Study links depression symptoms with believing COVID-19 vaccine misinformation

A new study has found links between belief in inaccurate information about the COVID-19 vaccines and depression. 

File photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 21 (UPI) -- People who experience symptoms of depression may be more susceptible to online misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, a study published Friday by JAMA Network Open found.

Among more than 15,000 adults age 18 years and older surveyed, those who reported symptoms of major depressive disorder were more than twice as likely to endorse at least one vaccine-related statement that included misinformation, the data showed

Respondents who endorsed at least one statement of vaccine misinformation were 60% less likely to be vaccinated and nearly three times more likely to describe themselves as resistant to getting vaccinated, the researchers said.

"Depression appears to make people more susceptible to absorbing misinformation, at least about the COVID vaccine," study co-author Dr. Roy Perlis told UPI via email.

RELATED CDC: Depression, anxiety continue rise in U.S. due to COVID-19 pandemic

The findings are "just another reminder that we need to do better in ensuring people can get treatment if they need it," said Perlis, director of the Center for Quantitative Health at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Major depressive disorder, or depression, is defined as having at least two weeks of low mood, low self-esteem and loss of interest in daily activities, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

The percentage of adults reporting symptoms of depressive disorders in the United States rose by 17% in 2020-21, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.

RELATED Misinformation could be a growing challenge in 2022, experts predict

Misinformation, sometimes called "fake news," refers to any claims or depictions that are inaccurate, according to the American Psychological Association.

In this study, Perlis and his colleagues asked respondents to rate their level of agreement with statements of vaccine-related misinformation such as, "The COVID-19 vaccines will alter people's DNA" or "The COVID-19 vaccines contain microchips that could track people."

Other misinformation examples used in the survey included, "The COVID-19 vaccines contain the lung tissue of aborted fetuses" and "The COVID-19 vaccines can cause infertility, making it more difficult to get pregnant," the researchers said.

RELATED Study: 'Bots' primary source of misinformation on COVID-19 on Facebook

Among the 15,464 people surveyed, 27% had moderate or severe depressive symptoms and 19% endorsed at least one of the misinformation statements provided by the researchers, the data showed.

"People who are depressed can sometimes see the world with dark- rather than rose-colored glasses -- that is, they can have a bias toward paying attention to negative over positive information," Perlis said.



"So, depression can put a finger on the scale, changing how people make decisions about vaccination," he said.

However, just because someone believes vaccine-related misinformation does not mean they have a mental illness, according to Perlis, and experts believe misinformation is a threat to anyone, not just those who may be struggling with depressive symptoms.

"We are constantly exposed to misinformation online, particularly on social media, and elsewhere," John W. Ayers, co-founder of the Center for Data Driven Health at the Qualcomm Institute at the University of California, San Diego, told UPI in a phone interview.

"Misinformation existed before the pandemic, so this is not a new problem, and it is important that we see it as a threat to all of us, not just certain people," said Ayers, who has researched the topic.

French physicists create bubble that takes more than a year to pop

A team of physicists from France's University of Lille said they used glycerol to create a gas bubble that lasted for 465 days before popping. 

Photo courtesy of Aymeric Roux, Alexis Duchesne and Michael Baudoin/University of Lille

Jan. 21 (UPI) -- A team of French physicists announced they blew a bubble that lasted for 465 days before popping.

The University of Lille team, whose findings were published in the journal Physical Review Fluids, said their research into soap bubbles found they tend to pop after just a few moments due to the "gravity-induced drainage and/or the evaporation of the liquid" inside the soap sphere.

The team, Aymeric Roux, Alexis Duchesne and Michael Baudoin, studied typical "fragile and ephemeral" soap bubbles and gas marbles, a type of bubble made from a liquid solution that contains plastic beads.

The researchers said they analyzed water-based gas marbles and gas marbles made with a solution of water and glycerol, a compound commonly used in various foods and medicines.

The gas marbles containing glycerol displayed particular longevity, with one of the bubbles lasting for a total 465 days before bursting. The team said the gas marble's lifespan is believed to be a new world record.

The researchers said the long-lasting bubbles they created during their project could be used to create stable foams.

BIG HUG THEN LAYOFF
Peloton CEO clarifies plans to consider layoffs, pause production

By Megan Hadley

Peloton stock fell Thursday after reports of layoffs and cost cuts.

 Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Peloton's stock rebounded Friday, a day after reports that the company was halting production of its fitness equipment sent shares tumbling.

Shares of Peloton dropped 24%, closing at $24.22 Thursday, before rebounding 13% on Friday.

CEO John Foley said the company is resetting production levels and reviewing the size of its workforce to make the business more flexible to meet seasonal demand.

On Thursday, CNBC reported that Peloton is pausing Bike production from February to March and that production of its more expensive Bike+ was halted in December and expected to remain so until June. Production of the company's treadmill is expected to be paused for six weeks.

After the document was leaked to media Thursday, Foley released a statement expressing his "sadness" that company members had to read reports without the proper "clarity" and "context."

"As you have heard me and other leaders say over the past few months, we are continuing to invest in our growth, but we also need to review our cost structure to ensure we set ourselves up for continued success, while never losing sight of the important role we play in helping our 6.2+ million Members lead healthier, happier lives," the statement said.

"In the past, we've said layoffs would be the absolute last lever we would ever hope to pull. However, we now need to evaluate our organization structure and size of our team, with the utmost care and compassion."

Botticelli painting with hidden drawing goes on view in NYC


Workers hold "The Man of Sorrows" by Sandro Botticelli, which is on display at a media preview for Sotheby's Masters Week in New York City on Friday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 21 (UPI) -- A painting by Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli -- which was found to have a hidden drawing underneath -- went on view Friday in New York City ahead of its auction.

The portrait of a resurrected Christ titled The Man of Sorrows is expected to fetch upwards of $40 million at Thursday's auction as part of Sotheby's annual Masters Week in New York City.

It is one of only three works from Botticelli's late period -- post-1492 -- still held in private hands, the auction house said.

The last Botticelli artwork to go to auction, Young Man Holding a Roundel, set a new record for the artist, fetching $92.2 million in January 2021.

The Man of Sorrows attracted new attention this month, though, after Sotheby's researchers discovered the painting held a secret -- a hidden drawing of a Madonna and child underneath the layers of paint.

Infrared imaging of the painting revealed the partial and unrelated drawing, indicating the panel was originally meant for a different subject. The outlines of the mother and child are upside down compared to the final painting of Christ, showing the figures pressed together cheek to cheek in an embrace.


An infrared scan of the painting showed a drawing for an planned Madonna and child artwork. Image courtesy of Sotheby's

"The head of the Christ Child, with his upward gaze, is supported by the left hand of the Madonna, and the thick folds of her mantle are visible at her shoulder near the right of the composition," a description of the painting on the Sotheby's website says.

"This particular compositional pose is found in a number of paintings by Botticelli and from his workshop, indicating that the earlier idea for a painting of the Madonna, a mainstay of Botticelli's production, was replaced with what would be a virtually unique and inspired invention by the master."

Sotheby's said Botticelli was inspired by the fanatical preaching of Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola when painting The Man of Sorrows, which depicts Jesus with crucifixion wounds, a crown of thorns and a halo of tiny angels. Savonarola preached against sin and encouraged the burning of artworks considered to be a luxury or idolatrous.

Also up for auction in Sotheby's Masters Week art paintings and sculptures by Carreggio, Andrea del Sarto, Artemisia Gentileschi, Giovanni Bellini and Anne Vallayer-Coster.

Kid exasperated by snow strikes chord with viewers around world

By Zachary Rosenthal, Accuweather.com

Not many kids would admit to wanting to be in school on a snow day, but after a hard day of snow shoveling, 9-year-old Toronto resident Carter Trozzolo was ready to head back into the classroom.

While doing a piece that aired Monday night on how the city's residents were digging out from a blizzard that struck the region, a camera crew with a Canadian TV network, CTV, stumbled upon Carter, who was digging out the sidewalk with his shovel. Given a chance to air his grievances to the world, Trozzolo, a resident of Toronto, was more than happy to share how he really felt.

"I am tired," Carter said before sighing loudly. "I really wish I was in school right now."

Apparently, his parents had decided to really put him to work, and Carter had been shoveling for "neighbors, friends, probably people I even don't know," he explained. "There was a lot of snow, let's just say that."

Carter's exasperation and exhaustion resonated with many in Canada and people across the world, including viewers as far away as Australia.

"I think a lot of us can relate to that amount of exhaustion with everything right now, so I think he captured the emotions of many people," said Rachel Disaia, Carter's mother.

The video went viral, and a camera crew returned to the Trozzolo household to see if he was still tired and how he was handling the newfound fame.

"I'm tired," he said. "I am always tired," Carter said, adding that he still wants to go back to school.

Carter is not the only snow-shoveler in recent years to go viral for their comments during an interview.

In February 2019, when a reporter from a Chicago area news channel asked Judy Ross, "You're sick of this?" while she was shoveling snow on her property, he got a rather blunt reaction in response.

"Well, yeah, especially when I'm the only one here doing all this [expletive]," said Ross, of Waukesha, Wis. "My father used to say: 'I kinda remember that little curly-haired girl that loved the snow.' And I said, 'Well, she grew up. She grew up and she doesn't want to do this anymore.'"

Despite the snow exhausting him, Carter still seems to enjoy it, as he found time to play and lay in the snow after his shoveling duties were done."I love snow days," he said.

Forecasters monitor rare out-of-season tropical development in East Pacific
By Ryan Adamson, Accuweather.com

The system of interest is about 1,000 miles to the east-northeast of Hilo, Hawaii. 

Photo by Kanoa Withington/English Wikipedia

Despite the calendar showing January rather than June, AccuWeather meteorologists are monitoring a gale-force area of low pressure for the potential to develop into an out-of-season tropical depression or storm in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The system of interest is about 1,000 miles to the east-northeast of Hilo, Hawaii. This places the area of interest in an area within a northward bulge in the jet stream.

"A northward bulge in the jet stream is where a tropical system can develop, especially during the warm weather season," explained AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

Image from the AccuWeather Enhanced RealVue trade satellite showing an area of showers and thunderstorms over the Pacific Ocean early on Friday morning.

Since it's the middle of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, rather than the middle of summer, this may limit the ability of the system to develop. In addition, wind shear is already affecting the system.

"The system was being subject to significant wind shear right out of the gate, and that is likely to increase this weekend," Sosnowski said.

Although the likelihood of further development is low, it is not zero.

"There seems to be a brief window for the system to gather enough closed circulation to become a tropical or subtropical depression and storm prior to this weekend," said Sosnowski. "There continued to be strong thunderstorms erupting near the center of the disturbance early Friday morning, but no further organization was visible, he added.

Given the location of the shower and thunderstorm activity, it is not an immediate threat to land. In fact, the projected westward to southwestward movement will mean that is not expected to ever any land areas.

Regardless of development, any shipping interests in the area can expect to experience rough seas and large waves, forecasters say.

The National Hurricane Center gives the system only a 10 chance of development over the next 48 hours as of early Friday.

Despite January being well outside of the traditional tropical season, development has happened several times in the Pacific Ocean during the first month of the year.

"The most recent January storm was Category 2 Hurricane Pali, which spanned from Jan. 7 to Jan. 15 in 2016," AccuWeather meteorologist and senior weather editor Jesse Ferrell said.

Not only was Pali the most recent hurricane, but it also holds the record for the earliest storm in the calendar year. However, it is not the strongest.

"The strongest storm was Category 2 Hurricane Eneka in 1992, which lasted from Jan. 26 to Feb. 9, becoming a Category 3 in February," Ferrell noted.

Both of those storms occurred in the Central Pacific basin, which is the portion of the Pacific between 140 degrees and 180 degrees west longitude. The current disturbance is to the east of 140 degrees west, where development is even rarer during this time of year.

For the East Pacific basin only, Tropical Storm Andres last year on May 9 was the earliest-forming named storm, while Tropical Depression One-E, on Apr. 25, 2020, was the earliest-forming depression according to Ferrell.

The official start of hurricane season in the East Pacific does not occur until May 15. The first name on the list for storms in the East Pacific this year is Agatha.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor calls Texas abortion case a "disaster" in dissent
By Megan Hadley

Justice Sonia Sotomayor calls Texas abortion law a disaster and huge disservice to women. Pool photo by Erin Schaff/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the Supreme Court case involving the Texas abortion ban a "disaster" and a "grave disservice to women" in a new dissent backed by Liberal judges.

She issued the dissent Thursday after a Supreme Court order declined -- for the second time -- to send the abortion case back to the trial judge in Texas, which may have provided some leeway for abortions.

Sotomayor was joined by fellow Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan in the scathing dissent.

"This case is a disaster for the rule of law and a grave disservice to women in Texas who have a right to control their own bodies. I will not stand by silently as a state continues to nullify this constitutional guarantee," she wrote.

She described the abortion ban, known as S.B. 8, as a 'bounty hunter scheme.'

"The law immediately devastated access to abortion care in Texas through a complicated private bounty-hunter scheme that violates nearly 50 years of this Court's precedents," she wrote.

Abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy have been banned in Texas since Sept. 1. The law has a unique enforcement mechanism that allows private citizens to bring lawsuits against anyone who "aids and abets" in a prohibited abortion, making it extremely difficult to challenge in court.

In December, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out most of the arguments against the law, but allowed a narrow challenge to proceed against medical licensing officials. It is that narrow challenge that abortion providers were hoping would be allowed to play out in district court.

Study: Polluted air keeps butterflies, bees from pollinating

By HealthDay News

Air pollution prevents bees and butterflies from pollinating flowers, according to new research. File Photo by Betty Shelton/Shutterstock

As air pollution worsens, fruits, flowers and the creatures that pollinate them could pay a price.

That's the takeaway from British researchers who used special equipment to control levels of two common pollutants -- diesel exhaust and ozone -- in a field of black mustard plants, and then monitored pollinating insects over two summers.

"We knew from our previous lab studies that diesel exhaust can have negative effects on insect pollinators, but the impacts we found in the field were much more dramatic than we had expected," said project leader Robbie Girling, an associate professor in agroecology at the University of Reading in the England.

There were up to 70% fewer pollinators to the affected fields up to 90% fewer flower visits and an overall reduction in pollination of up to 31%, according to findings published this week in the journal Environmental Pollution.

Pollution concentrations were between 40% and 50% of levels considered environmentally safe under U.S. regulations, which is far below the actual pollution levels worldwide.

The findings suggest that dirty air reacts with and changes the scent of flowers, making it harder for insects to locate their food -- pollen and nectar.

The researchers said the study is the first to assess how these common pollutants affect pollination in the natural world.

"The findings are worrying because these pollutants are commonly found in the air many of us breathe every day," study author James Ryalls, a research fellow at the University of Reading, said in a university news release.

"We know that these pollutants are bad for our health, and the significant reductions we saw in pollinator numbers and activity shows that there are also clear implications for the natural ecosystems we depend on," Ryalls said.

The findings could have far-reaching implications, because insect pollination is responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars in economic value worldwide.

About 70% of all crop species, including apples, strawberries and cocoa, rely on pollination.

More information

For more on pollinators, visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Babies identify close relationships by saliva, study suggests

By HealthDay News

Researchers said saliva sharing helps babies identify the people who are most likely to look after their needs. Photo by collusor/Pixabay

Sharing food and smooching are two ways babies can suss out whom they can depend on to take care for them, a new study suggests.

The tell-tale clue common to both is a surprising one: saliva.

"Babies don't know in advance which relationships are the close and morally obligating ones, so they have to have some way of learning this by looking at what happens around them," said senior study author Rebecca Saxe, of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

For the study, her team observed babies and toddlers as they watched staged interactions between people and puppets. The babies were 8-1/2 to 10 months of age and the toddlers were 16-1/2 to 18-1/2 months old.

In one set of experiments, a puppet shared an orange with one actor, then tossed a ball back and forth with another actor.

After the little ones watched these interactions, researchers watched their reactions when the puppet showed distress while sitting between the two actors.

Based on results of animal studies, they expected the youngsters would look first at the person they expected to help.

Not so. Researchers found the children were more likely to look toward the actor who shared food with the puppet, not the one who shared a toy

In the second set of experiments, which focused on saliva, the actor either placed her finger in her mouth and then into the mouth of the puppet, or placed her finger on her forehead and then, on the puppet's. When the actor later expressed distress while standing between the puppets, children were more likely to look toward the puppet with whom she had shared saliva.

The findings suggest that saliva sharing helps infants learn about social relationships, researchers said. It helps babies identify the people who are most likely to look after their needs.

"The general skill of learning about social relationships is very useful," said lead author Ashley Thomas, a postdoctoral student at MIT. "One reason why this distinction between thick and thin [relationships] might be important for infants in particular, especially human infants, who depend on adults for longer than many other species, is that it might be a good way to figure out who else can provide the support that they depend on to survive."

Researchers plan similar studies with infants in cultures that have different family structures. They also want to use brain imaging to investigate what parts of the adult brain are involved in making saliva-based assessments about social relationships.

The findings were published Thursday in the journal Science.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more on babies' emotional and social development.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

GREEN CAPITALI$M

Marijuana advertising on social media targets kids, study shows

By Dennis Thompson, 

HealthDay News

Marijuana vendors use discounts and promotions that draw in youths in social media advertising, researcher found. Photo by 7raysmarketing/Pixabay

Some recreational pot shops are using tricks from the old playbooks of alcohol and tobacco companies to target underage users on social media, a new study reports.

Despite state laws restricting such marketing, researchers found marijuana retailers on social media promoting their wares with posts that:

Featured cartoon characters like Snoopy, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Rick and Morty.

Presented store-branded merchandise like caps and T-shirts.

Offered discounts and deals, like a Memorial Day sale or a regular Friday special.


"Those types of restricted content basically come from evidence around ways that tobacco and alcohol companies used to appeal to youth," said lead author Dr. Megan Moreno, division chief of general pediatrics and adolescent medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"For example, discounts and promotions are actually ways to draw in youths to use your products because they're very price-sensitive, and branded content is a way to draw in young people because they want the hats and the T-shirts," she said.

For this study, Moreno and her colleagues decided to examine how pot shops were using social media to market their goods, looking specifically at four of the "early adopter" legalization states: Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Alaska.

"The one remaining Wild West of marketing is still social media, and one of the issues with social media is that these platforms are most highly frequented by youth," Moreno said. "Essentially, we were wondering what's happening in a lightly regulated environment that's populated by youth, and how are cannabis companies leveraging that."

For the study, the researchers evaluated one year of publicly displayed posts on Facebook and Instagram from companies located in the four states.

One piece of good news -- of 80 recreational weed retailers identified by the researchers, only 16 had a presence on both social media sites, and two of those companies deleted their pages during the study period. Researchers wound up with 2,660 posts from 14 businesses.

About 35% of the posts featured discounts or promotions, even though such marketing is restricted, the study reported. About 7% of posts used pop culture references 6% featured store-branded products and 6% appealed to youth through the use of cartoon characters.

About 12% of the social media posts also promoted the idea that you should use marijuana products until you're very impaired.

RELATED Marijuana legalization fuels rise in accidental exposure to children, study finds

"In alcohol advertising, you don't often see ads that say things like, 'Hey, use our products so you can get drunker. Use our product so you can achieve a better buzz,'" Moreno said. "That's absolutely not allowable in alcohol literature, but we see a lot of that content in the cannabis literature, saying things like 'Use our product to get higher, use our product to reach that higher place we know you want to go' -- really pushing people toward the idea that you should use until you feel impaired."

Linda Richter, vice president of prevention research and analysis with the Partnership to End Addiction, noted that this is all happening in states with "some of the most robust youth protection provisions in their recreational, or adult use, marijuana laws."

Because of that, she said, "the findings are likely quite conservative regarding the extent to which cannabis businesses stray from state marketing restrictions and requirements, such that the actual state of affairs is probably worse and more damaging to teens than reflected in this study."

Richter added that "there's little doubt, based on years of research on tobacco and alcohol advertising and more recent research on marijuana, that advertising and marketing that has youth appeal or that exposes young people to the positive aspects of marijuana have a significant impact on teens' attitudes and behaviors around marijuana use."

Such tactics have been strongly associated in research studies with "reduced perceptions of the risks of marijuana, more acceptance of marijuana use as normal, and more intentions to use marijuana among young people," Richter said.

The social media posts also did a poor job including messages required by law in marijuana marketing, the researchers found. For example, only one-quarter of posts said pot can only be used by those 21 or older, and a similar percentage urged readers to avoid driving impaired.

One problem is that regulations surrounding marijuana marketing vary from state to state, Moreno said. Of the four states, only Alaska and Washington prohibit sales and promotions, for example, while only Washington prohibits store-branded merchandise.

Until recreational pot is legalized at the federal level, it's unlikely that you'll see uniform laws or regulations governing the marketing of these products, said Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, an advocacy group promoting reform of marijuana laws.

"Any potential standardization of rules and regulations governing the marketing of cannabis products is likely impossible in a legal environment where cannabis remains federally illegal, thus leaving the creation and imposition of such standards up to the individual states and localities for the foreseeable future," Armentano said.

Moreno said states should consider banning marijuana marketing from social media, considering that youth comprise about 70% of the audience for a site like Instagram.

If not that, she said states ought to require that social media platforms restrict pot marketing to people of legal age.

"The alcohol industry has actually done a fantastic job with this," Moreno said. "If you are on Instagram and you are under 21, you can't even find or access any alcohol content that is put out by alcohol companies. That's called age gating, meaning the content doesn't even appear unless you're of age."

States also could step up enforcement of their existing rules around pot marketing, with stiff fines to discourage violators, she said.

"Many companies and many policymakers are still trying to navigate how to treat social media. I think there's a view that it's not real or not real life or it doesn't really count or that it's ephemeral," Moreno said.

"I think now is a good time for us to think about how pervasive and influential that content is, as we think about the different ways it's touched our life in COVID and politics and all sorts of different ways," she added. "I think it's time to realize that what happens on social media is real life. It's taken us a while as a society to figure out that we can regulate it as real life."

Such regulations are part of the strength of an above-board and legal pot marketplace, Armentano said, adding that NORML supports restrictions that bar ads in public spaces or marketing that targets young people.

"In licit marketplaces, licensed players are motivated to abide by regulations -- such as limitations on the manner with which products may be advertised and marketed -- whereas in illicit unregulated markets, participants are not compelled to play by any rules," he said. "Unlicensed, illicit players have no qualms marketing their products to young people, possess no incentive to check ID for proof of age, and possess few if any motivations to change their behaviors."

The new study was published online recently in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

More information

The Truth Initiative has more about legalized marijuana and youth.

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