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☆ The Covid Origins Debate
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Did Covid jump from an animal to a person at a food market in Wuhan, China — or leak from a research lab there? — David LeonhardtIn the early days of the pandemic, I was speaking to a variety of U.S. intelligence officials who believed that China was hiding the truth of what happened with Covid. In the name of safety, Chinese officials ordered that coronavirus samples be destroyed. At best, this hampered the later investigation into Covid’s origins, and at worst it was a sign of a cover-up. In this context, some of those intelligence officials believed that people were not paying enough attention to the lab-leak theory.

Persons: David Quammen, Julian Barnes, — David Leonhardt, Covid Organizations: Times Magazine Locations: Wuhan, China, Washington

There have been 195 ACL injuries across women soccer’s top leagues, according to the ACL Women Football Club. “It’s not a coincidence I think that you get Leah and Beth injured after the Euros last summer,” said Arsenal star Miedema. Miedema believes this was an issue that world soccer’s governing body FIFA must address. A British Journal of Sports Medicine study found women to be three to six times more likely to experience an ACL injury than men. European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, referenced to CNN the Women’s Health Expert Panel it established, which has a “high priority” researching ACL injuries.

Persons: Vivianne, –, Miedema, we’ve, It’s, ” Miedema, CNN’s Christina Macfarlane, – Leah Williamson, Beth Mead, Laura Wienroither, Canada’s Janine Beckie, Catarina Macario, France’s Delphine Cascarino, Ryan Pierse, ”, Pep, “, “ You’ll, Williamson –, “ It’s, Leah, Beth, “ They’ve, they’re, Leah Williamson, Clive Rose, Jonas Eidevall, Miedema’s Organizations: CNN, Arsenal, Women Football Club, United States Women’s National, League, English Premier League, FA, Champions League, England, ”, FIFA, of Sports Medicine, UEFA, Women’s, English Football Association, Super League, Barclays Women’s, Nottingham Trent University Locations: Netherlands, Man, Switzerland

☆ Women’s World Cup 2023: Some of the game’s top players are absent. And it’s because of the same injury issue
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Hannah Ryan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

Fast-forward to the upcoming Women’s World Cup, which starts on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand, and a host of the game’s best players will also be absent because of an injury which appears to be endemic in the women’s game. But why are so many female soccer players suffering from the same injury? “At elite clubs in the men’s game, players have access to exceptional academies and training facilities from a very young age. Beth Mead starred for England in its Euro 2022 victory but will be missing the Women's World Cup. According to the findings, 34% of women players reported discomfort specifically in their heel and the majority use specialized insoles.

Persons: Simone Magill, Magill, “, ” Magill, Leah Williamson, Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Macario, Giulia Gwinn, Iman Beney –, Leah Abucayan Sarah Milner, doesn’t, Féminin, Ballon, Katrine Okholm, Kryger, ” Kryger, that’s, aren’t ‘, they’ve, Rachel Williams, Williams, Jacques Feeney, Kyrger, England, Sarina Wiegman, Luna, Crystal Dunn, we’re, haven’t, –, Miedema, ”, ’ Milner, ” Milner, Catarina Macario, Jeffrey McWhorter, Milner Organizations: CNN, Northern Ireland, CNN Sport, England, US, National, Europe’s, of Sports Medicine, –, St Mary’s University, FIFA, Manchester United, Super, Sports Medicine, European Club Association, Nike, UEFA Locations: Norway, Northern, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Twickenham , London, England, plastering, Europe, Paris, Northern Ireland, France

☆ Fact Check-Fictional New Mexico emergency broadcast circulates online
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A video circulating online that purports to show an Emergency Alert System broadcast warning of an emergency at a New Mexico research facility is fabricated, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security said. A spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said in an email that no such broadcast was made. No such statement was released via the New Mexico government official website (www.nm.gov/news/) nor through the New Mexico Department of Public Safety site (here). There is no evidence that a “Black Mesa” research facility exists in New Mexico. No such broadcast was aired, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said.

Persons: Alp Toker, Read Organizations: New, New Mexico Department of Homeland Security, Emergency Management, Reuters, New Mexico Department of Public, Valve Software Locations: Mexico, New Mexico

☆ Why Silicon Valley Bank collapsed and what it could mean
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

London CNN —Silicon Valley Bank collapsed with astounding speed on Friday. A Brinks armored truck sits parked in front of the shuttered Silicon Valley Bank headquarters on March 10, 2023 in Santa Clara, California, United States. Established in 1983, Silicon Valley Bank was, just before collapsing, America’s 16th largest commercial bank. Like many other banks, SVB ploughed billions into US government bonds during the era of near-zero interest rates. By Friday morning, trading in SVB shares was halted and it had abandoned efforts to raise capital or find a buyer.

☆ Fact Check-Antineoplastons not a proven ‘cancer cure’ and not an approved treatment
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Online claims that the drugs are a cancer “cure” and that any of them has been FDA-approved are misleading, a cancer expert and an FDA official told Reuters. A video viewed more than 135,000 times on Facebook begins with: “THIS CURE FOR CANCER WAS DISCOVERED 42 YEARS AGO…” (here). A search of the database also shows no reported Phase 3 or randomized controlled studies on any antineoplastons as a cancer treatment. To approve a drug, FDA requires phase 3 studies to demonstrate “whether or not a product offers a treatment benefit to a specific population” (here). Cancer Research UK and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center also caution about the lack of evidence for antineoplastons in treating cancer (here), (here).

☆ Britain’s NHS was once idolized. Now its worst-ever crisis is fueling a boom in private health care
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Private hospital groups flourishTo keep up with growing demand for their services, private health care providers are expanding at a rapid clip. CEO Justin Ash estimates that the market for private health care in the United Kingdom has doubled since before the pandemic to 15 million people. Ash said that appetite for private health care spans a much broader set of ages and incomes than in the past. “We’ve clearly moved into a world in which we’re all NHS patients but have episodes of private care,” he said. There is no universal health care in America and most people have private health insurance because health care is very expensive.

☆ America’s gun epidemic is deadlier than ever, and there are vast disparities in who’s dying
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Deidre Mcphillips | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The researchers found that firearm mortality rates increased for most demographic groups in recent years – especially during the pandemic – and vast disparities persisted. With infant mortality in the United States, when you look at Black infants versus White infants, there’s over a two-fold (difference in) mortality rate. There are two key factors driving community gun violence, says Jonathan Jay, an assistant professor at Boston University School of Public Health: disadvantage at the neighborhood level and exposure to gun violence at the individual level. “Gun violence is most likely in spaces that show signs of physical disinvestment. The gun suicide rate increased 10% while the non-gun suicide rate decreased by 8%, and the gun homicide rate increased 45% while the non-gun homicide rate increased only 6%.

☆ Fact Check-Boston University hybrid COVID virus kills 80% of mice, not people
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The authors then infected different sets of transgenic mice designed to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 with one of the three strains: Omicron, the ancestral virus, or the Omi-S hybrid virus (here). In the study, 100% of mice infected with the ancestral virus strain died, while 80% of those infected with Omi-S died, and none of the mice infected with Omicron died. Others shared the claim that the Omi-S had an “80% kill rate,” without specifying whether this referred to mice or humans. The ancestral virus (the viruses as they were when introduced in Europe and the US) in this mouse model kills 100% of the animals. Early in the pandemic, the fatality rate of the ancestral virus for people in a multicountry European analysis was estimated at about 4% (here).

☆ Farmaceuticals: Vets face pressures to prescribe
▼ + stars: | 2014-09-15 | by ( Brian Grow | Reuters Graphic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +29 min

The feed tickets examined represent a fraction of the tens of thousands issued annually to poultry farms run by or for major producers. Some of its feed has contained low levels of one antibiotic, feed tickets show. REUTERS/Randall Hill MODERN BARN: Nearly 20,000 broiler chicks are housed inside a Foster Farms chicken ranch in Stanislaus County, California. As the CDC studied what investigators informally called the “Foster Farms Outbreak,” researchers soon made a troubling discovery. Reuters asked to see Foster Farms’ feed tickets from that period; the company didn’t respond to that request.

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