girl’s chest that had caused her a lot of distress, her surgeon said: “One breast has not developed. On one side she has an A cup and on the other a D cup. She has a problem that she is very upset about,” said Douglas McGeorge, who works for both the public and private sector. “She won’t go out. She won’t go into changing rooms at school. She won’t do sport. She won’t undress in front of friends. Another U.K. family drew scrutiny in 2001 when they made plans for their 16-year-old daughter to get breast implants for a birthday present, the Guardian reports: Jenna, of Warsop Vale, near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, said she had been thinking about breast enlargement since she was 12. She insisted yesterday: “You’ve got to have breasts to be successful. “Every other person you see on television has had implants. I used to pray that my boobs would grow. Then I just thought, what’s the point when I can have implants when I want?” She will be 16 in August. “I just want to be happy with my body and I think having my breasts enlarged will give me more self-confidence.” Her father Martin said he and his wife had been in the plastic surgery industry for a number of years, “so all our children have grown up with plastic surgery. They don’t see anything wrong with it and neither do we”. So, over the last 20 years, stories about children getting breast implants have generated plenty of controversy and attention. That’s probably why clickbait and fake news websites have used false reports like the one about a 7-year-old girl getting breast implants to generate traffic. Comments


Images shared in March 2020 showed a convoy of military trucks transporting bodies away from an over-subscribed crematorium in Bergamo, Italy.

Explanation: — Alessandro Zanoni (@AlexZan87) March 19, 2020

In March 2020, video footage emerged online that reportedly showed Italian army trucks transporting coffins due to overcrowding at a local crematorium. It was a stark and tragic illustration of the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country. We received multiple inquiries from readers about the videos, which were featured in various news articles describing the footage as showing military trucks transporting coffins away from a crematorium in the northern city of Bergamo, because the local death rate from the virus had exceeded its capacity. Tragically, those descriptions were accurate, and the videos did indeed show just such an appalling scenario. Eugenio Iafrate, a resident of Bergamo, posted the following video to Twitter on March 18, along with the caption, “Bergamo this evening. Army truck transporting coffins.” Bergamo questa sera. Camion dell’esercito per trasportare bare. pic.twitter.com/YryHjVXaza — Eugenio Iafrate (@IafrateEugenio) March 18, 2020  That footage later formed the basis of a report published by BBC News. The Italian army takes coffins away in Bergamo as morgues and cemeteries struggle to cope with the number of #coronavirus deaths. Latest in Europe: https://t.co/sAASNXPTjz pic.twitter.com/qaIcXgpXSj — BBC World Service (@bbcworldservice) March 19, 2020  We cross-referenced using Google Maps; based on the “PizziKotto” restaurant shown in the video and its proximity to a gas station and green space, the footage appears to have been recorded on Via Borgo Palazzo in Bergamo, a northern Italian city located around 30 miles east of Milan. Another widely-shared still image posted to Twitter was originally published by the Italian news agency ANSA, which quoted provincial national police (Carabinieri) Colonel Paolo Storini as saying: “Unfortunately, the increased number of deaths has brought about an increased number of bodies,  which clearly the [Bergamo] cemeteries could not handle.” Storini said he hoped images of the tragic transport operation would serve as a stark reminder to anyone going out in public too much or “not respecting the rules coming from civil and health authorities.” My blood has frozen in my veins. The air has been punched out of my lungs. Italian Army transports ~60 bodies from overwhelmed Bergamo to Modena and Bologna for cremation. #Covid19 pic.twitter.com/7iGc5VtuRC — Dr Elisabetta (@ViralRNA) March 18, 2020  Another widely-shared video, posted to Twitter on March 19, showed the same army-led transport of coffins. It was captured very close to the site of Iafrate’s footage on Via Borgo Palazzo: A #Bergamo hanno dovuto chiamare l'esercito per caricare camion e camion di bare da destinare a crematori fuori regione. Prima di lamentarvi della proroga del #lockdown riguardatevi sto video in loop.#coronavirusitalia pic.twitter.com/ofR1raGVTb


12 Minutes of Yoga for Better Bone Health

Explanation: This is a thorough and balanced report of research into the effects of yoga on bone density. While yoga provides a range of potential health benefits including increased flexibility, balance and strength (all factors which can help prevent falls and fractures), the researchers focused specifically on whether a 12 minute per day yoga routine could increase bone density. Although improvements were found after a decade of research, helpful caveats about the limitations of the study (lack of a control group, self-reported nature of the study) kept it away from the realm of exaggeration. Yoga is hugely popular and growing in importance, so understanding the specific effects of daily practice of yoga could influence current thinking about its role in disease prevention and health promotion. If a specific effect of yoga on bone density is likely then possibly reducing fracture risk through daily yoga practice could be a viable alternative to ingesting bisphosphonate drugs. As the article mentions, these drugs are widely prescribed for osteoporosis and are frequently toxic to the gastrointestinal system as well as having other numerous serious adverse effects.

While the article did not specifically state how much it costs to do a 12 minute yoga session everyday, one can assume it is relatively inexpensive and cost is not really an issue here. Where it becomes an issue is when yoga practitioners attend expensive classes, feel compelled to buy expensive yoga accessories, travel to India to spend time with yoga gurus, and generally spend lots of personal time practicing it, all which could lead to considerable costs. The story notes, “The findings, as reported last month in Topics of Geriatric Rehabilitation, showed improved bone density in the spine and femur of the 227 participants who were moderately or fully compliant with the assigned yoga exercises.” [emphasis ours] What exactly does that mean? How much did bone density improve? Did all 227 subjects see improvement or was the improvement seen in aggregate? There is a big difference between the two and the common take away would be that all saw improvements, which is far from the reality. We also would like to know why only 227 out of 741 original enrollees are reported on. How many of the remaining 500+ participants dropped out? Research study dropout is an important factor as it gives us some idea of the tolerability or acceptability of the ‘treatment.’ The story provides insight into the downsides of bisphosphonate therapy but says nothing about the potential dangers of yoga. It is true that, done correctly, yoga is not likely to produce significant injuries. However, the subjects in the study were not supervised nor was their positioning for each of the poses determined. Incorrect alignment can cause joint strain and joint and injury. In fact, the Times itself has previously reported that yoga can wreck your body! Appropriate caveats about the lack of control group and the fact the study was among self-selected volunteers (perhaps a hint of ‘healthy-people bias’) were helpful. Other limitations of the research, such as the dependence on self-reporting of the participants’ daily yoga practice (people often either forget or give socially appropriate responses in surveys) could have been discussed. No evident disease mongering in this story, except to say that osteoporosis and it’s precursor osteopenia are often heavily mongered diseases simply because bone density is one of many risk factors for hip fractures (that is treatable with drugs) but it is not the most important one. In fact, some argue that bone density is such a low predictor for hip fractures it is worthless as a measure of bone health and simply shouldn’t be employed. Dr. Fishman invested a ‘significant chunk’ of his own money into the research and we appreciate that the story put that financial interest out in the open. Apart from the selling of the DVDs used, it hard to imagine how there could be a significant financial gain from the study. However, given that investment, it wold have been valuable to have comments from others in the field speaking to the study results and the basic premise entailed. This kind of research might be more influenced by more subtle intellectual conflicts of interest, where the researchers are intellectually identified with an idea (yoga=good) and would have difficulty accepting alternative hypotheses. The lack of a control group becomes somewhat problematic as it is possible that a similar group of non-yoga performing people would also see increases in their bone density. The article mentions the tolerability of osteoporosis drugs, though the study wasn’t a comparison between the two. While the study didn’t examine this, comparing yoga’s effects against alternative weight-bearing exercise forms (running, walking) might merit a mention. Yoga is everywhere (the phrase ’12 important yoga poses’ gives 6.2 million hits on google). The report doesn’t make any claims for novelty where none exists. The overall benefits of yoga are fairly well-established, even if those benefits may not be strictly ‘evidence-based’. What is ‘new’ is the research trying to demonstrate effects of yoga on a single parameter (bone density) and we think the researchers should be lauded for trying to apply some rigor to answering these kinds of specific questions. There is no evidence of reliance on a news release


Complacency a concern as AIDS treatment improves in Africa.

Explanation: AIDS has no cure. HIV is still here. But some people are forgetting that.

Uganda, Health, General News, East Africa, Africa, Epidemics, United Nations, International News

Those are some of the bold messages Uganda’s leader is emphasizing as health officials try to stem stubbornly high infection rates among young people in this East African country that years ago won praise as a global leader in fighting the epidemic. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the region most affected, fewer people are dying from AIDS as treatment is more widely available and patients live normally. Yet some officials and activists worry that success may be encouraging a sense of complacency. The head of HIV prevention at Uganda’s AIDS agency, Dr. Daniel Byamukama, recently asked leaders of a popular church that organizes a retreat for young people to give him 20 minutes to make a presentation about AIDS. They turned him down, saying “AIDS is common sense” these days. Many young people believe “HIV is gone,” he told The Associated Press. In Uganda and neighboring Kenya, countries with two of the world’s highest AIDS rates, campaigners point to lower-than-satisfactory HIV testing rates among adult men, early sexual experiences among many adolescents, inadequate knowledge of HIV and reproductive health and even what UNAIDS calls “a crippling fear of buying condoms” among many Ugandans. Now Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who earned praise in the 1980s for his government’s openness in public campaigns against HIV, believes officials have focused too much on treatment in recent years and wants them to speak simply to young people with messages noting that “HIV is here with us.” An estimated 500 Ugandans die weekly from AIDS-related illnesses. “Why are you in a hurry to have sex at 16, at 18, at 20 and then you die, or you start having problems which you may live with all your life? Why don’t you wait, hold on, you study, finish your degree and then look for a partner at the right time?” Museveni says in a video released as part of a new campaign backed by UNAIDS, a United Nations agency. More than 37 million people were living with HIV worldwide in 2018, with Africa accounting for nearly one in every 25 adults infected with the virus, according to the World Health Organization. Africa’s young people, especially girls, are among the worst affected. Girls made up 79% of new HIV infections in people ages 10 to 19 in East and southern Africa in 2017, according to UNAIDS. More than 90% of deaths worldwide from AIDS-related illness among adolescents occurred in sub-Saharan Africa in 2017, UNAIDS says. And infection rates among young people likely will rise as Africa experiences a youth boom, with its population of over 1.2 billion expected to double by 2050, according to the UK-based AIDS charity Avert. Health authorities and campaigners in Uganda, with over 70% of its population under age 30, say the fear factor once associated with HIV has dissipated, partly encouraging risky sexual behavior. Only 9% of men aged between 30 and 44 used a condom when they had extramarital sex in 2018, according to official statistics showing a declining rate of condom use. That’s a shift from the past. Uganda, with its ABC strategy — for abstinence, faithfulness and condom use — brought the HIV rate there from 18% in 1992 to under 10% by 2005. Although the HIV rate now stands at just over 6%, the population has soared from 15 million in 1986 to over 42 million today, and in some parts of the country the rate is higher than the national average. “A lot of the young people, now adolescents, were not old enough to see the old HIV, how aggressive it was,” said Dr. Nelson Musoba, chief of the Uganda AIDS Commission. “We are telling them that ... if you are not an adult, please abstain.” Ugandan students of a certain generation often were shown videos of the devastating toll of AIDS on the body and then told to postpone the first act of intercourse. That bluntness was widely seen as effective in discouraging risky sexual behavior. Rubaramira Ruranga, a Ugandan campaigner who has lived with HIV for 35 years, said it is clear the current view of AIDS as just another chronic disease partly encourages risky behavior as people know there is medicine one can take shortly after sexual contact to prevent HIV. “There is this thing that there is medicine, and the psychological part of the problem is almost forgotten,” he said. “Prevention is being misunderstood.” Earlier this year Ugandan health authorities released a report saying an estimated 1,000 people get infected with HIV every week, 34% of them between ages 15 and 24. In Kenya, 51% of all new HIV infections in 2015 occurred in people between 15 and 24, up from 29% in 2013. One in three of all new HIV infections in Kenya occurs among teenagers aged 15 to 19, according to official figures. Rahab Mwaniki, a campaigner with the Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium, cited the problem of “early sexual debut,” saying it leads to teenage pregnancies and exposes many to HIV in a country where 1.6 million people have the virus. Both Kenya and Uganda have intensified efforts to promote self-testing. An oral HIV self-test kit, piloted in Kenya, was launched in Uganda in September by authorities who say they hope it will encourage more men to know their status. Of the 1.4 million Ugandans living with HIV, 14% are not aware of their positive status. It means they are not getting treatment and can infect others. HIV testing “in their privacy and their convenient time” shields men from the rampant stigma preventing many from seeking HIV services in a hospital setting, Mwaniki said. Health officials have similar worries about HIV and youth in southern Africa, the world’s hardest-hit region. In South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa’s most developed country, just 23% of young men have “correct and comprehensive knowledge” about the virus, according to UNAIDS. South Africa has more than 7 million people living with HIV, the most of any country. The U.N., which in August named Ugandan activist Winnie Byanyima to lead its AIDS agency, is leading efforts to end the global epidemic by 2030. Byanyima, who has lost many relatives and friends to AIDS, said after her appointment that while the goal is within reach, “I do not underestimate the scale of the challenge ahead.” She has since spoken of the need in Africa “to remove the barriers and harmful social norms” which leave young people, especially women, more vulnerable to getting HIV. ___ Associated Press writers Tom Odula in Nairobi, Kenya and Cara Anna in Johannesburg contributed. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa


Data suggests opioid-related overdose deaths in Alaska down.

Explanation: Preliminary numbers released by the state indicate the number of opioid-related overdose deaths in Alaska fell between 2017 and 2018.

Health, Legislature, Bill Walker, Alaska

Andy Jones, director of the state Office of Substance Misuse and Addiction Prevention, told a Senate committee Thursday that this suggests steps being taken to address opioid abuse are working. “Something’s working,” Jones said, adding later: “It is exciting news to see this trend.” But Jones said there is more work to do. The preliminary data showed there were 100 opioid-related overdose deaths in Alaska in 2017 and 58 last year. In 2017, then-Gov. Bill Walker declared opioid abuse a public health disaster, and the Legislature approved issuance of a standing medical order for a naloxone distribution program through June 2021. Naloxone can help prevent overdose. The state has passed a law addressing opioid prescriptions; sued opioid manufacturers, including the company that makes the prescription opioid painkiller OxyContin; and taken steps on prevention, treatment and enforcement. According to the state, the total cost associated with its response to opioid abuse was $210.9 million over the last two years. That includes federal funds, substance abuse treatment and recovery and prevention grants and treatment costs within the Department of Corrections. The state’s presentation to lawmakers indicated that 80 percent of those in Corrections custody have substance abuse issues. Some of the grant funding was specific to opioids but it mostly addressed substance use disorders generally, according to a state report. Jones said looking broadly at more than one substance is important as the state responds, noting Alaska has issues with other substances. Alcohol remains the state’s biggest problem, “by far,” he said. “The whole thing is that these issues are not helping us create healthy, safe communities that can thrive and prosper off of opportunity because it just takes opportunity away from them,” Michael Duxbury, deputy commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, said after the meeting. Meanwhile, UnitedHealthcare on Thursday announced steps it is taking nationally affecting dental plan coverage to address opioid concerns. The company said oral health “is often overlooked as a connection to this epidemic.” For example, the company said first-time opioid prescriptions written by dental health professionals for those 19 and younger will be capped at three days. Policy holders with dependents between 16 and 22 years old will get information about the risks associated with opioids, particularly as it pertains to wisdom teeth extraction. In UnitedHealthcare’s network, dental health professionals make up the top 10 percent of opioid prescribers, the company said. UnitedHealthcare said it has about 620 people on its dental plan in Alaska.


Oregano, Thyme May Hold the Cure for Wasting Syndrome Disease

Explanation: This release suffers from over-reach and obfuscation — a bad combination. The release cites some pre-clinical animal research at the University of Iowa that suggests that components of the spices oregano and thyme may represent a “cure” for cachexia, a wasting disease that affects cancer patients and others with debilitating diseases. Unfortunately, readers aren’t told that the research was in mice — not humans — until very late in the release. There’s no information on whether the research has been published, or met any other form of peer review. (When we asked to see the study, the media relations team at the university declined and told us the research hadn’t been published.) The spice compounds referred to aren’t named, nor are cost or potential harms addressed. The release doesn’t explain who funded the research or disclose that the university has applied for a patent on the compound. It doesn’t note that the researcher quoted in the release is listed as the inventor on the patent application and would likely stand to benefit financially from its commercialization. The release does note that a pharmaceutical firm has been licensed to market a drug based on the research. Editor’s note: This news release raised serious questions about oversight of the University of Iowa’s research-related communications to the public. We blogged about those questions here but have yet to receive a satisfactory response from the university media relations team. Update 8/24/17: A response received from the university, more than two weeks after the initial request, raises additional serious questions about the university’s process for promoting research, which critics termed “utterly irresponsible.” We wrote about it here. Cachexia is a serious condition typified by chronic weight loss that can affect a patient’s nutritional status and ability to undergo or continue treatment. Striking those with chronic diseases, it weakens patients and in some cases can hasten their demise. If it could be thwarted by compounds from spices, that would represent a real boon. But this release — and the research it reports — does not provide readers with valid and adequate information. Unfortunately, it may play on the hopes of those afflicted with cachexia and their families, offering false hopes instead of new findings.

There is no mention of the costs for the compounds referred to in this release. Nor are the compounds themselves identified which might give some idea of the cost of acquiring them. The release suggests an over-the-counter drug was being developed but no information was provided on what the cost might be to patients. Given that this is pre-clinical research, we have no idea about what the process of isolating the active compounds would be, which would impact cost. The release states that, “compounds in thyme and oregano have demonstrated a greater than 37 percent increase in exercise tolerance and a 15 percent increase in muscle mass of certain body muscles.”  But there is no information as to how these measurements were acquired, or to which of the “certain body muscles” they were referring. And again, there is no mention of what these compounds actually were. Simply throwing out some percentages without providing an adequate context isn’t helpful for readers. If the release had transparently claimed that the benefits listed above applied to the “sedentary mice” finally mentioned at the end of the release, we’d still rate this criteria as Not Satisfactory. The mice were not noted to have cancer, COPD, heart failure, and other conditions which brought about wasting sickness. The findings, as such, are specific to non-human species without any of the conditions that are purported to be creating the setting for wasting. There is no mention of harms from these mysterious, unnamed compounds. And without their identification, readers are left clueless about any risks that might be involved. The inference is that since oregano and thyme are common, edible spices that they would present no harms once prepared in over-the counter products. Where to begin? The cardinal error in this release lies with the fact that it isn’t until the sixth paragraph out of eight paragraphs that we learn the research was done in mice, not humans. The first two paragraphs of the release refer to cachexia, a condition in humans, suggesting to readers that this is what the research was about. The release also says that the experiments were done in “sedentary mice” which may or may not have been an adequate and appropriate animal model for studying this human illness. Readers have no way of knowing, based on the information in the release. Additionally, there is no information in the release revealing where — or if — it was published in a peer-reviewed journal, or presented at a scientific meeting, two standard ways that research institutions insure readers that the science is above board and open to scrutiny. (An email to the media relations staff confirmed that the study hasn’t been published and they declined to provide any further information about the study.) The quoted source in the story, one of the researchers, claims the “discovery was a serendipitous finding,” which raises a red flag, suggesting it might be merely an observation and not a conclusion based on experiments. The researchers do offer a theory as to how this alleged anti-cachexia effect might work, but that’s really just conjecture at this point. We’ll give the release the benefit of the doubt in this category. Cachexia often accompanies serious diseases — including cancer — and effective treatments are needed. But suggesting that an over-the-counter drug, based on commonly used spices tested only in mice, might alleviate this challenging condition seems to be misleading readers hoping for simple answers. There is no mention in the release of who funded this research, nor is there a journal paper which we could find that might offer that information. The release does say that the “discovery” has been licensed to a pharmaceutical firm that plans on developing an over-the-counter drug, and quotes a company official praising the work. There is no information that suggests the researchers are free from any potential conflicts of interest, with that company or other firms. A search of the Google Patents database shows that the lead investigator and the University of Iowa Research Foundation have applied for a patent for the compound. The final paragraph of the release states that, “The treatment of cachexia just doesn’t exist,” but that’s not the case. The medication megase is used in HIV related wasting and it’s often offered to cancer patients as well. Some other interventions used to reduce the effects of cachexia include resistance exercise and a high-protein diet. Psychological interventions are often used, as are other approaches which are aimed at both the cachexia and the underlying disease which causes it. We’ll give the release a Satisfactory in this category since it states that a company has been licensed to develop a drug based on this research, and therefore readers know that it isn’t available yet. If combating cachexia were as simple as using compounds from ordinary spices, then this would be adequately novel. But neither the release nor the research as yet are available tend to bear that out. The work is done in animals, not humans. The compounds are not identified. And the explanation of benefits from those compounds is inadequate for readers to have confidence in these claims. The release uses the word “cure” in the headline, which is unjustified.


Lose weight with skin cream? Fat chance, says U.S. govt.

Explanation: Americans putting their faith in miracle cures to shed unwanted pounds are likely to be disappointed, U.S. regulators said on Tuesday in announcing settlements with four firms accused of falsely advertising weight-loss products such as skin creams.

The Federal Trade Commission won agreements from L’Occitane, Inc.; Sensa Products LLC; HCG Diet Direct LLC; and LeanSpa LLC. The settlements required them to drop unsubstantiated claims from their ads and, in some cases, return money to consumers. The FTC also urged media outlets to scrutinize advertisements more carefully to avoid publishing potentially misleading ads, noting that some of the advertisements for the products - from food supplements to skin creams - appeared in mainstream publications. The commission provided guidance for publishers and broadcasters on how to screen weight-loss claims in advertisements. The FTC’s action, codenamed “Operation Failed Resolution,” was timed to coincide with the vows to lose weight so often made, and quickly abandoned, in January. Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, warned that the only slim element of the products is their chance of success. “Resolutions to lose weight are easy to make but hard to keep. And the chances of being successful just by sprinkling something on your food, rubbing cream on your thighs, or using a supplement are slim to none,” Rich said. One agreement was with Sensa, which said that its powder sprinkled on food would cause weight loss and peddled it on television infomercials, magazine advertisements and online ads. The company said the powder “is clinically proven to cause substantial weight loss without dieting or exercise, averaging 30 pounds in six months,” the FTC said in a court filing. In contrast, a study of the product by a Sensa company executive found that users lost an average of 5.6 pounds over six months, the FTC said in its court filing. A one-month supply of Sensa’s powder cost $59.00, plus shipping and handling, the FTC said. Sensa agreed to return $26.5 million to consumers, the commission said. Sensa said in a statement that the company had admitted no wrongdoing and that the FTC did not challenge the product’s safety. “Sensa is incorporating changes to its advertising to comply with the FTC’s consent order and continues to support the brand with new advertising and marketing materials,” the company said. In a separate court filing, the FTC said L’Occitane sold two skin creams that promised “clinically proven slimming effectiveness” and would “visibly reduce the appearance of cellulite.” L’Occitane agreed to pay $450,000 to reimburse customers. There was no evidence that the cream slimmed thighs or reduced cellulite, the FTC said. L’Occitane said it had cooperated fully with the commission, and had implemented “even more rigorous policies and procedures that will guide future clinical testing and ensure that our marketing and advertising comply with FTC regulations and guidelines.”  A third company, HCG Diet Direct, sold liquid drops that it said contained a hormone produced by human placenta that would help people lose weight. Under a settlement, the company agreed to an order requiring it to pay $3.2 million. The judgment was suspended because the company could not pay it. The FTC also reached a settlement with LeanSpa, which had used fake news websites to advertise the acai berry as a weight-loss miracle product until the company was shut down by the FTC and Connecticut attorney general’s office in 2011. Boris Mizhen, a LeanSpa executive, will surrender $7 million in cash and property while his wife, who did not participate in the scheme, will surrender $300,000. Attempts to reach the other two companies by telephone, email or by Twitter were not successful.


San Antonio has seen "67% growth" in water customers "in the last 25 years, 0% more water used.

Explanation: Puente said San Antonio has seen "67 percent growth in the last 25 years, 0 percent more water used." Those are cherry-picked, out-of-date stats, vintage 1984-2009. Up-to-date figures available when Puente spoke, covering 1986-2011, show that as the population served grew 52 percent, water usage increased 21 percent. San Antonio may outpace other cities in water conservation. This claim still washes out as False. FALSE – The statement is not accurate.

City Budget, City Government, Water, Texas, Robert Puente,

San Antonio’s growth was coupled with an eye-popping statistic during the latest Texas Tribune Festival public policy conference. Robert Puente, CEO of the San Antonio Water System, said during a Sept. 20, 2013, panel discussion that the city-owned utility has seen "67 percent growth in the last 25 years, 0 percent more water used." San Antonio has been called a "poster child" for water conservation. As it has risen to become the seventh-largest city in the United States, its leadership has used multiple approaches to tackle the water worries facing all of Texas, where the population is rocketing and the future looks dry. But did 67 percent more customers settle in without using more water? By phone, Puente said the percentages he aired "need to be updated." The water system’s vice president for public affairs, Greg Flores, told us by email that Puente’s rates covered 1984 through 2009. During that period, according to a chart Flores sent us, the population served by the utility rose from 800,627 to 1.34 million while water produced fell from 191,431 acre-feet to 186,112 acre-feet (an acre-foot is the amount needed to cover an acre to a depth of 1 foot, equal to 325,851 gallons). That’s a nearly 68 percent increase in population served and a 2.9 percent decrease in water produced. Then again, the cited period wasn’t the latest 25-year time span when Puente spoke. Flores said the chart was generated from the utility’s 2008 statistics. Flores sent a web link to the most recent edition, the utility’s "2011 Stat Book," and gave us the numbers for 2012, which we used to check the six most recent 25-year spans for which data is available. The 2012 data was not available when Puente spoke at the conference, Flores said, though data through 2011 was. "Compilation of data for a particular year is typically not completed until the end of the following year," he said. The 25-year spans showed fluctuations partly explained by the weather: Flores noted that 2011 was "the single hottest, driest year in Texas" and said water use remained atypically high through the 2011-13 drought. 2007 was a very wet year for San Antonio, he said. 25-year span Population served Acre-feet used 1987-2012* Up 55.2% Up 23.4% 1986-2011 Up 51.8% Up 21% 1985-2010 Up 55.6% Up 5% 1984-2009 Up 57.6% Down 0.6% 1983-2008 Up 59.9% Up 21.5% 1982-2007 Up 69.1% Down 7.3% *2012 data were unavailable when Puente made his claim. The oldest span we checked, 1982-2007, showed more dramatic change than Puente’s statement: 69 percent growth and a 7 percent drop in water use. But the most recent span for which data was available when he spoke, 1986-2011, saw a 52 percent increase in customers alongside a 21 percent increase in water used. That’s still not bad, a long-time Sierra Club leader told us by phone. Ken Kramer, water resources chairman for Sierra’s Texas chapter, told us, "It’s still very significant. Especially as compared to other major cities around the state. … It is great that San Antonio is doing this, and it does provide a model for other cities that haven’t had that success yet." The trend statewide is toward less water use, Kramer said. State and federal standards, with such requirements as water-efficient showerheads and toilets, have reduced Texans’ per-person water use. Texas as a whole averaged out to about 151 gallons used per person per day in 2007-11, according to the Texas Water Development Board, with the state’s nearly 26 million people using 169 gallons apiece a day during hot, dry 2011. Flores said, and the utility’s stats confirm, that San Antonians reduced per-person water use from around 200 gallons a day in the 1980s (the utility’s stats show the decade averaged out at 197 gallons per day, to be precise) to about 140 gallons a day now (2007-11 average out at 137 gallons per day). Daily water use per capita for 2011 in Texas’ six largest cities shook out this way, according to the water board: Houston, 191 gallons; San Antonio, 148 gallons; Dallas, 197 gallons; Austin, 156 gallons; Fort Worth, 166 gallons; El Paso, 143 gallons. What got San Antonio saving? "A big federal hammer," Puente told us. "Back in the early 1990s, a federal judge actually was going to lay down pumping rules, limit our ability to pump water out of our aquifer, and gave us till the end of the legislative session to pass certain rules that we would impose on ourselves," he said. San Antonio and nearby areas, he said, were hit by the federal deadline because of endangered species that relied on the Edwards Aquifer. Flores outlined some of the Alamo City’s approaches: Smarter use of water pulled from the Edwards, including the nation’s largest direct recycled water delivery system, routing treated wastewater to users such as golf courses, the River Walk and local industry. Pumping all the Edwards water it’s allowed to every year, and storing what it doesn’t use in the Carrizo Aquifer -- which isn’t porous like the Edwards, but hard-packed sand, Flores said. The Edwards water sits there, in fact barely commingling with the Carrizo water, and San Antonio has been extracting it as needed for the past three years. New sources such as a $145 million desalination plant set to start tapping a deeper, saltwater aquifer in 2016. Not pumping as much water in the first place, aka conservation. The water utility educates users and subsidizes ways to use less, both in residential and commercial systems. Flores said the utility has approved conservation projects based on the $400 price to buy rights to an acre-foot of Edwards water for a year. If the project was cheaper than buying the water, the utility implemented the plan. Giving away 325,000 low-flow toilets, even hiring plumbers to help low-income residents install them, cost less than the unsaved water would have, Flores said. Same for helping Coca-Cola retool to clean bottles with pressurized air. Last year, though, mindful of the rising cost of water from the Edwards and other sources, the utility raised the ceiling: Now a project has to save more than buying the water at $1,100 per acre-foot, he said. Outdoor water usage, Puente said, is the next area of focus, with the utility offering rebates to water customers who want to convert a parched part of their lawn to a deck or patio. Our ruling Puente said San Antonio has seen "67 percent growth in the last 25 years, 0 percent more water used." Those are cherry-picked, out-of-date stats, vintage 1984-2009. Up-to-date figures available when Puente spoke, covering 1986-2011, show that as the population served grew 52 percent, water usage increased 21 percent. San Antonio may outpace other cities in water conservation. This claim still washes out as . – The statement is not accurate.


Hal Turner Radio Show Says the coronavirus is “a MILITARY BIO-WEAPON Developed by China's Army.”

Explanation: There is no evidence that the Chinese military developed the 2019 coronavirus as a bioweapon. There are dozens of viruses in a national database with genetic material similar to the coronavirus. Officials are still working to determine the source of the outbreak.

Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Hal Turner Radio Show,

A far-right radio host who has supported the rhetoric of white supremacy is spreading misinformation about the origins of the coronavirus outbreak. In an article published Feb. 1, the Hal Turner Radio Show wrote that the 2019 coronavirus is "a military bioweapon developed by China’s army" at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. As evidence, it points to two screenshots from a national database of genetic material. "Somehow, it got out. The world is now facing a massive wipe-out of humanity as a result," the article reads. "The proof that this virus is a genetically-modified Bat-SARS-Like Virus, manipulated by the Chinese Army, appears below. The evidence is irrefutable." The article was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat  news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) It has been shared more than 2,000 times. (Screenshot from Hal Turner Radio Show) Since its December outbreak in Wuhan, China, the coronavirus has spread rapidly around the world. According to the World Health Organization, more than 40,000 people have been infected in 24 countries. In China, 909 have died. PolitiFact has fact-checked several conspiracy theories about the source of the coronavirus. Some hoaxes suggested that the virus somehow escaped from the Wuhan lab, which deals with some of the world’s most dangerous pathogens, such as Ebola and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus. We have found no evidence to back up those claims — and the Hal Turner article is similarly flawed. The Hal Turner Radio Show claims that, because two coronavirus entries in a federal database have similar proteins, they are the same virus. That’s unproven. Hal Turner uses internet and radio broadcasts to float conspiracy theories and hate speech. In 2010, he was sentenced to 33 months in prison for threatening three federal judges over their decision to uphold handgun bans in Chicago. The Hal Turner article cites screenshots of two GenBank entries for coronavirus proteins. GenBank is a database maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information that lists publicly available DNA sequences. The first screenshot shows an entry for an envelope protein for a "Bat SARS-like coronavirus" that was submitted in 2018 by the Institute of Military Medicine, Nanjing Command. According to the Universal Protein Resource, an envelope protein is a membrane that "forms the outermost layer" of the complete, infective form of certain viruses. The second screenshot is an entry for another envelope protein associated with the "Wuhan seafood market pneumonia virus." It was submitted Jan. 5 by the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and School of Public Health at Fudan University. But there are seven kinds of coronaviruses that can infect humans and they have similar envelope proteins. So the match doesn’t prove the two viruses are the same. "The family of coronaviruses are going to be highly related, just because they are in the same family," said Richard Watanabe, a professor of preventive medicine at the University of California’s Keck School of Medicine, in an email. We ran the same NCBI search as the Hal Turner Radio Show and found 78 entries with envelope proteins similar to the 2019 coronavirus. The second claim in the Hal Turner Radio Show’s article is that, since Chinese researchers uploaded its genetic information, the 2019 coronavirus is a military bioweapon. That’s unproven. There is a lab near Wuhan that deals with dangerous pathogens — and some have linked it to China’s biological warfare program. The country denies having such a program, but the U.S. State Department has raised concerns about China’s potential noncompliance with the Biological Weapons Convention, which bans the production of such weapons. Officials are still working to determine the source of the coronavirus outbreak. In its most recent situation summary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that both it and Chinese authorities had isolated the genome of the 2019 coronavirus. Their findings suggest "a likely single, recent emergence from a virus related to bat coronaviruses and the SARS coronavirus." The disease appears to have originated at a seafood and animal market in Wuhan, and it spread from there to 24 countries. Researchers believe the current outbreak pattern suggests the coronavirus may have spread from animal to human at first, and now from human to human. And even if there were, Watanabe said it’s highly unlikely the Chinese military would have uploaded the genetic sequence to a public database maintained by an American government agency. "China, like the other countries including the U.S., have legitimate biomedical research going on at military facilities," Watanabe said. "Just because they uploaded information, doesn’t make it a bioweapon." The Hal Turner Radio Show claimed the coronavirus is "a MILITARY BIO-WEAPON Developed by China's Army." As evidence, the website included two screenshots of coronavirus entries in a federal database of genetic material. The site claimed the two viruses are the same. But all human coronaviruses have similar genetic material, and just because the entries were uploaded by Chinese researchers doesn’t prove that the 2019 coronavirus was developed as a bioweapon. Hal Turner Radio Show’s article is inaccurate.


Explanation: This is an important piece about a major problem in healthcare costs in the U.S. Even for people with life-threatening illness (that is not acute, and treated as an inpatient), care is not guaranteed for those who cannot pay. There is enough variation in costs of potential treatment regimens that the practice of informing patients about cost with treatment options should be encouraged. Although distressing, launching a family into financial disaster is an adverse outcome as well. This particular story focuses on the increasing cost of 2nd or 3rd-line chemotherapy drugs aimed at advanced cancer. The story notes that patients are often forced to choose between these treatments and their financial savings. The story explains that because the market for  certain drugs is small and focused, the cost of these chemotherapy drugs is higher. The story appropriately notes that cost should be discussed as an additional side effect of treatment. The story notes via an American Cancer Society rep that it "costs a billion dollars" to bring a drugs to market; however, we are not told of the typical profit made from these drugs once they are available to patients. This is an oversight in reporting about cost. There is also considerable debate about the validity of that claim about pharma’s R&D costs – which the story does not address. The story does not discuss how these newer drugs work, or how much quantity and quality of life they add to patients’ lives. The story does not discuss if newer drugs are any better than older drugs for treating cancer. We are told that some newer drugs have fewer or different side effects. The story provides information on alternative older drugs that may be an option for cancer treatment. The story also provides some resources for patients who may qualify for free or reduced-cost medicines.

The story focus is the increased cost of 2nd or 3rd-line chemotherapy drugs aimed at advanced cancer. The story notes that patients are often forced to choose between these treatments and their financial savings. The story appropriately notes that cost should be discussed as an additional side effect of treatment. The story notes via an American Cancer Society rep that it "costs a billion dollars" to bring a drug to market; however, we are not told of the typical profit made from these drugs once they are available to patients. A terrific book by Merrill Goozner, "The $800 Million Pill," also pokes holes in the claim of that much in drug R&D. This is an oversight in reporting about cost. Nonetheless, we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt. The story only discussed costs and side effects. Why were data on benefits left out? The story does not discuss how these newer drugs work or how much quantity and quality they add to patients’ lives. The story does not discuss if newer drugs add months or years to patients lives and if they are any better than older drugs for treating cancer. We are told that some drugs have fewer or different side effects. The story discusses the side effects of certain chemotherapy drugs. While the story is about chemotherapy in general, there was a nice example near the end about a newer regimen that is far more expensive but associated with fewer side effects. The story focuses on the burden of cost, which oncologists have begun to consider with patients as another downside or side effect of chemotherapy regimens. The story notes that there are now guidelines for discussing and planning for the cost of treatment with patients. The story focuses on cost of cancer treatments and provides price estimates for certain chemotherapy drugs. The story does not do a good job explaining how these drugs  treat cancer or extend a patient’s life. The story notes that patients should weigh the benefits of these drugs, but they do not explicitly discuss what this means. The story provides some qualitiative evidence via family stories that these drugs are cost-prohibitive for many patients. It is not necessarily helpful to discuss costs without discussing benefits in absolute terms. The story didn’t give us that evidence. Cancer is of course a prevalent disease; this piece did not hype that fact. The story discusses the small number of people who would be eligible for newly approved and/or experimental drugs to treat advanced cancer. The story includes perspectives from families, patients and oncologists who discuss weighing the benefits of newer chemotherapy drugs with the increased cost. It would have been useful to interview a pharmaceutical manufacturer for a quote on the typical profit of chemotherapy drugs  after recouping money for the development of these drugs. The story provides information on alternative older drugs that may be an option for cancer treatment. The story notes that the tradeoff may be the type of side effects. The story also provides some resources for patients who may qualify for free or reduced-cost medicines. The story focuses on newer chemotherapy regimens that may be unavailable to some people as they are too expensive. The story explains that because the market for chemo certain drugs is small and focused, the cost of the drugs is higher. The story also notes that some patients may qualify for need-based help via hospital and drug-company sponsored assistance. The story discusses newer chemotherapy drugs and the consistent increase in cost–about 15 percent a year. The story contains a great deal of independent reporting and information does not appear to be taken from a press release.


Gene test could spare women from unnecessary radiation

Explanation: Women diagnosed with small breast tumors known as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) often have to make treatment decisions (including whether to add radiation therapy after surgery) without being certain about how much risk of a recurrence they really face. This story reports the results of a study that compared the genetic profile of tumors to the long-term cancer recurrence rate in a group of women. The story provides multiple views and useful context. However, most readers would likely assume that treatment decisions that incorporate these test results would offer better health outcomes. This story should have clearly stated that this study was not designed to answer that important question and that follow-up trials will be need to document the health effects of using this test. Predicting risk is one thing. Knowing which treatment is most likely to produce the best outcome for a patient with a certain risk level is a different question. People often confuse the two; so news reports about risk assessment should take special care to point out that improving the ability to predict a patient’s future does not necessarily mean that you can change that future. Eric Winer’s cautious comment was an important part of the story – “he’d like to see additional studies before using the test to advise patients.”

The story reports that the existing version of this test costs over $4,000. It puts this cost in context by reporting that one of the researchers says some women could still save money if the test results prompt them to skip radiation therapy that can cost more than $21,000 (as well as exposing them to some risks and harms). The story comes very close to meeting this criterion. It reports that this new test put 75 percent of women with this type of breast tumor into a low-risk category and that this information could support a decision to skip radiation therapy… and that the predictions are more accurate than what clinicians usually rely on today. It also notes that for this type of tumor (ductal carcinoma in situ or DCIS), radiation therapy has been shown to reduce the risk of a recurrence in the same breast, though it does not alter survival rates, thus adding valuable context to the decision that this new test is supposed to help women make. However, this story fails to alert readers to a central point: the study did not examine whether this test actually improves outcomes for the patients. In other words, while the researchers can say women with certain test results are less likely to have another DCIS in the same breast, further trials would be needed to determine whether or not changing treatment based on the test results improves the outcomes the women care about, including reserving radiation therapy for those women most likely to benefit. The story does include a comment from an independent expert who says more study is needed before making changes in usual treatment recommendations; but the story would have been even better if it had plainly and prominently stated that this study did not look at whether making treatment decisions based on the results of the new test makes a difference in the long-term health outcomes of women with this sort of DCIS. Although the overall tone of the story presents this test as a clear advance in providing treatment guidance to women with DCIS, it does spell out that 5 percent of women classified by the test as “low-risk” still developed an invasive cancer within 10 years… and that over 80 percent of women labeled as “high-risk” did not develop an invasive breast cancer within 10 years. So readers are told that even with this test, physicians cannot predict the future with certainty. Overall, the story does a good job of describing the study and putting the results in context. But as noted above, it fails to clearly alert readers to the fact that this study did not look at the effect of changing treatment recommendations based on the test results. Many readers may believe the study accomplished more than it actually did. Also, this study was presented at a medical meeting. We like to see stories point out that meeting presentations are not subject to the same level of peer review as articles published in leading medical journals. The story states near the top that this test is intended for the 45,000 women in the United States who are diagnosed each year with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in one of their breasts. The story includes two independent experts who help put the study results in context. It also identifies one source (Shak) as an employee of the company that sells an earlier version of the test. The story would have been better if it had addressed the relationship between the lead researcher and the company, but since it appears (based on other reports) that Dr. Solin did not disclose any conflicts of interest, we will give the story a satisfactory rating on this criterion. The story lays out the conundrum facing women diagnosed with DCIS: that clinicians generally can’t predict which women will ultimately develop invasive disease and which ones will be fine even with little or no treatment. As the story reports, these women and their physicians may decide to opt for conservative treatment, but that many choose to undergo radiation therapy in hopes of reducing the risk of a recurrence. Overall, the story describes this new test as being able to narrow the uncertainty somewhat. The story reports that an earlier version of this test is already on the market and that the company plans to make the new version available within weeks. Since it appears that updating the way this test is used does not require regulatory approval, it seems adequate to rely on the company’s statement about its marketing plans. As mentioned above, the story describes this new test as a refinement of an existing test. The story does not appear to rely on a news release.


The U.S. State Department has ordered 160,000 Hazmat suits for Ebola, prompting concerns that the federal government is anticipating the rapid spread" of the virus.

Ebola, Foreign Policy, Public Health, Science, PunditFact, Bloggers,

As Ebola continues to spread in Africa, the United States has committed over $100 million in aid, in the form of both supplies and personnel. But fringe voices on the Web are suggesting that Ebola is even a bigger threat than the U.S. government is letting on. The conspiracy website InfoWars reported this week that "the U.S. State Department has ordered 160,000 Hazmat suits for Ebola, prompting concerns that the federal government is anticipating the rapid spread of a virus that has already claimed an unprecedented number of lives." The InfoWars report cites a press release from Lakeland Industries, which manufactures protective clothing, and the InfoWars report says that "only 1,400 federal workers are currently in the region (western Africa), suggesting that the 160,000 figure is far higher than what would be required merely for sending medical workers abroad." From there, InfoWars cites a German virologist to the effect that Ebola’s death toll will climb to 5 million (the Ebola outbreak has claimed 2,630 deaths at time of writing), and suggests that "Ebola could have gone airborne to at least a limited extent." (We found plenty of other examples of the Hazmat story floating around the Internet.) We’re not going to touch speculation about Ebola’s evolution, but we wanted to check his claim that the State Department has ordered 160,000 Hazmat suits for Ebola, and that their order reflects the federal government’s anticipation of a "rapid spread" of Ebola. The press release The Lakeland press release, which announces its increased "manufacturing capacity" for the "specialty protective suits to be worn by health care workers and others being exposed to Ebola," only has a sentence relating to the State Department’s order. "With the U.S. State Department alone putting out a bid for 160,000 suits," they say, "we encourage all protective apparel companies to increase their manufacturing capacity for sealed seam garments so that our industry can do its part in addressing this threat to global health." That’s not much to go on, but there’s a crucial distinction that InfoWars glosses over: The press release mentions a bid, not an "order." That means that while a purchase of 160,000 suits may be in the works, it’s not final yet and may not even happen. U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spokesman Matt Herrick said that he couldn’t "speak to specific procurement that is in process and not awarded," but confirmed that the Lakeland press release "is in reference to USAID and our ongoing efforts to secure personal protective equipment to combat the spread of Ebola." The bid InfoWars is referring to comes from USAID, which is technically independent of the State Department. The two organizations, though, work closely together. USAID USAID has been providing protective equipment to partners in Africa since March, Herrick said. That includes Hazmat suits like the ChemMax 1 suit referred to in Lakeland’s press release. The suit, while not Ebola-exclusive, is designed to protect against infectious agents. Beyond the suits, USAID’s assistance to African organizations has come in the form of disease-control experts, funding and a variety of emergency supplies. Herrick referred us to this series of press releases on USAID’s efforts. "Last month, USAID airlifted more than 16 tons of medical supplies and emergency equipment to Liberia," Herrick said, including 10,000 Hazmat suits, water treatment units, and plastic sheeting to create Ebola treatment units. That might seem like a lot of suits, but "the equipment set is designed to be worn just once and then disposed of once treatment is administered," said Herrick. "So many sets are needed for each health provider." "USAID has procured and delivered more than 100,000 suits to date, and we are on track to procure and deliver more than 130,000 additional suits," Herrick said. "The equipment is provided to local health care workers and nongovernmental partners working in the affected countries." Herrick wouldn’t elaborate on how the suits from the bid related to USAID’s plans, but the figures he gave are crucial context. The 160,000 suits aren’t actually "far higher than what would be required merely for sending medical workers abroad," as InfoWars claimed. USAID has provided almost that many suits already, and there seems to be an immediate need for more. This information is also public via USAID’s press releases, so it's not as though they’re privately predicting a "rapid spread" of Ebola beyond the scope of the current outbreak. Our ruling The website InfoWars claimed that the State Department "has ordered 160,000 Hazmat suits for Ebola," demonstrating that "the federal government is anticipating the rapid spread of a virus that has already claimed an unprecedented number of lives." The federal government agency in question is USAID, but that’s something of a technicality. A USAID official told us that the suits are one use only, so 160,000 suits aren’t actually an astronomical amount. In fact, USAID has already delivered 100,000 suits to the Ebola-infected regions of Africa. Their new bid, while an expansion of their efforts, is in line with what USAID has done so far, and doesn’t demonstrate that the federal government is anticipating any sort of "rapid spread."


Gov. Kelly:  Kansas psychiatric hospital unit needs changes.

Explanation: Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly says a troubled unit within a state hospital for the mentally ill is “not a therapeutic environment” and promised changes.

Mental health, Health, Kansas, Wichita, Medicare

Kelly discussed the latest problems at Osawatomie State Hospital on Thursday after federal inspectors again threatened  to pull Medicare funding, The Wichita Eagle reports. Kelly said the facility’s 60-bed Adair Acute Care unit is “way too small to have 60 people with some serious mental health issues in that one place.” She added that the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, which oversees state hospitals, is working on improvement plans to lower the number of patients in the unit and provide beds elsewhere. Issues initially came to a head in January 2016 when the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decertified the entire Osawatomie State Hospital in response to security and safety issues, which cost the state millions of dollars a year in federal funds. In December 2017 the agency re-certified the Adair portion of the facility, allowing Osawatomie to again receive Medicare funding for those 60 beds. But federal officials who inspected the unit last year found that treatment for some patients needed to be more frequent and intense. Inspectors also found missing treatment notes and plans that lacked specific goals. The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services has filed a plan to correct the problems, promising  to provide more individualized treatment for patients. Kelly singled out crisis centers as one way to improve the state’s mental health care system. A 2017 law signed by Gov. Sam Brownback allowed the facilities to involuntarily admit individuals for up to 72 hours. Last year, lawmakers approved $2.6 million for mental health care improvements that included funding for the centers. Kelly said Thursday that the investment makes more sense than adding capacity to the state mental health hospitals. KDADS spokeswoman Cara Sloan-Ramos said more detailed information will be released when Kelly presents her proposed budget later this month. But she said the agency will put forward a plan to lift a moratorium on new admissions to Osawatomie that has been in place for years. She also said it will include a continued focus on providing care near patients’ homes and communities.


Jay Hottinger Says Wendy’s founder "Dave Thomas left the state literally on his deathbed to avoid the estate tax.

Explanation: Did Wendy's founder Dave Thomas really flee Ohio's estate tax on his death bed?

Opponents of Ohio's estate tax say it hurts the state by driving away wealthy residents. State Rep. Jay Hottinger, a leader of the drive to repeal the tax in the General Assembly, said a "shockingly high number" of Ohioans leave because of the tax. But, the Newark Republican acknowledged on the "Sound of Ideas" on WCPN 90.3 FM there is no actual number to cite. "When an individual decides to leave my home community in Licking County, believe it or not, they don't take out a press release," he said. "They don't send it to the news media and say, 'We're leaving the state of Ohio because we want to preserve our assets for our heirs." He pointed to individuals instead, naming the founder of Wendy's restaurants as one example. "Dave Thomas left the state literally on his deathbed to avoid the estate tax," Hottinger said. PolitiFact Ohio was stirred. We imagined a dramatic dash for the border in a souped-up medical van. Wanting to know more, we called Hottinger's office for details. When they didn't get back to us, we searched on our own. We found a less dramatic story. Thomas died in 2002, after a decade-long battle with liver cancer, at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He had lived there since 1982, when he moved to Florida after retiring as CEO of Wendy’s at age 49. Prior to that, he had lived in Ohio for 20 years. If his primary goal at that time of his move was to limit the tax exposure his estate would have after his death, he must have been pleasantly surprised to discover that he also gained the year-round ability to play golf (which he loved) and to cruise on his 90-foot yacht, the I. Lorraine (named for his wife), which he was able to dock behind his home. A generous philanthropist, particularly in the interests of children's welfare, medicine and education, Thomas supported (and established) a number of organizations and causes in Florida, as he continued to do in Ohio and elsewhere. He said his greatest regret was not finishing high school, and in 1993 he hired a tutor and passed the G.E.D. exam. Coconut Creek High School in Fort Lauderdale made him part of its senior class, and awarded his high school diploma. He and his wife were king and queen of the senior prom, and Thomas was voted "Most Likely to Succeed." Legal residency is not something that can be established by deathbed conversion. Nor is it determined solely by physical presence. The point is that Thomas, an adoptee who was born in New Jersey and moved constantly as a boy, spending significant periods in Michigan, Tennessee and Indiana, was no mere Florida visitor or latecomer. Though he still had Ohio homes at Buckeye Lake and in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington, he registered to vote in Florida, not as an absentee in Ohio, in 1988. There’s also evidence that Thomas (who was survived by his wife, five children and 16 grandchildren) knew a thing or two about taxes, making us doubt that he would have left tax and estate planning to the eleventh hour. Gov. Bob Taft credited his support for getting passage of a $500 adoption credit on Ohio income taxes in 1999, and President Clinton gave him credit in 1996 for a federal law giving parents a one-time tax credit of $5,000 when they adopt a child. There are other reasons to be skeptical of the claim about Thomas. In examining claims about estate taxes elsewhere, PolitiFact Rhode Island found research reporting that estate taxes have little or no impact on the flow of people from one state to another. The National Tax Journal in 2006 published "State ‘Death’ Taxes and Elderly Migration -- The Chicken or the Egg?," whose authors found no evidence that the elderly were responding to changes in estate taxes. Kail Padquitt, staff economist for The Tax Foundation, a think tank that studies federal and state tax policies, told PolitiFact he hasn’t seen any proof that the prospect of paying estate taxes drives people to move. And if all this wasn’t enough, there’s another key fact to consider. Hottinger’s claim was that Thomas fled the state "literally on his death bed, to avoid estate tax." That clearly isn’t the case, unless he lingered 20 years before passing. And at that, it would have been three years too soon. Until 2005 (three years after Thomas’ death), Florida also had an estate tax. Hottinger’s statement isn’t just inaccurate, it’s also ridiculous. On the Truth-O-Meter, it’s worthy of flame broiling.


Utah bans abortions after 18 weeks, teeing up legal showdown.

Explanation: Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has signed a law banning most abortions after 18 weeks of gestation, setting the stage for a legal showdown.

Planned Parenthood, Health, Utah, Politics, North America, U.S. News, Gary Herbert

Though the Republican governor said the measure signed late Monday strikes a balance, opponents said it is unconstitutional and promised to sue. The law is expected to take effect in May. The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s longtime holding that states cannot ban abortion before the fetus is viable outside the womb, usually at about 23 weeks. The ban adds to a long list of abortion restrictions in Utah, including a 72-hour waiting period and an in-person informed consent session, Planned Parenthood of Utah said. “This 18-week ban is clearly unconstitutional and part of a broader agenda to ban abortion one law at a time,” president Karrie Galloway said in a statement. The law comes as abortion opponents across the country are emboldened by President Donald Trump’s appointment of conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices and seek cases to challenge Roe v. Wade, the court’s 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has also signed an 18-week ban, and several other states have considered or passed proposals to ban abortion much earlier, once a fetal heartbeat can be found. In Utah, Herbert’s spokesman Paul Edwards said he’s against abortion, and believes lawmakers set an appropriate threshold for respecting a woman’s right to choose while “protecting the unborn.” The measure allows some exceptions, including cases of rape, fatal fetal deformity or serious detriment to the mother’s health. Herbert has said he is  not worried about the potential cost of a lawsuit, estimated at about $2 million if the state loses. The sponsor of the measure, Republican Rep. Cheryl Acton, has said she sponsored it to reduce the number of second-trimester abortions that “shock the conscience.” Herbert also signed into law this year a measure banning abortion if the only reason is a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome. The law contains a so-called trigger clause and wouldn’t go into effect unless a similar measure is upheld elsewhere.


Since 2004, more than 2,000 suspected terrorists have legally purchased weapons in the United States.

Terrorism, California, Guns, Mike Thompson,

Every year, millions of average Americans legally buy guns in this country. But have thousands of people on the FBI’s Terrorist Watch List also legally purchased guns, and other weapons, on U.S. soil? That’s the claim Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, made following the terrorist attack in San Bernardino. Thompson and others in Congress called for a ban on weapons purchases by anyone on the watch list. The U.S. Senate struck down a bill that sought to accomplish that earlier this month. "Since 2004, more than 2,000 suspected terrorists have legally purchased weapons in the United States," Thompson said on floor of the House of Representatives on Dec. 7, urging passage of the bill. Was this true? We decided to fact-check the eye-opening statement. But first, we wanted to learn more about the list itself. The list, which includes the smaller No Fly List, is a database comprising information about "those known or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity," according to the FBI. National security officials consider it a key tool in preventing future attacks. Civil liberty groups and some elected leaders have called it unconstitutional, citing a lack of due process and vague standards for inclusion on the list. It’s caused headaches at airport security checkpoints for people with similar names to those on the list, including the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove. The database is believed to include hundreds of thousands of individuals, including roughly 10,000 Americans. But being on the list as a "suspected terrorist" does not mean the person has a criminal record, or has ever been charged with a crime. It just means they’re "reasonably suspected" by a federal official of being involved in terrorist activity. Our Research We know it’s legal for suspected terrorists to buy weapons — specifically, guns — because that’s the right Thompson and even President Obama have said they want to take away. But how are purchases by suspected terrorists tracked? And how can anyone know for certain that "more than 2,000" have legally bought weapons over the past decade in the U.S.? Enter the FBI. The federal agency conducts instant criminal background checks on people seeking to buy firearms at licensed gun stores. In 2004, these checks began examining whether an applicant was on the terrorist watch list. Photo by Andrew Nixon/Capital Public Radio In March, the U.S. Government Accountability Office published an analysis of FBI data showing that from February 2004 through December 2014, 2,043 out of 2,233 weapons applications by people on the terrorist watch list were allowed to proceed. Nearly all applications were for firearms. Three were for explosives, all of which were approved. When we contacted Thompson’s office, a staffer pointed us to the GAO analysis to back up the congressman’s claim. The GAO found an average of about 200 successful weapons purchases by the group of people on the list, each year, during the timeframe. Experts we spoke with told us there’s no way of independently verifying information on the list, as it’s not public. They referred to the GAO analysis as the best estimate available. "I have no means of independently confirming who is a reasonable suspect even if I knew the names. I imagine this is true of most average persons. We have to go on trust," Martha Crenshaw, Stanford University political science professor and expert on terrorism, said in an email. The FBI has declined to comment on the watch list’s current size, but we found an estimate on a 2011 FBI fact-sheet that put it at 420,000 individuals. Of those, only about 8,400 were American citizens or legal residents. Current estimates of the number of people on the list -- foreign and American combined -- now hover around 700,000. A 'plausible number' Two experts who helped oversee the watch list told us the congressman’s claim of "more than 2,000" suspected terrorists legally buying weapons over 10 years is realistic. "That’s certainly a plausible number," said Martin Reardon, former chief of the FBI Terrorist Screening Center’s operations branch. The screening center maintains the watch list. Reardon, who now works for an intelligence consulting firm, estimated the number of Americans on it is currently no more than 10,000. Another expert knowledgeable about the list agreed. "Two thousand, over such a long period of time -- 10 years -- does not actually strike me as being overly large because there are a lot of people in this country that are purchasing firearms," said Timothy Edgar, who oversaw civil liberties and national intelligence issues, including the terrorist watch list, under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. "So it’s not surprising that there’s been a fairly substantial number of encounters with people who are on that terrorist watch list for one reason or another, over the past decade." The data show weapons applications, not the number of individuals making those requests. So presumably, the same person could have made multiple applications. Even so, the experts said, the number cited by Thompson could be much higher. Suspected terrorists could have legally bought weapons at gun shows, where transactions are not subject to federal background checks. Faulty list? While there’s data to back up Thompson’s claim, it’s also important to consider the accuracy of the names on the terror watch list. How do we know, for example, that the people on the list really are "suspected terrorists?" In 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General released an audit  that found that 35 percent of the identities on the watch list at the time were "associated with FBI cases that did not contain current international terrorism or domestic terrorism designations." Many of the records were for people who had originally "been appropriately watchlisted but should have been removed from the watchlist after the case had been closed," the audit said. The American Civil Liberties Union has repeatedly criticized what it calls the "unconstitutionally vague" standards for inclusion on the terror watch list. It repeated a call earlier this month for major reforms of the database. Edgar and Reardon both acknowledged the list is "not perfect." Edgar added, however, that many of the early problems with the list, which caused some people with the same name as a suspected terrorist to be stopped at airports, have been resolved. Even if a large chunk of the names on the list are outdated, we presume a majority truly are "suspected terrorists," based on our research and that of the experts we spoke with. Our Ruling Rep. Mike Thompson said recently on the House floor that: "Since 2004, more than 2,000 suspected terrorists have legally purchased weapons in the U.S." He backed up his claim with FBI data that show 2,043 people on the agency’s terror watch list successfully applied for weapons at licensed gun shops over the past decade. There’s no way to track how many people on the list legally bought weapons at gun shows, as those transactions aren’t subject to federal background checks. But it makes sense to assume some did. The congressman left out the fact that a federal audit in 2009 found 35 percent of the identities on the list had no ties to current terrorism cases. The audit said many of the names remained on the list when they should have been removed. But given the large size of the terror watch list — with perhaps 10,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of foreigners — it’s reasonable to assume that 200 or more on the list made legal weapons purchases each year over the past decade. The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check.


Richard Durbin Says President Barack Obama’s nominees met a standard of 60 votes, "a standard that was met by Elena Kagan as well as Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's choices.

Supreme Court, Illinois, Richard Durbin,

The morning after President Donald Trump announced Judge Neil Gorsuch as his nominee to fill the vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to share his thoughts about the president’s pick. Durbin, the Democratic whip and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in the interview he believes Gorsuch should have a hearing, but that the nominee also should meet the required voting standard. "(Gorsuch) should have a hearing and he should meet the voting standard that Supreme Court nominees are held to of 60 votes. A standard that was met by Elena Kagan as well as Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's choices," Durbin told the show’s hosts. With Senate Republicans considering the so-called "nuclear option" to lower the vote threshold needed to confirm Gorsuch, we decided to double-check Durbin’s declaration. Durbin has a point, but he does oversimplifies the process for Senate votes on Supreme Court nominees. Notably, a formal confirmation vote does not require 60 votes. Voting standard? Of the nearly 4,000 government positions Trump must fill, 1,212 require a Senate confirmation. That includes all Cabinet-level posts as well as hundreds of other senior positions and agency heads. Here’s how the confirmation process will work for Gorsuch: He will testify in a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. If the committee refers his nomination to the full Senate (a likely outcome due to the Republican majority on the Judiciary Committee), a vote by the full Senate needs to be taken. The Senate majority leader moves to take the Senate into an executive session, the setting in which nominees are confirmed, according to Worth Hester, the assistant director of the Georgetown Government Affairs Institute. Then, the Senate majority leader needs to bring a nominee to a vote by the full Senate. In Gorsuch’s case, barring any outstanding circumstances, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will either get unanimous consent, a process by which every senator agrees to schedule a vote on a nominee. However, if unanimous consent cannot be reached, and if at least one senator filibusters, Sen. McConnell would need to invoke cloture. A "cloture vote," agrees to place a time limit on the consideration of a nominee. A successful cloture requires 60 votes. After the cloture vote, Senate rules allow for 30 additional hours of debate, and then a final confirmation vote occurs, according to Sarah Binder, political scientist at George Washington University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. This confirmation process for some positions became less burdensome thanks to a rule change on Nov. 21, 2013. With the Senate’s Republican minority blocking President Barack Obama’s nominees for executive branch positions and, in particular, appeals court judges, then-Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., triggered the so-called nuclear option by a successful 52-48 vote, eliminating the 60-vote threshold needed to confirm most nominations, and with it, the threat of a filibuster. The rule change, however, excluded Supreme Court nominees, meaning that such nominations could be filibustered. And that’s something that some Democrats have threatened  to do against the Gorsuch nomination. The Republicans currently hold 52 seats in the Senate -- enough to reach the final vote threshold of 51 votes, but only if they can get that far. Now that we’ve addressed some background information about the nuclear option and current situation at hand, let’s take a look at Durbin’s claim. Nomination and confirmation of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan Following the election of Obama in November 2008, Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress and essentially held 59 seats in the Senate because two independents caucused with them. In May 2009, Obama nominated U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York for the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice David Souter. Senate Judiciary Committee hearings began on June 1 of that year, and Sotomayor was confirmed by a vote of 68-31 on Aug. 6. Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts did not vote. He died on Aug. 25 -- 15 months after being diagnosed with brain cancer. If Kennedy had been present for the vote, Senate Democrats would have had a filibuster-proof majority. But that didn’t matter because nine Republicans voted to confirm Sotomayor. Then almost exactly one year later, Obama’s nominee to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, was confirmed by the Senate on Aug. 6 in a 63-37 vote, with five Republicans voting in favor and one Democrat, former Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voting against. During the confirmation of both Sotomayor and Kagan, Democrats had a comfortable majority that was near filibuster-proof if not for the absence of Kennedy in August 2009 and the lone dissenting Democratic vote by Nelson in August 2010. On the surface, the margins achieved by Sotomayor and Kagan would seem to support Durbin’s argument that the confirmations required 60 votes. However, it’s more complicated than that. The nominations were never filibustered, so no 60-vote cloture motion was required. And the final confirmation required only 51 votes. In fact, two sitting justices -- Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas -- never reached 60 votes in their final tally. The key word that trips up Durbin is "standard." The existing Senate "standard" says nothing about reaching 60 votes. If the standard for passing a class is earning a C, and someone gets a B, it doesn’t mean that a B was required to pass the class. The "standard" to pass the class is still a C. Whether this longstanding standard lasts into the future, given the degree of polarization in Congress today, is another question entirely. Our rating In an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show, Durbin said Obama’s nominees met a standard of 60 votes, "a standard that was met by Elena Kagan as well as Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's choices." Obama’s nominees cleared the procedural hurdles and won 60 votes and then some. The Senate confirmed Kagan by a roll call vote of 63-37 in 2010, and Sotomayor was confirmed in 2009 by a vote of 68-31. Kagan and Sotomayor ultimately would have had enough votes to be able to break a filibuster, but they never had to -- and the margins they got on the final, simple-majority vote can’t be used to retroactively define what the "standard" was.