NYC Poison Control Center Sees Spike In Calls Following Trump’s “Disinfectant” Remarks

Despite warnings from Lysol and health officials, poison control centers saw a spike in activity in the days following the president's remarks. 

(TMU) — This week, everyone has been talking about comments made by US President Donald Trump at one of his regular coronavirus press briefings.

During the press conference, Trump tried his best to describe a variety of experimental treatments that he wants his administration to explore, but his descriptions of the potential treatments were extremely clumsy and gave the impression to many people that common “disinfectants” could be ingested or injected to cure the coronavirus.

He also made a quick remark about how UV light could kill the virus, and while there is a legitimate scientific basis for this claim, it was once again represented by the president in a very clumsy way, in his typical style of unscripted “hot takes.”

Of course, Trump’s supporters have rushed to his defense, insisting that his comments were misconstrued by the media, reaching to point out a variety of different alternative treatments that might align with his comments. However, he did not mention any of these treatments by name, and did not give any specifics about the actual research, and instead used vague terms like “disinfectant,” which has a very specific colloquial meaning for most Americans.

Hi, ER Doc here.
Do NOT inject or consume ANY disinfectants in an attempt to kill COVID19.
— Sam Ghali, M.D. (@EM_RESUS) April 23, 2020

During the press conference, Trump’s exact words were:

“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds, it sounds interesting to me.”


When he was later questioned about his comments following the backlash, Trump said that he was just being sarcastic, and playing games with the media.

“I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” Trump said.

While his supporters insist that his message were clear, it appears that some people took his comments literally, and trusted his advice enough to ingest dangerous amounts of household cleaners.

Please don't eat tide pods or inject yourself with any kind of disinfectant.
If you do need help with #COVID19 issues, we have lots of resources at https://t.co/C4x8jjWL0x
Just don't make a bad situation worse.
— WA Emergency Management (@waEMD) April 23, 2020

Despite warnings from local health departments, and an announcement from Lysol telling its customers not to drink or inject bleach, poison control centers around the country saw a spike in activity in the days following the president’s remarks.

Reminder: Lysol disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as directed and in line with usage guidelines pic.twitter.com/yPVhvINxbU
— Lysol (@Lysol) April 24, 2020

According to an NBC affiliate in New York City, the city had 30 exposure calls in the hours after the president’s press conference, nine of those calls were specifically about Lysol, ten were about bleach and 11 were about other household cleaners. This is reportedly more than double the number that the center recorded this time last year, where only 13 calls happened in that same period, only 2 involving bleach, and none including Lysol. Luckily, none of the calls this week resulted in death or hospitalization.

Some of this increase from last year can be attributed to the fact that more people are at home and dealing with cleaners. Even before Trump’s comments, poison control centers in Kentucky and other areas were reporting higher rates of poison control calls, mostly relating to children. However, poison control centers have had an especially busy week following the president’s remarks.

By John Vibes | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com

Amid election uncertainty and viral surge, U.S. economic recovery wobbles

By Howard Schneider

© Reuters/MIKE BLAKE FILE PHOTO: California closes indoor shopping malls as it pulls back from opeing due to sharp rise in positive coronavirus tests

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fresh signs the U.S. economic recovery may be faltering surfaced over the last week with high-frequency measures of retail traffic and jobs both ebbing amid a record-breaking surge in coronavirus cases.


Millions of formerly employed Americans remain sidelined by the recession triggered by the virus, and uncertainty over the future direction of the country - politically and economically - remains especially high in the shadow of this week's still-unsettled U.S. presidential election.

Foot traffic to retail locations turned lower, according to data collected by Unacast https://www.unacast.com/covid19/covid-19-retail-impact-scoreboard and Safegraph https://www.safegraph.com/dashboard/covid19-commerce-patterns and indexed to March 1, before a state of emergency was declared to combat the pandemic. The firms' information is based on cellphone movements matched against a library of identified retail locations.

Estimates of seated diners at restaurants collected by reservation site OpenTable https://www.opentable.com/state-of-industry fell for a third straight week.

Graphic: Retail in real time - https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/REOPEN/xegvbjdrnvq/chart.png

The number of people working declined for a second straight week at a sample of around 55,000 small businesses whose employee time is managed by Homebase https://joinhomebase.com/data.

The firm has been providing data on that set of businesses, all of which were open at the start of the year, to see how they fared through the pandemic. The number of them now open has fallen for six weeks in a row, from a post-pandemic high of 45,347 in mid-September to 44,403.

Graphic: A slump in small business? - https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/REOPENING/qmyvmjzjapr/chart.png

Employment at a broader set of industries, maintained by UKG https://www.kronos.com/about-us/newsroom/update-us-workforce-activity, has been sluggish, growing at less than 1% through October, virtually flat for the smallest businesses, and falling over the past week.

Graphic: Jobs in real time - https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/REOPENING/azgvoaggdvd/chart.png

An index of job openings maintained by the Indeed https://www.hiringlab.org Hiring Lab was relatively flat through October, at around 15% below the levels of a year ago. Estimates from analytics firm Chmura http://www.chmuraecon.com/blog, comparing new job openings to predicted levels without the pandemic, showed a deeper gap of more than 20%.

New claims for unemployment insurance, at 751,000 for the week ending Oct. 31, have changed little in recent weeks, stalled at a level above the peak seen during the 2007-2009 Great Recession.

Dave Gilbertson, UKG's vice president for strategy and operations, said it appears the new wave of infections has led to "extreme caution" when it comes to hiring plans.

The virus has now infected nearly 10 million people and the number of new cases topped 100,000 on Wednesday for the first time. Compared with the more geographically contained outbreak in the spring, centered in densely populated areas around the Northeast, COVID-19 is now in wide circulation, with the highest rates of infection in the Midwest. More than 233,000 people in the country have died.

The overall pace of recovery shows signs of plateauing, and a broader read on that will come on Friday when the U.S. Labor Department releases its monthly employment report for October. The country is expected to have added 600,000 nonfarm payroll jobs last month, according to a Reuters poll of economists. That would still leave a gap of roughly 10 million from pre-pandemic levels.

Even that data will be backward-looking, rooted in estimates from a government survey conducted three weeks ago.

In the more quickly evolving pandemic economy, economists have turned to alternative data sources to gauge conditions closer to real time.

Those indicators were the earliest to show the initial rebound in May and June. They have turned flat this fall, particularly in October as the coronavirus spread.

Adding to the economic risk now: Uncertainty over the outcome of Tuesday's presidential election and whether a still-gridlocked U.S. leadership will find ways to stem the country's twin health and economic crises.

Early measures helped. Legislation passed by Congress in March unleashed trillions of dollars of federal assistance for households and businesses, keeping establishments solvent and supporting personal income, spending and savings despite continued high unemployment.

New bankruptcy data from Epiq AACER for October showed that, while the number of Chapter 11 filings used by larger companies remains about 30% higher than the last year, the number of new filings fell more than 26% from September. Including personal and other commercial bankruptcies, overall filings are down more than 40% on a year-to-date basis compared to 2019.

A New York Fed https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/policy/weekly-economic-index#/interactive weekly index of projected gross domestic product rose last week and has climbed steadily, tracking the ongoing resumption of economic activity.

Graphic: NY Fed Weekly Economic Index - https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/WEI/azgpoagodpd/chart.png

But on a broad basis, the situation is at best uncertain.

An Oxford http://blog.oxfordeconomics.com/topic/recovery-tracker Economics broad recovery index fell for the third straight week and hit its lowest level since mid-August, driven by a sharp drop in health metrics that may be curbing people's willingness to move about and may be starting to suppress demand.

Graphic: Oxford Economics Recovery Index - https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/OXFORDINDEX/yzdvxqzmkpx/chart.png

"The dangerous cocktail of surging Covid infections and fading fiscal support has led to a visible slowdown," wrote Gregory Daco, Oxford's chief U.S. economist. "The economy is sending distressing signals to policymakers."

(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Dan Burns and Paul Simao)

How claims of a French variant grabbed global headlines

Issued on: 06/01/2022 – 23:33

If French Professor Didier Raoult hadn’t already shot to global fame for his claims that hydroxychloroquine could be used in the fight against Covid-19, his latest find – a “new” coronavirus variant emerging in southern France – might have gone unnoticed. Instead his latest findings, not yet peer-reviewed, took on a life of their own this week after being retweeted hundreds of times, including by a US scientist, sparking concern and sensationalist headlines that many experts say are unwarranted.

It all began in November last year, when a new variant was identified and uploaded as B.1.640.2 on the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID) platform, which promotes the sharing of data on influenza and the coronavirus responsible for Covid-19.   

A few weeks later, on December 9, Raoult and his team at the Marseille University Hospital (IHU) in southern France tweeted that they had detected the new variant in someone who had travelled from Cameroon and that 11 people who had been in contact with that person had also been infected. IHU announced that it had registered the variant on GISAID and named it after the institution that had discovered it: IHU. 

The discovery failed to make headlines, however, as the fast-spreading Omicron variant had just landed in France and was infecting people at lightning speed, fuelling a new record of 332,000 new cases in 24 hours on Wednesday. To date, the IHU variant has only been detected a dozen or so times although its emergence is widely believed to have preceded Omicron by a few weeks.   

But just before New Year, on December 29, Raoult’s team published a so-called preprint of their discovery on the online server medRxiv under the title, “Emergence in Southern France of a new SARS-CoV-2 variant […]”. A preprint is a study that has not yet been certified through peer-review and medRxiv warns that the studies it carries should “not be relied on to guide clinical practice […] and should not be reported in news media as established information”. 

‘Breaking!

This is when the no-longer-new coronavirus variant took on a whole new life, as the news quickly started spreading across the world. Thailand Medical News, a website directed at Thai medical industry staff, was one of the first media outlets to sound the alarm, headlining with: “Breaking! Updates on new B.1.640.2 variant spreading in southern France. Number of cases growing and variant now detected in the United Kingdom as well!”. The website also claimed that 315 people in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, which includes Marseille, were on respirators. 

Doctor Eric Feigl-Ding, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, tweeted Raoult’s preprint to his more than 677,000 followers. The original tweet has since been deleted, but in the 11-post thread that followed – and still remains online – Feigl-Ding noted that the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region where IHU was discovered has “a steeper #COVID19 death climb than the rest of France”, although he added: “Not sure if this is #Omicron or if it’s the new variant (unclear), but still not good regardless even if Omicron.”  

10) the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region also has a steeper #COVID19 death climb than the rest of . Not sure if this is #Omicron or if it’s the new variant (unclear), but still not good regardless even if Omicron. https://t.co/XLiTXZdwzE

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 3, 2022

International media – including Forbes, Deutsche Welle and the Independent – followed suit with headlines on the supposedly “new” variant. 

The media frenzy prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to weigh in on Wednesday, saying the IHU variant “has been on our radar” but that it is not overly concerned about its emergence. 

‘Nonsense’

Epidemiologists and virologists also tried to stem the rising tide of concern. 

One of them was Professor François Belloux, director at the University College London’s Genetics Institute. “In case anyone came across tweets by @DrEricDing or other ‘variant fear mongers’ who possibly disappointed by Omicron, are announcing the new variant from hell (B.1.640.2), please relax for now …”, he tweeted, accompanying his claims with data and charts in an attempt to reassure the general public. He noted that the last detected IHU case was recorded on December 6 last year – and that it “does not explain a spike of cases in Southern France” and “has not sent hundreds of people in ICU in France”.  

He ended by saying: “I won’t link to any of the sources behind those outlandish claims, but feel free to Google ‘B.1.640.2’ if you wished to be exposed to a lot of nonsense.” 

Tom Peacock, a virologist at the Imperial College of London, also addressed the uproar. “Lots of chat about B.1.640.2 in the last few days – just a few points to keep in mind: – B.1.640.2 actually predates Omicron – in all that time there are exactly … 20 sequences (compared to the >120k Omis in less time) Def not one worth worrying about too much at the mo…”   

In an emailed response to FRANCE 24 on Thursday, Peacock reiterated that IHU predates Omicron, describing it as: “really not something that is worth the public being at all worried about at the moment, particularly in the face of Omicron, which is a much, much bigger public health concern”. 

Although Peacock said the Raoult team’s study “is an OK preprint and accurately describes 12 epidemiologically linked cases with the index case”, he said he believes part of the reason news of the “new” IHU variant took off was that some media linked IHU with the currently high ICU occupancy in southern France, which he said “definitely aren’t” linked. 

He also said the fact that Raoult and his team named the variant may have added some fuel to the fire. Naming a variant tends to “generate media attention, which creates a strange environment where there is sudden media interest in a variant that clearly isn’t really going anywhere – as in this case”. 

INTERVIEW: How Africa can push its agenda at COP27 – Egyptian Ambassador

Egypt prepares to host the world for COP27 in November. 

The country's ambassador to Nigeria told PREMIUM TIMES that African leaders need to speak with one voice.

Egypt Ambassador to Nigeria, Ihab Awab

By Chiamaka Okafor and George Ogala
October 5, 2022


As the 27th Conference of State Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) draws near, African leaders are speaking with perhaps the loudest voice on why Africa’s needs should be prioritised given the unprecedented effects of climate change on the continent in spite of its inconsequential contribution to global carbon emissions.

In this interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Egypt’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Ihab Awab, outlines the several strategies being put in place by Egypt which will host the COP in November.
Excerpts

PT: COP27 is nicknamed Africa’s COP. What should Africa expect from Egypt, given that it is playing host, in terms of putting Africa’s interest first?

Mr Awab: It is true that the Sharm El-Sheikh Conference of State Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, otherwise known as COP27, is Africa’s COP.

It is taking place at a very significant juncture of our worlds, of course, with all the challenges facing the world now, economically, recovery efforts from the Covid19 pandemic; the implications of the conflict in Ukraine and also the very clear indications that the world is not doing enough to combat climate change. But at the same time, the whole narrative around climate change has been developed outside Africa, it is time now to use the Sharm El-Sheikh conference to bring Africa’s voice to the forefront of the discussions on what can be done in order to combat the impact of climate change on the future of our continent.

Our continent is basically the least contributor to carbon emission, not more that four per cent, and at the same time it is a continent that is developing, that is growing, a continent that has adopted and took upon itself to implement and achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2030 on sustainable development and the road is very long; the challenges to meet those goals are enormous. Some of them must be prioritised vis-a-vis other commitments in climate change, simply because since we as a continent are not the primary contributor, then we should not be taking up extra commitment on ourselves that might stifle or hinder our development aspirations. So this is basically the main tenet of how Egypt’s incoming presidency of COP27 is thinking about Africa’s stance.

Africa’s voice needs to be very clear that we are all in the same boat and it is essential for there to be joint effort to combat climate change. But at the same time, we have our development aspirations and this is something I believe the Egyptian presidency during its Pre-COP consultations within Africa and with the rest of the world has been very clear about.

The other thing about the Sharm El-Sheikh conference is that we will like to call it the implementation conference. Many of the pledges made in previous conferences regarding support to the developing countries especially in Africa, or how the transition to renewable energy for example should take place without undermining our development/growth aspirations, is yet to materialise. The aspect of financing some of the projects is a key priority for the incoming Egyptian presidency of COP27 and it is something that all African countries agree that COP27 should and must actually come out with practical actions and we at the same time do realise that the moment may be a little challenging because of the cost of the conflict in Ukraine, the incomplete recovery of the global economy after covid19. There are competing priorities for finance all over the world. If we are serious about combating climate change and also equally serious about achieving the SDGs, then this is the conference and this is the kind of discussion that needs to take place in Sharm El Sheikh.

So that is why we believe in the opportunity for Africa to speak with one voice on the issues that matter the most for the future of Africa and for the issues that challenge Afrca in terms of climate and economic development.

PT: You said Africa needs to speak with one voice and Egypt by virtue of being the next COP president, has assumed a leadership position. How is Egypt mobilising and organising other African Heads of State to make sure we are speaking with one voice?

Mr Awab: The consultations at different political levels have been ongoing as well as consultation at the technical level. First of all, Africa has a group of negotiators that have been established a long time ago to participate and represent Africa’s common position at the expert technical level. This group has been mobilised and through that group, we go a step up to the African Council of Ministers of Environment, which is also the higher political level of ministers of environment which is also a very important configuration to discuss what is coming out of the expert level.

President El-Sisi of Egypt has invited other African leaders to a segment of the Sharm El-Sheikh conference called the leaders summit. He has prioritised inviting African leaders to be present at COP27 to the extent possible in big numbers and in order for the concerns of Africa to be voiced not only jointly in one meeting but also in the various bilaterals that are expected to take place around Sharm El-Sheikh.

World leaders will be there and African leaders will be there. And of course there is hope that we synchronise and synergise our messages at that highest political level so that the message does not come only in declarations that we are planning to put together but also in the messages of the various leaders and ministers among themselves and other ministers and leaders all over the world.

So this is how we try to mobilise/formulate the message. There are levels of formulating the messages, putting the priorities and the leaders will be there, hopefully in numbers, to make sure that those messages come across at the highest political level.

PT: At the Africa Adaptability Summit in Rotterdam, we saw that leaders of western countries did not show up at the meeting. How does that impact climate action?


Mr Awab: As I mentioned, we do recognise the challenging moment that the world is living in. Our preparations and close coordination with the outgoing presidency -UK- is focusing on the fact that, despite the fact that there are various challenges, the world cannot afford not to act. We still have a few weeks until COP27, we are receiving indications that world leaders, especially from developed countries and industrial countries, they do recognise that we cannot walk back from the commitments we have made in previous conferences.

Most recently, there was an IPCC report that said the world is in a very serious situation when it comes to emission and there was a lot of doubt on whether we will be able to reach the target of reducing emission and also temperature.

That came as a wake up call to all of us, that while we are experiencing these challenges, there is no turning back. So we do hope and we are confident that world leaders will still show up but not showing up only, which is a sign of commitment itself, but hopefully they are also showing up with readiness to make commitments and pledges for the implementation of previous commitments that were made.

There are diplomatic efforts ongoing to make sure we are able to get the best outcome in these circumstances.

PT: Are there specific roles other big players in Africa can play at COP27?

Mr Awab: Absolutely. And this is a very good segue to highlight the important role of Nigeria. Nigeria has been very vocal about the tenet of the African position and interest especially in the particular area of just energy transition. There is no development without energy and there is no development without access to energy and it is one of the 17 SDGs.

Egypt Ambassador to Nigeria, Ihab Awab with Premium Times reporter

Nigeria has been very vocal about it; President Buhari is a major champion of how Africa should mobilise itself to maintain its fair share of energy access and how access to energy and combating climate change should not necessarily be two contradictory goals for humanity.

Nigeria plays a major role within Africa, thanks to President Buhari’s very vocal and very clear position but also Vice President Osinbajo who has been very vocal; his writings in major publications, his most recent visit to the US and his presentation in Washington.

He is one of the champions to one of the most important African positions and aspirations which is just energy transition and this is shared widely across Africa and it is very important that countries such as Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Senegal, Morocco, Algeria and many of the big economies in Africa are able to really mobilise within their respective subregions but also to be able to speak with one and to be very vocal about the priorities of Arica and that is why we work very closely with Nigeria and there is a very good synergy on many of the main priorities before Sharm El Sheikh.

PT: Could you quickly outline some of these priorities aside from just the energy transition which of course is very important. What other priorities are we looking at Africa speaking to with one voice?

Mr Awab: The question of adaptation, how developing countries could adapt to the transition to green economies, green energy, and renewable energy.

This is a very important aspect. We do recognise as Africa that this is a goal that we need to achieve. But at the same time, we know that this is going to cost… the international community has the responsibility to aid Africa in its transition to this kind of energy which is still not very affordable to all the economies. So the technology needs to be available and there is a lot of effort, commitment and political will that needs to be demonstrated by the international community in that particular direction.

It is not only the adaptation of energy, it is how our economies can be transformed into a green economy. It is not a button that you are going to push and you all of a sudden transform social and economic traditions and realities. We are talking about clean cooking in Africa; how are we going to make a transformation to clean energy for the regular household in the villages and small towns of Africa.

These are breaks for the future of the continent, the developing world and the global economy itself. If the majority of the population of the world that lives in the developing world is unable to make that transformation, then our goal towards combating climate change but also towards ending poverty will not be attained. So we are very clear that ending poverty and attaining the goals for preserving our earth and combating climate change should not be in contradiction.

PT: What specific demands should we look out for at the negotiation table at COP27?

Mr Awab: As I mentioned, it is not only government to government that will be solving our problems. The role of the private sector and business to business investment in that transformation is going to be key. If the larger title is financing, and the issue of financing is key because developing countries cannot do it alone and also I need to remind that developing countries are not the largest emitters especially African countries.

We are talking about financing that will have to come from governments, international financial institutions, investment funds, but also private sector and companies that are able to transfer the technologies needed at a cost effective rate. This is the main asks that will be presented at Sharm El-Sheikh that cuts across the various aspects of the agenda of the conference from adaptation to mitigation to compensation to risks and all of the agenda items.

PT: What role can the media play in spotlighting, highlighting and sending out the African message?

Mr Awab: I think there is a very important role for the media. By virtue of the several participations expected at COP27, it is not just about what the government says or agrees to. This is about how all levels of our society is able to achieve together and this is where the media’s role is key; synthesising societies; synthesising business; putting forward the accountability dimension of what we can achieve, whether in Sharm El Sheikh or in the follow conferences. I think this is where the media can be able to highlight the ending poverty, combating climate change and how they should not be in conflict and what that really means for human commitments.

Beyond governments in the developed countries, there are people in those countries who really care about the future of our earth and the more the media is able to present the kind of challenges we are facing in order to be part of our common drive. This is a major role the media can play.

This is the first of the two-part interview. In the second part, the ambassador talks about the 2013 unrest in Egypt, fighting terrorists, trade between Nigeria and Egypt and other matters. Stay with PREMIUM TIMES for the second part.

Chika Igba assisted with transcribing this interview.

Chiamaka Okafor is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.

#QUACK  

White House Doctor Gives Trump The All-Clear With Few Details

HE IS A #CHIOPRACTOR

Mary Papenfuss Trends Reporter, HuffPost•October 10, 2020

Donald Trump’s physician issued a statement late Saturday declaring that the president no longer poses a risk of transmitting COVID-19 to others. But he failed to provide the critical detail about whether or not Trump has tested negative for the coronavirus.

“By currently recognized standards,” Trump is “no longer considered a transmission risk to others,” noted the unsigned statement by White House physician Dr. Sean Conley. He added that the “assortment of advanced diagnostic tests obtained reveal there is no longer evidence of actively replicating virus.”

Not only did Conley fail to reveal if Trump has tested negative for COVID, but he also did not provide specific details about the results of Trump’s “advanced diagnostic tests.” The PCR lab test Conley refers to his memo can give doctors a “rough sense” of how much virus remains in a person’s body, or the viral load, The New York Times noted. Conley’s wording implies that some virus remains in the president’s body.

Melissa Miller, a clinical microbiologist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, told the Times that no test can definitively show if a person at the end of a coronavirus infection is still contagious and poses a risk to others.

The White House has been extraordinarily tight-lipped about the exact nature of Trump’s illness and recovery.

It remains unclear when the president contracted the coronavirus. The White House has refused to reveal when Trump last tested negative.

Conley initially suggested a week ago that Trump had actually been diagnosed a full day earlier on Sept. 30 than what the president stated in a tweet, which would have meant that Trump knew he had COVID-19 before attending group events without a mask or social distancing. Conley later retracted his statement after the White House complained.

But Conley again indicated in his memo that Trump was diagnosed Sept. 30. That would make Saturday “day 10 from symptoms onset,” as Conley noted in the memo.

WH doctor says Trump “no longer considered a transmission risk to others...” pic.twitter.com/ymUrjMLx4Z
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) October 11, 2020

In any case, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that those with severe COVID-19 may need to isolate for 20 days. Trump was airlifted to Walter Reed hospital, was given supplemental oxygen, steroids and two experimental drugs before he was discharged three days later on Monday, which would indicate the illness was serious.

Also, the president’s health could still deteriorate in the next few days, experts note.

Epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, senior fellow of the Federation of American Scientists, called Conley’s memo “evasive” and “sketchy.” He noted the 20 days in isolation recommended by the CDC — and pointed out that people with COVID can be infectious to others for even longer if they’re taking dexamethasone, the steroid that Trump has been on.

3) also studies show that dexamethasone (a corticosteroid) extends the period of infectiousness of #SARSCoV2 #COVID19 beyond even 20 days!!! pic.twitter.com/GcQu77uLzP
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) October 11, 2020

He also pointed out that “synthetic antibodies” created by the experimental drugs Trump took is not the same as immunity, and may skew diagnostic results.

Breaking—Dr Conley now claims Trump is not infectious. He cites CDC criteria, yet CDC clearly says severe #COVID19 cases are infectious for 20 days. And his viral load might be down, but he also has synthetic antibodies. Synthetic doesn’t equal immunity. Ct value also unreported. https://t.co/i4bAXZPXk5 pic.twitter.com/tn3dgp3lDs
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) October 11, 2020

Trump plans to resume his campaign rallies in the coming days.

People spreading coronavirus anxiety on Twitter might actually be bots

by Ryan Ko, The Conversation

Credit: Shutterstock

Recently Facebook, Reddit, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube committed to removing coronavirus-related misinformation from their platforms.

COVID-19 is being described as the first major pandemic of the social media age. In troubling times, social media helps distribute vital knowledge to the masses. Unfortunately, this comes with myriad misinformation, much of which is spread through social media bots.

These fake accounts are common on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. They have one goal: to spread fear and fake news.

We witnessed this in the 2016 United States presidential elections, with arson rumors in the bushfire crisis, and we're seeing it again in relation to the coronavirus pandemic.

Busy busting bots

The exact scale of misinformation is difficult to measure. But its global presence can be felt through snapshots of Twitter bot involvement in COVID-19-related hashtag activity.

Bot Sentinel is a website that uses machine learning to identify potential Twitter bots, using a score and rating. According to the site, on March 26 bot accounts were responsible for 828 counts of #coronavirus, 544 counts of #COVID19 and 255 counts of #Coronavirus hashtags within 24 hours.

This figure shows the top Twitter hashtags tweeted by bots over 24 hours. Credit: Bot Sentinel

These hashtags respectively took the 1st, 3rd and 7th positions of all top-trolled Twitter hashtags.

It's important to note the actual number of coronavirus-related bot tweets are likely much higher, as Bot Sentinel only recognizes hashtag terms (such as #coronavirus), and wouldn't pick up on "coronavirus", "COVID19" or "Coronavirus".

How are bots created?

Bots are usually managed by automated programs called bot "campaigns", and these are controlled by human users. The actual process of creating such a campaign is relatively simple. There are several websites that teach people how to do this for "marketing" purposes. In the underground hacker economy on the dark web, such services are available for hire.


While it's difficult to attribute bots to the humans controlling them, the purpose of bot campaigns is obvious: create social disorder by spreading misinformation. This can increase public anxiety, frustration and anger against authorities in certain situations.

A 2019 report published by researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute revealed a worrying trend in organized "social media manipulation by governments and political parties". They reported: "Evidence of organized social media manipulation campaigns which have taken place in 70 countries, up from 48 countries in 2018 and 28 countries in 2017. In each country, there is at least one political party or government agency using social media to shape public attitudes domestically."

The official tweet from Queensland Health and the bots’ responses.

The modus operandi of bots

Typically, in the context of COVID-19 messages, bots would spread misinformation through two main techniques.

The first involves content creation, wherein bots start new posts with pictures that validate or mirror existing worldwide trends. Examples include pictures of shopping baskets filled with food, or hoarders emptying supermarket shelves. This generates anxiety and confirms what people are reading from other sources.

The second technique involves content augmentation. In this, bots latch onto official government feeds and news sites to sow discord. They retweet alarming tweets or add false comments and information in a bid to stoke fear and anger among users. It's common to see bots talking about a "frustrating event", or some social injustice faced by their "loved ones".

The example below shows a Twitter post from Queensland Health's official twitter page, followed by comments from accounts named "Sharon" and "Sara" which I have identified as bot accounts. Many real users reading Sara's post would undoubtedly feel a sense of injustice on behalf of her "mum".

While we can't be 100% certain these are bot accounts, many factors point to this very likely being the case. Our ability to accurately identify bots will get better as machine learning algorithms in programs such as Bot Sentinel improve.

Screenshots of the accounts of ‘Sharon’ and ‘Sara’.

How to spot a bot

To learn the characteristics of a bot, let's take a closer look Sharon's and Sara's accounts.

Both profiles lack human uniqueness, and display some telltale signs they may be bots:
they have no followers
they only recently joined Twitter
they have no last names, and have alphanumeric handles (such as Sara89629382)
they have only tweeted a few times
their posts have one theme: spreading alarmist comments
they mostly follow news sites, government authorities, or human users who are highly influential in a certain subject (in this case, virology and medicine).

My investigation into Sharon revealed the bot had attempted to exacerbate anger on a news article about the federal government's coronavirus response.

The language: "Health can't wait. Economic (sic) can" indicates a potentially non-native English speaker.

An account that seemed to belong to a real Twitter user began engaging with ‘Mel’.

Bot ‘Sharon’ tried to rile others up through her tweets.

Bot ‘Mel’ spread false information about a possible delay in COVID-19 results, and retweeted hateful messages.

An account that seemed to belong to a real Twitter user began engaging with ‘Mel’.

Bot ‘Sharon’ tried to rile others up through her tweets.





It seems Sharon was trying to stoke the flames of public anger by calling out "bad decisions".

Looking through Sharon's tweets, I discovered Sharon's friend "Mel", another bot with its own programmed agenda.

What was concerning was that a human user was engaging with Mel.

You can help tackle misinformation

Currently, it's simply too hard to attribute the true source of bot-driven misinformation campaigns. This can only be achieved with the full cooperation of social media companies.

The motives of a bot campaign can range from creating mischief to exercising geopolitical control. And some researchers still can't agree on what exactly constitutes a "bot".

But one thing is for sure: Australia needs to develop legislation and mechanisms to detect and stop these automated culprits. Organisations running legitimate social media campaigns should dedicate time to using a bot detection tool to weed out and report fake accounts.

And as a social media user in the age of the coronavirus, you can also help by reporting suspicious accounts. The last thing we need is malicious parties making an already worrying crisis worse.


Explore furtherQ&A with Kathleen Carley on the spread of coronavirus disinformation
Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis accused of ‘killing spree’ after extending ban on cities from imposing own mask mandates

James Crump Thu, November 26, 2020

Florida governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the Donald Trump’s make America great victory rally at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on 29 October 2020 ((EPA))

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has been accused of overseeing a “killing spree”, after he extended a ban on cities in the state imposing their own mask mandates.

On Wednesday, Mr DeSantis extended an executive order issued in September, which prevented local governments from fining residents who refused to wear face masks, or from closing restaurants not complying with coronavirus measures.

The decision on 25 September prompted the start of the state’s third phase of pandemic measures, which allowed restaurants and bars to open at 100 per cent capacity.

Florida Democratic officials criticised the governor for the extension of the executive order on Wednesday, amid a spike in cases in the state.

Chris King, the 2018 Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, quote tweeted a local news story about the decision, adding: “Alternate headline: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Continues Killing Spree.”

Alternate headline: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Continues Killing Spree https://t.co/Wh0spcg3RG
— Chris King (@ChrisKingFL) November 25, 2020

Miami-Dade mayor Daniella Levine Cava called the decision “deeply frustrating” in a series of tweets on Wednesday evening.

“Bipartisan governors nationwide are putting mask orders in place as one of the best tools we have to fight #COVID19.

“It’s deeply frustrating that @GovRonDeSantis continues to block local actions and make it harder for local leaders to keep our communities safe,” the mayor wrote.

Bipartisan governors nationwide are putting mask orders in place as one of the best tools we have to fight #COVID19. It’s deeply frustrating that @GovRonDeSantis continues to block local actions and make it harder for local leaders to keep our communities safe.#MaskUpMiami 😷 https://t.co/32yI1MA5Eo
— Daniella Levine Cava (@MayorDaniella) November 25, 2020

Last week, a bipartisan group of Florida mayors pleaded with Mr DeSantis to allow mask mandates to be enforced in areas across the state, according to Forbes.

The governor rejected their plea..

Florida is the largest state in the US to have lifted a majority of its coronavirus restrictions and is one of only 13 that have not issued statewide mask mandates.

It has seen a spike in coronavirus cases over the last couple of months, as the number of Covid-19 infections reported in a week has tripled since Mr DeSantis lifted restrictions, according to CNN.

Last week, the state recorded 53,000 positive tests, which was three times more than the week before Mr DeSantis’ executive order in late September.

The governor has not addressed the increase in cases, and has only tweeted about Covid-19 five times since election day on 3 November.

Since the start of the pandemic, Florida has recorded more than 962,000 Covid-19 cases and at least 18,253 deaths.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 12.7 million people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached 262,266.

The Independent has contacted Mr DeSantis’ office for comment.

University of the Witwatersrand publishes first clinical data on COVID-19 in South Africa

This special issue of the Wits Journal of Clinical Medicine covers a range of aspects of the pandemic, from the clinical, through ethical, to the social dynamics of its impact

UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND

THE JOURNAL, PUBLISHED BY WITS UNIVERSITY PRESS UNDER OPEN ACCESS CONDITIONS, PRESENTS THE FIRST CLINICAL DATA ON COVID-19 PUBLISHED IN SOUTH AFRICA. CREDIT: WITS UNIVERSITY
http://www.wits.ac.za/covid19/covid19-news/latest/wits-publishes-first-clinical-data-on-covid-19-in-south-africa.html

For example, do they resuscitate patients even though the prospects of recovery are slim and the risk to the healthcare team high? How should healthcare workers respond?

This is one of the topics covered in the COVID-19 Special Issue of the Wits Journal of Clinical Medicine. The journal, published by Wits University Press under open access conditions, presents the first clinical data on COVID-19 published in South Africa.

The special issue covers a range of aspects of the pandemic, from the clinical, through ethical, to the social dynamics of its impact.

Highlights include:

Diagnosis of COVID-19: Considerations, controversies and challenges in South Africa
Social dimensions of COVID-19 in South Africa: A neglected element of the treatment plan
Clinical ethical challenges in the COVID-19 crisis in South Africa
Potential impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection in HIV-positive patients in South Africa
COVID-19: The concept of herd immunity - is it a strategy for South Africa?

Editor-in-chief of the Wits Journal of Clinical Medicine Professor Pravin Manga says it is important for health professionals and the public to have access to scientific information:

"Social media is awash with all sorts of quackery regarding prevention and treatment remedies for COVID-19 and it is during these times that we need to be rational and be guided by science rather than by emotion."

Manga is Professor of Internal Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits.

In addition to being a public resource, more than 10 articles in this issue aim to guide healthcare workers. These articles address the ethical aspects related to the pandemic.

For example, which patients should healthcare workers admit to already-filled intensive care units and who decides this? Associate Professor Kevin Behrens, Director and Head of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics discusses such ethical conundrums in his review.

Professor Laurel Baldwin-Ragaven in the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care presents a sobering overview of how some of South Africa's vast social disparities may manifest during COVID-19, and outlines our clinical and social responsibilities.

Professor Charles Feldman in the Division of Pulmonology, Department of Internal Medicine at Wits interrogates the aggravating issue of South Africa's additional burdens of HIV and tuberculosis and the risk of COVID-19 infection in HIV-positive patients.

Professor Ismail S. Kalla in Pulmonology in Internal Medicine and Professor Abdullah Laher in Emergency Medicine in the School of Clinical Medicine explore whether herd immunity offers possibilities as a strategy for fighting COVID-19 in South Africa.

This special issue includes a guide to worldwide Medical Resources on COVID-19, as well as a handy poster-style patient guide for healthcare workers.

###

*Covid-19 Resources for Academics and Students: Access the entire Wits University Press eBook collection in your university library through JSTOR and Proquest until 1 July 2020.

A week ago Media Matters identified hundreds of anti-vaccine Facebook groups. Most of those groups are still active.

Molly Butler / Media Matters

Facebook’s inaction against anti-vaccine groups is part of the platform's pattern of refusing to combat COVID-19 vaccine misinformation

WRITTEN BY KAYLA GOGARTY

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM CARLY EVANS, KELLIE LEVINE, SPENCER SILVA & JEREMY TUTHILL

PUBLISHED 07/29/21 

Facebook has barely taken any action in response to Media Matters’ July 20 report on anti-vaccine groups spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation; nearly 85% of anti-vaccine groups that we identified are still active, new groups have been created, and some were even reinstated after appeal.

On July 20, Media Matters reported that we had identified at least 284 public and private anti-vaccine Facebook groups -- more than double the 117 anti-vaccine groups we reported on in April -- that were spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and/or conspiracy theories to over 520,000 combined members. This report followed the Biden administration’s criticism of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation spreading on social media, particularly Facebook.

A week after our reporting, Facebook has barely taken action against the groups, even though the platform told Fast Company that it was “reviewing the report, and will take action against groups that violate our policies.” Of the 284 private and public groups we identified that contained misinformation and conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccine, 236 groups -- or nearly 85% -- are still active on the platform and have gained nearly 20,000 more members. We have also identified 35 additional anti-vaccine groups, including five groups that were created since July 18. These 271 active anti-vaccine groups have over 456,000 combined members.

In our previous report, Media Matters specifically identified six groups with over 15,000 members apiece. Of these groups, only one -- Canadian Deaths and Adverse Reactions -- is no longer active, and two -- Covid19 Vaccine Victims & Families and The Unvaccinated Arms -- appear to have been briefly taken down and then reinstated.

An administrator for Covid19 Vaccine Victims & Families boasted that the group was reinstated after he appealed Facebook’s decision to remove it. The group has since gained roughly 9,000 members, totaling over 57,000 members.



The Unvaccinated Arms was reportedly taken down but is currently active, with an administrator encouraging members to use a backup group and a moderator of the backup group reminding members to use code words to avoid removal. The group has over 21,000 members, and the backup group, which was created July 18, already has over 11,000 members.





Facebook’s inaction against anti-vaccine groups is part of the company's pattern of refusing to combat COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. Even after the Biden administration publicly criticized Facebook, the platform also has failed to deplatform the “disinformation dozen” -- 12 influencers who reportedly account for 65% of vaccine misinformation on Facebook and Twitter. Nearly all of them have been able to maintain a presence on Facebook and/or Instagram despite their role in regularly spreading misinformation:

Joseph Mercola runs a verified Facebook page with 1.7 million followers and a verified Instagram account with 336,000 followers. He continues to post misinformation about COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccine on both platforms.

Sherri Tenpenny has had at least one Facebook page and one Instagram account removed, but she appears to be affiliated with at least one other Facebook profile and one other Facebook page for a website that she owns and operates. She uses both accounts to promote her podcast, in which she and other anti-vaccine figures push COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.

Rizza Islam has had at least one Facebook account and one Instagram account removed, but he appears to still have a Facebook profile with over 30,000 followers.
Rashid Buttar has had at least one Facebook account and one Instagram account removed, but he appears to still have a Facebook profile and to be affiliated with a public Facebook group.

Christiane Northrup runs a verified Facebook page with over 550,000 followers, even though she has had an Instagram account removed.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is affiliated with at least two Facebook pages that are still active, even though he has been banned on Instagram. One Facebook page for him has over 300,000 followers, and one Facebook page for his organization Children’s Health Defense has over 160,000 followers.

Ty and Charlene Bollinger are affiliated with at least three Facebook pages and two Instagram accounts that are still active, even though at least one of their Instagram accounts has been removed. The Facebook pages have a combined total of over 1.2 million followers and the Instagram accounts have over 124,000 total followers.

Sayer Ji and his website GreenMedInfo both have Facebook pages, even though Instagram removed at least one account for GreenMedInfo. Ji’s wife Kelly Brogan, who is also considered one of the “disinformation dozen,” still has an Instagram account, which she uses to post anti-mask content and COVID-19 misinformation.

Ben Tapper has at least one Facebook page and one Facebook profile, but he claims that Instagram removed his account and backup accounts.
Kevin Jenkins and his organization Urban Global Health Alliance each have a Facebook page and an Instagram account.

Facebook’s failure to take action against anti-vaccine groups and figures on its platforms is just another example of the company refusing to take any concrete actions to address its persistent, and deadly, problems.