die 'Heart of gold' father Ralph Gibson dies in spate of violence across London By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-28T10:20:00Z This is the first picture of a father with a "heart of gold" who was fatally stabbed in the street near his home in south-west London. Full Article
die 'Some children have died' from inflammatory syndrome which could be linked to coronavirus, says Matt Hancock By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-28T10:22:00Z Some children have died of a new illness that could be linked to coronavirus, the Health Secretary has said. Full Article
die Moment Matt Hancock is confronted by son of doctor who died after contracting Covid-19 By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-28T09:52:00Z "Openly acknowledging your mistake is not an admission of guilt, it is genuinely just making you seem more human." Full Article
die UK to fall silent for one minute in memory of key workers who have died in coronavirus pandemic By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-27T13:40:00Z The UK will fall silent on Tuesday in tribute to key workers who have died during the coronavirus pandemic. Full Article
die UK coronavirus death toll passes 24,000 as nation remembers frontline workers who have died By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-28T14:59:00Z More than 24,000 coronavirus patients have died, new figures show, as the nation paid tribute to frontline workers who lost their lives during the pandemic. Full Article
die Murder probe launched in Hayes after man, 37, dies in 'vicious assault' By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-28T18:19:20Z Detectives have launched a murder investigation after a 37-year-old man died following a "vicious assault" in west London. Full Article
die Man, 27, who died after attack in east London named by police as Jay John By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-28T20:44:04Z A 27-year-old man who died after an attack in east London has been named by police. Full Article
die More Americans have now died from coronavirus than in Vietnam War as country's cases top one million By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-28T21:07:00Z The US coronavirus death toll has now exceeded the 58,220 American lives lost during the Vietnam War, as cases in the country topped one million. Full Article
die Nearly 18,000 more people could die of cancer due to impact of Covid-19, researchers warn By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-28T23:40:04Z Nearly 18,000 more people could die from cancer over the next year in England due to the impact of coronavirus, experts have warned. Full Article
die Families of NHS and social care staff who die from coronavirus to receive £60,000 By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-27T16:13:00Z Families of NHS and social care staff who die from coronavirus in the course of "essential frontline work" will receive a £60,000 payment, Matt Hancock has said. Full Article
die 'Inseparable' East End couple die hours apart after contracting coronavirus By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-27T10:03:00Z Tributes have been paid to Ken and Betty Hill, who were together for more than 40 years Full Article
die Your country needs you: army of foot soldiers to carry out tests By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-29T10:59:13Z From the frontline Full Article
die Moment carer reads heartbreaking goodbye letter to grandma hours before she died with coronavirus By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-29T14:33:13Z This is the heartbreaking moment a carer read a granddaughter's final goodbye to her grandmother, just two days before she died while suffering coronavirus symptoms. Full Article
die New York funeral home put bodies in trucks after running out of space By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-30T14:09:26Z Police were called to a funeral home in New York after a bad smell coming from the street outside turned out to be from hundreds of bodies kept inside trucks. Full Article
die Man charged with murder after 88-year-old widower died from head injury in quiet Surrey village By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-01T19:38:01Z A man has been charged with murder after the death of an 88-year-old widower in a quiet English village. Full Article
die 'Caring' nurse and 'cheerful' healthcare worker become latest NHS staff to die with Covid-19 By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-02T18:40:00Z A nurse and a domestic services assistant have become the latest healthcare workers to die after contracting coronavirus. Full Article
die Wembley Stadium: Person dies on tracks at north-west London railway station By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-05T07:09:39Z Person pronounced dead at the scene after incident early on Tuesday morning Full Article
die Somali sports star who died with Covid-19 escaped war to serve London as Tube engineer By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-05T09:03:36Z An international basketball player who moved to London to escape Somalia's looming civil war has become one of the capital's latest victims of Covid-19. Full Article
die 'Dedicated' health worker, 68, who devoted 20 years to NHS dies after contracting coronavirus By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-05T13:52:00Z A hospital worker described as a "true gentleman" by colleagues has died after contracting coronavirus. Full Article
die Hundreds line streets to pay tribute to NHS doctor who died after contracting coronavirus By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-05T17:17:00Z Hundreds of people have taken to the streets for the funeral of a local doctor who "gave everything for the local community" and died after being infected with coronavirus. Full Article
die Woman held on suspicion of murder after elderly man dies and others injured in 'stabbing' at shop in South Wales By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-05T17:46:00Z A woman has been arrested for suspected murder after a reported stabbing outside a shop in South Wales left an elderly man dead and several others injured. Full Article
die Tributes paid to flower market 'legend' and campaigning cheesemonger who died with coronavirus By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-06T10:43:43Z A key figure of Columbia Road flower market and a campaigning businessman dubbed "Mr Highbury" are among the latest victims whose deaths show how coronavirus is tearing through London's communities. Full Article
die First picture of pensioner who died with head injuries in north London home By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-06T10:24:00Z This is the first picture of a pensioner who died after being found by police with head injuries at his north London home. Full Article
die Mourners line streets to pay tribute to 'much-loved' paramedic who died after contracting coronavirus By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-07T14:37:00Z People have lined the streets to pay their respects to a "fantastic" paramedic and "great family man" who died after contracting coronavirus. Full Article
die BAME Brits 'two or three times more likely to die from Covid-19,' new research finds By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-07T06:00:00Z British people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities are two to three times more likely to die from coronavirus, new research has found. Full Article
die Clap for our Carers: Boris Johnson leads applause for healthcare heroes as 150 NHS staff die from Covid-19 By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-07T18:34:00Z Brits across the country have erupted in applause in tribute to healthcare workers during the seventh week of the Clap for our Carers initiative. Full Article
die Boris Johnson pays respects to fallen soldiers to mark VE Day on visit to Westminster Abbey By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-07T19:38:00Z Boris Johnson has paid his respects to fallen soldiers ahead of the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day on a visit to Westminster Abbey. Full Article
die Stars pay tribute to Mercury Prize-nominated rapper Ty who died after contracting coronavirus By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-08T06:55:07Z Stars have paid tribute to Mercury Prize-nominated rapper Ty who has died aged 47 after contracting coronavirus. Full Article
die Battle of Britain veteran Terry Clark dies on the eve of VE Day at the age of 101 By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-08T10:25:00Z Longtime friend pays tribute to war hero, who was involved in six kills, saying he was a "true gentleman" Full Article
die Food shortages, run-ins with soldiers and liberation: a Channel Islander remembers life in the only part of the British Isles under German occupation By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-08T14:04:00Z Full Article
die Roy Horn dead: Magician dies aged 75 after contracting coronavirus By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-09T06:11:00Z Magician Roy Horn, best known as part of the Las Vegas performing duo of Siegfried & Roy, has died at the age of 75 after contracting coronavirus, a representative has said. Full Article
die 'Dedicated and loving' nurse dies five weeks after being put on ventilator By www.standard.co.uk Published On :: 2020-05-09T14:20:28Z A "dedicated and loving" nurse with coronavirus has tragically died five weeks after first being placed on a ventilator. Full Article
die What to Know About Studies Using Antibody Tests By news.yahoo.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 14:57:07 -0400 On Monday, officials in Los Angeles County released preliminary results of a study that suggest roughly 4.1% of the county's adult population has already had the coronavirus, which translates to between 221,000 and 442,000 people, factoring in adjustments for statistical margin of error.That's a much higher number than confirmed case counts indicate. (As of early Tuesday, the county had 13,816 cases.)"We haven't known the true extent of COVID-19 infections in our community because we have only tested people with symptoms and the availability of tests has been limited," Neeraj Sood, a professor of public policy at the University of Southern California and lead investigator on the study, said in a statement.Dr. Barbara Ferrer, LA County's public health director, said in a statement that the early results pointed to the possibility that many people may have been unknowingly infected.The study relies on rapid antibody tests, which have faced concerns about accuracy.And as The Mercury News reported, a Stanford study that also showed higher rates of infection in Santa Clara County drew criticism, although that was largely from statisticians over the study's methodology.Still, experts have emphasized that more studies will help develop a clearer picture of the virus's true prevalence.In any case, officials say it's crucial to continue to adhere to public health orders for many reasons, including that if more people are infected but asymptomatic, they could unknowingly spread the virus.______A change to the USNS Mercy's assignmentOn Monday, my New York Times colleague John Ismay and I spoke with leaders aboard the Navy hospital ship Mercy. Here's our dispatch about how their assignment has changed:In the weeks since the Mercy arrived at the Port of Los Angeles from San Diego, the hospital ship's mission has been clear: Serve as a crucial relief valve for patients who have not been infected with the coronavirus as hospitals fill up with patients sick with COVID-19.In recent days, the work has shifted, but that underlying goal has remained the same, the commanding officer of the ship's medical facility told us."FEMA, after having made an assessment of the situation and the local needs, has changed our assignment," said Capt. John Rotruck, the medical treatment team's commanding officer.The Mercy has sent 40 medical staff members -- two family practice doctors, 16 nurses and 20 corpsmen, including two respiratory technicians -- to help care for patients who do not have COVID-19 at a state-run skilled nursing facility in Orange County."We're essentially augmenting their staff," Rotruck said, as the anticipated surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations has, for now, been held at bay.The capacity onboard will decrease to 250 beds from 1,000, in large part as a result of that staffing shift -- although officials emphasized that leaves more than enough space at the rate the Mercy has been taking in patients.At the same time, leaders aboard the Mercy said that most of the military crew is moving off the ship to stay at nearby hotels to make it possible for crew members to keep their distance from one another as they work, eat and sleep.Sailors will be bused from their hotels to work their shifts aboard the ship.The move, which will decrease the number of crew members staying aboard the ship to roughly 140 from more than 800, came as the number of crew members who may have been exposed inched upward.By Monday, Rotruck said that nine crew members had tested positive for the coronavirus and that about 130 people were in quarantine because they had come into what federal officials define as close contact with at least one of those nine. All of those in quarantine tested negative.All nine who have COVID-19 were outpatients as of Monday -- meaning their cases were not severe enough to warrant being hospitalized -- and their conditions are being closely monitored.Rotruck said that moving crew members off the Mercy was unusual but not unprecedented.During a previous mission, for instance, some medical staff members flew to Vietnam to provide medical care to patients on the Mercy, although they did not sleep on the ship.However, Rotruck added, "We have not done it to this scale," with the vast majority of the ship's crew members living ashore.A spokesman said Friday that the crew aboard the Navy hospital ship Comfort, which is docked in New York City, recently moved most of its crew to hotels ashore as well.Rotruck said that the Mercy was ready to care for coronavirus-negative seniors living in nursing homes, as the governor has previously announced, but none had been transferred yet.Such nursing home patients may be moved to the Mercy for care through the typical intake process, if, for example, a facility needed to free up space to care for COVID-19 patients.As of Monday evening, the ship had taken in 65 patients total since it docked in San Pedro, and its crew had performed 22 surgeries. There were 13 patients still being treated onboard, meaning that 52 had been discharged.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company Full Article
die Software tools for mining COVID-19 research studies go viral among scientists By news.yahoo.com Published On :: Thu, 23 Apr 2020 16:11:14 -0400 One month after the debut of the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset, or CORD-19, the database of coronavirus-related research papers has doubled in size – and has given rise to more than a dozen software tools to channel the hundreds of studies that are being published every day about the pandemic. In a roundup published on the ArXiv preprint server this week, researchers from Seattle's Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Microsoft Research and other partners in the project say CORD-19's collection has risen from about 28,000 papers to more than 52,000. Every day, several hundred more papers are being published, in… Read More Full Article
die Some landscapes show resistance to ash dieback By news.yahoo.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 08:57:12 -0400 Certain habitats can help dampen the spread of ash dieback, which threatens ash trees. Full Article
die Robert May, former UK chief scientist and chaos theory pioneer, dies aged 84 By www.theguardian.com Published On :: 2020-04-30T02:17:27Z Friends and colleagues pay tribute to gifted polymath whose achievements spanned biology, physics and public policy Lord May of Oxford obituaryPioneering Australian scientist Robert May, whose work in biology led to the development of chaos theory, has died at age 84.Known as one of Australia’s most accomplished scientists, he served as the chief scientific adviser to the United Kingdom, was president of the Royal Society, and was made a lord in 2001. Continue reading... Full Article Royal Society Science UK news Australia news Biology Physics World news
die Covid-19: why are women less likely to die? – podcast By www.theguardian.com Published On :: 2020-04-29T04:00:05Z Hannah Devlin speaks to Prof Sabra Klein about why women are much less likely to become seriously ill or die from Covid-19, and what the implications of this knowledge for future treatments might be Continue reading... Full Article Coronavirus outbreak Infectious diseases Medical research Science Women Men Microbiology
die Black people four times more likely to die from Covid-19, ONS finds By www.theguardian.com Published On :: 2020-05-07T14:51:37Z Official figures show that wide disparity not just due to health and economic differences Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageBlack people are more than four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than white people, according to stark official figures exposing a dramatic divergence in the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in England and Wales.The Office of National Statistics found that the difference in the virus’s impact was caused not only by pre-existing differences in communities’ wealth, health, education and living arrangements. Continue reading... Full Article Health Coronavirus outbreak Race Science UK news Society Office for National Statistics
die Coronavirus: Experts unable to confirm or deny airborne transmission as multiple studies fail to reach verdict By www.independent.co.uk Published On :: 2020-04-30T14:15:00Z 'We propose that Sars-Cov-2 may have the potential to be transmitted via aerosols,' researchers say Full Article
die Black Britons ‘twice as likely’ to die with coronavirus, says ONS By www.channel4.com Published On :: Shocking new official figures show that black people in England and Wales could be twice as likely to die from coronavirus as white people. Full Article
die ‘Tin Soldiers and Nixon’s Coming’ By www.thenation.com Published On :: Mon, 04 May 2020 18:00:45 +0000 Robert Cohen, Michael Koncewicz The shootings at Kent State and Jackson State at 50. The post ‘Tin Soldiers and Nixon’s Coming’ appeared first on The Nation. Full Article
die WHO readies coronavirus app for checking symptoms, possibly contact tracing By economictimes.indiatimes.com Published On :: 2020-05-09T08:13:32+05:30 The app will ask people about their symptoms and offer guidance on whether they may have COVID-19, the potentially lethal illness caused by the coronavirus, said Bernardo Mariano, chief information officer for the WHO. Full Article
die Jodie Foster: ‘I make movies to figure out who I am’ By www.theguardian.com Published On :: 2017-12-10T09:00:32Z Directing a new Black Mirror film gives Jodie Foster the chance to look back at her own upbringing. The Hollywood titan talks to Tim AdamsLast week Charlie Brooker was recalling for me the moment he learned Jodie Foster would direct an episode of Black Mirror, his inspired series of one-off dramas about the ways our gadgets are colonising the idea of “human”. Brooker had written a script for the new series in which a neurotic single mother uses technology to spy on her young daughter and keep her safe from the world. The Netflix people suggested they tried the script out on the two-time Oscar-winning actor.Brooker has had considerable global success with Black Mirror but still, the thought of working with Foster, “an actual icon”, made him come over, he says, “all British and starstruck”. He turned to his co-showrunner for the series, Annabel Jones. “We were like: ‘You’re kidding, right? You are going to try Jodie bloody Foster? Yeah right, of course you are.’” Continue reading... Full Article Jodie Foster Black Mirror Television Television & radio Film Culture
die Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy Dies of Coronavirus at 75 By variety.com Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 01:27:00 +0000 Roy Uwe Ludwig Horn, whose collaboration with Siegfried Fischbacher created the well-known animal training and magic duo Siegfried & Roy, died of complications from COVID-19 Friday in Las Vegas. He was 75. Horn had revealed on April 28 that he had tested positive for coronavirus. “Today, the world has lost one of the greats of […] Full Article News Obituaries Roy Horn Siegfried & Roy
die Andre Harrell, Music Executive Who Discovered Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs, Dies at 59 By variety.com Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 06:26:12 +0000 Andre Harrell, a veteran music executive best known as the founder of Uptown Records, where Sean “Puffy” Combs got his start in the business, who later went on to head Motown Records, has died. He was 59. The cause of death is as yet unclear. DJ D-Nice revealed the sad news while spinning on Instagram […] Full Article News Obituaries Andre Harrell Bet Mary J. Blige Motown Records Sean Combs
die Little Richard, Flamboyant Rock and Roll Pioneer, Dies at 87 By variety.com Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 14:30:44 +0000 Flamboyant singer-instrumentalist Little Richard, whose high-voltage, keyboard-shattering R&B singles supplied lift-off for the ’50s rock ‘n’ roll revolution, has died. The musician, whose birth name was Richard Penniman, was 87, although some sources say he was older. His death was confirmed by his son, Danny Jones Penniman, who told the New York Times the cause […] Full Article News little richard
die Family of PSW who died after contracting COVID-19 says he wasn’t properly protected at work By toronto.ctvnews.ca Published On :: Fri, 8 May 2020 19:15:00 -0400 A personal support worker (PSW) who died Wednesday after contracting COVID-19 was not provided proper personal protective equipment at his workplace, his family alleges. Full Article
die Why False Claims About COVID-19 Refuse to Die - Issue 84: Outbreak By nautil.us Published On :: Thu, 16 Apr 2020 01:00:00 +0000 Early in the morning on April 5, 2020, an article appeared on the website Medium with the title “Covid-19 had us all fooled, but now we might have finally found its secret.” The article claimed that the pathology of COVID-19 was completely different from what public health authorities, such as the World Health Organization, had previously described. According to the author, COVID-19 strips the body’s hemoglobin of iron, preventing red blood cells from delivering oxygen and damaging the lungs in the process. It also claimed to explain why hydroxychloroquine, an experimental treatment often hyped by President Trump, should be effective.The article was published under a pseudonym—libertymavenstock—but the associated account was linked to a Chicagoland man working in finance, with no medical expertise. (His father is a retired M.D., and in a follow-up note posted on a blog called “Small Dead Animals,” the author claimed that the original article was a collaboration between the two of them.) Although it was not cited, the claims were apparently based on a single scientific article that has not yet undergone peer-review or been accepted for publication, along with “anecdotal evidence” scraped from social media.1While Medium allows anyone to post on their site and does not attempt to fact-check content, this article remained up for less than 24 hours before it was removed for violating Medium’s COVID-19 content policy. Removing the article, though, has not stopped it from making a splash. The original text continues to circulate widely on social media, with users tweeting or sharing versions archived by the Wayback Machine and re-published by a right-wing blog. As of April 12, the article had been tweeted thousands of times.There is a pandemic of misinformation about COVID-19 spreading on social media sites. Some of this misinformation takes well-understood forms: baseless rumors, intentional disinformation, and conspiracy theories. But much of it seems to have a different character. In recent months, claims with some scientific legitimacy have spread so far, so fast, that even if it later becomes clear they are false or unfounded, they cannot be laid to rest. Instead, they become information zombies, continuing to shamble on long after they should be dead.POOR STANDARD: The antiviral drug hydroxychloroquine has been hyped as an effective treatment for COVID-19, notably by President Trump. The March journal article that kicked off the enthusiasm was later followed by a lesser-read news release from the board of its publisher, the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, which states the “Board believes the article does not meet the Society’s expected standard.”Marc Bruxelle / ShutterstockIt is not uncommon for media sources like Medium to retract articles or claims that turn out to be false or misleading. Neither are retractions limited to the popular press. In fact, they are common in the sciences, including the medical sciences. Every year, hundreds of papers are retracted, sometimes because of fraud, but more often due to genuine errors that invalidate study findings.2 (The blog Retraction Watch does an admirable job of tracking these.)Reversing mistakes is a key part of the scientific process. Science proceeds in stops and starts. Given the inherent uncertainty in creating new knowledge, errors will be made, and have to be corrected. Even in cases where findings are not officially retracted, they are sometimes reversed— definitively shown to be false, and thus no longer valid pieces of scientific information.3Researchers have found, however, that the process of retraction or reversal does not always work the way it should. Retracted papers are often cited long after problems are identified,4 sometimes at a rate comparable to that before retraction. And in the vast majority of these cases, the authors citing retracted findings treat them as valid.5 (It seems that many of these authors pull information directly from colleagues’ papers, and trust that it is current without actually checking.) Likewise, medical researchers have bemoaned the fact that reversals in practice sometimes move at a glacial pace, with doctors continuing to use contraindicated therapies even though better practices are available.6For example, in 2010, the anesthesiologist Scott Reuben was convicted of health care fraud for fabricating data and publishing it without having performed the reported research. Twenty-one of Reuben’s articles were ultimately retracted. And yet, an investigation four years later found half of these articles were still consistently cited, and that only one-fourth of these citations mentioned that the original work was fraudulent.7 Given that Reuben’s work focused on the use of anesthetics, this failure of retraction is seriously disturbing.Claims with some scientific legitimacy continue to shamble on long after they should be dead. But why don’t scientific retractions always work? At the heart of the matter lies the fact that information takes on a life of its own. Facts, beliefs, and ideas are transmitted socially, from person to person to person. This means that the originator of an idea soon loses control over it. In an age of instant reporting and social media, this can happen at lightning speed.The first models of the social spread of information were actually epidemiological models, developed to track the spread of disease. (Yes, these are the very same models now being used to predict the spread of COVID-19.) These models treat individuals as nodes in a network and suppose that information (or disease) can propagate between connected nodes.Recently, one of us, along with co-authors Travis LaCroix and Anders Geil, repurposed these models to think specifically about failures of retraction and reversal.8 A general feature of retracted information, understood broadly, is that it is less catchy than novel information in the following way. People tend to care about reversals or retractions only when they have already heard the original, false claim. And they tend to share retractions only when those around them are continuing to spread the false claim. This means that retractions actually depend on the spread of false information.We built a contagion model where novel ideas and retractions can spread from person to person, but where retractions only “infect” those who have already heard something false. Across many versions of this model, we find that while a false belief spreads quickly and indiscriminately, its retraction can only follow in the path of its spread, and typically fails to reach many individuals. To quote Mark Twain, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” In these cases it’s because the truth can’t go anywhere until the lie has gotten there first.Another problem for retractions and reversals is that it can be embarrassing to admit one was wrong, especially where false claims can have life or death consequences. While scientists are expected to regularly update their views under normal circumstances, under the heat of media and political scrutiny during a pandemic they too may be less willing to publicize reversals of opinion.The COVID-19 pandemic has changed lives around the world at a startling speed—and scientists have raced to keep up. Academic journals, accustomed to a comparatively glacial pace of operations, have faced a torrent of new papers to evaluate and process, threatening to overwhelm a peer-review system built largely on volunteer work and the honor system.9 Meanwhile, an army of journalists and amateur epidemiologists scour preprint archives and university press releases for any whiff of the next big development in our understanding of the virus. This has created a perfect storm for information zombies—and although it also means erroneous work is quickly scrutinized and refuted, this often makes little difference to how those ideas spread.Many examples of COVID-19 information zombies look like standard cases of retraction in science, only on steroids. They originate with journal articles written by credentialed scientists that are later retracted, or withdrawn after being refuted by colleagues. For instance, in a now-retracted paper, a team of biologists based in New Delhi, India, suggested that novel coronavirus shared some features with HIV and was likely engineered.10 It appeared on an online preprint archive, where scientists post articles before they have undergone peer review, on January 31; it was withdrawn only two days later, following intense critique of the methods employed and the interpretation of the results by scientists from around the world. Days later, a detailed analysis refuting the article was published in the peer-reviewed journal Emerging Microbes & Infections.11 But a month afterward, the retracted paper was still so widely discussed on social media and elsewhere that it had that highest Altmetric score—a measure of general engagement with scientific research—of any scientific article published or written in the previous eight years. Despite a thorough rejection of the research by the scientific community, the dead information keeps walking.Other cases are more subtle. One major question with far-reaching implications for the future development of the pandemic is to what extent asymptomatic carriers are able to transmit the virus. The first article reporting on asymptomatic transmission was a letter published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine claiming that a traveler from China to Germany transmitted the disease to four Germans before her symptoms appeared.12 Within four days, Science reported that the article was flawed because the authors of the letter had not actually spoken with the Chinese traveler, and a follow-up phone call by public health authorities confirmed that she had had mild symptoms while visiting Germany after all.13 Even so, the article has subsequently been cited nearly 500 times according to Google Scholar, and has been tweeted nearly 10,000 times, according to Altmetric.Media reporting on COVID-19 should be linked to authoritative sources that are updated as information changes. Despite the follow-up reporting on this article’s questionable methods, the New England Journal of Medicine did not officially retract it. Instead, a week after publishing the letter, the journal added a supplemental appendix describing the progression of the patient’s symptoms while in Germany, leaving it to the reader to determine whether the patient’s mild early symptoms should truly count. Meanwhile, subsequent research14, 15 involving different cases has suggested that asymptomatic transmission may be possible after all—though as of April 13, the World Health Organization considers the risk of infection from asymptomatic carriers to be “very low.” It may turn out that transmission of the virus can occur before any symptoms appear, or while only mild symptoms are present, or even in patients who will never go on to present symptoms. Even untangling these questions is difficult, and the jury is still out on their answers. But the original basis for claims of confirmed asymptomatic transmission was invalid, and those sharing them are not typically aware of the fact.Another widely discussed article, which claims that the antiviral drug hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin, when administered together, are effective treatments for COVID-19 has drawn enormous amounts of attention to these particular treatments, fueled in part by President Trump.16 These claims, too, may or may not turn out to be true—but the article with which they apparently originated has since received a statement of concern from its publisher, noting that its methodology was problematic. Again, we have a claim that rests on shoddy footing, but which is spreading much farther than the objections can.17 And in the meantime, the increased demand for these medications has led to dangerous shortages for patients who have an established need for them.18The fast-paced and highly uncertain nature of research on COVID-19 has also created the possibility for different kinds of information zombies, which follow a similar pattern as retracted or refuted articles, but with different origins. There have been a number of widely discussed arguments to the effect that the true fatality rate associated with COVID-19 may be ten or even a hundred times lower than early estimates from the World Health Organization, which pegged the so-called “case fatality rate” (CFR)—the number of fatalities per detected case of COVID-19—at 3.4 percent.19-21Some of these arguments have noted that the case fatality rate in certain countries with extensive testing, such as Iceland, Germany, and Norway, is substantially lower. References to the low CFR in these countries have continued to circulate on social media, even though the CFR in all of these locations has crept up over time. In the academic realm, John Ioannidis, a Stanford professor and epidemiologist, noted in an editorial, “The harms of exaggerated information and non‐evidence‐based measures,” published on March 19 in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation, that Germany’s CFR in early March was only 0.2 percent.21 But by mid-April it had climbed to 2.45 percent, far closer to the original WHO estimate. (Ioannidis has not updated the editorial to reflect the changing numbers.) Even Iceland, which has tested more extensively than any other nation, had a CFR of 0.47 percent on April 13, more than 4 times higher than it was a month ago. None of this means that the WHO figure was correct—but it does mean some arguments that it is wildly incorrect must be revisited.What do we do about false claims that refuse to die? Especially when these claims have serious implications for decision-making in light of a global pandemic? To some degree, we have to accept that in a world with rapid information sharing on social media, information zombies will appear. Still, we must combat them. Science journals and science journalists rightly recognize that there is intense interest in COVID-19 and that the science is evolving rapidly. But that does not obviate the risks of spreading information that is not properly vetted or failing to emphasize when arguments depend on data that is very much in flux.Wherever possible, media reporting on COVID-19 developments should be linked to authoritative sources of information that are updated as the information changes. The Oxford-based Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine maintains several pages that review the current evidence on rapidly evolving questions connected to COVID-19—including whether current data supports the use of hydroxychloroquine and the current best estimates for COVID-19 fatality rates. Authors and platforms seeking to keep the record straight should not just remove or revise now-false information, but should clearly state what has changed and why. Platforms such as Twitter should provide authors, especially scientists and members of the media, the ability to explain why Tweets that may be referenced elsewhere have been deleted. Scientific preprint archives should encourage authors to provide an overview of major changes when articles are revised.And we should all become more active sharers of retraction. It may be embarrassing to shout one’s errors from the rooftops, but that is what scientists, journals, and responsible individuals must do to slay the information zombies haunting our social networks.Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall are an associate professor and professor of logic and philosophy at the University of California, Irvine. They are coauthors of The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread.Lead image: nazareno / ShutterstockReferences 1. Liu, W. & Li, H. COVID-19 attacks the 1-beta chain of hemoglobin and captures the porphyrin to inhibit human heme metabolism. ChemRxiv (2020).2. Wager, E. & Williams, P. Why and how do journals retract articles? An analysis of Medline retractions 1988-2008. Journal of Medical Ethics 37, 567-570 (2011).3. Prasad, V., Gall, V., & Cifu, A. The frequency of medical reversal. Archives of Internal Medicine 171, 1675-1676 (2011).4. Budd, J.M., Sievert, M., & Schultz, T.R. Phenomena of retraction: Reasons for retraction and citations to the publications. The Journal of the American Medical Association 280, 296-297 (1998).5. Madlock-Brown, C.R. & Eichmann, D. The (lack of) impact of retraction on citation networks. Science and Engineering Ethics 21, 127-137 (2015).6. Prasad, V. & Cifu, A. Medical reversal: Why we must raise the bar before adopting new technologies. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 84, 471-478 (2011).7. Bornemann-Cimenti, H., Szilagyi, I.S., & Sandner-Kiesling, A. Perpetuation of retracted publications using the example of the Scott S. Reuben case: Incidences, reasons and possible improvements. Science and Engineering Ethics 22, 1063-1072 (2016).8. LaCroix, T., Geil, A., & O’Connor, C. The dynamics of retraction in epistemic networks. Preprint. (2019).9. Jarvis, C. Journals, peer reviewers cope with surge in COVID-19 publications. The Scientist (2020).10. Pradhan, P., et al. Uncanny similarity of unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Gag. bioRxiv (2020).11. Xiao, C. HIV-1 did not contribute to the 2019-nCoV genome. Journal of Emerging Microbes and Infections 9, 378-381 (2020).12. Rothe, C., et al. Transmission of 2019-nCoV infection from an asymptomatic contact in Germany. New England Journal of Medicine 382, 970-971 (2020).13. Kupferschmidt, K. Study claiming new coronavirus can be transmitted by people without symptoms was flawed. Science (2020).14. Hu, Z., et al. Clinical characteristics of 24 asymptomatic infections with COVID-19 screened among close contacts in Nanjing, China. Science China Life Sciences (2020). Retrieved from doi: 10.1007/s11427-020-1661-4.15. Bai, R., et al. Presumed asymptomatic carrier transmission of COVID-19. The Journal of the American Medical Association 323, 1406-1407 (2020).16. Gautret, P., et al. Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open-label non-randomized clinical trial. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents (2020).17. Ferner, R.E. & Aronson, J.K. Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: What do the clinical trials tell us? The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (2020).18. The Arthritis Foundation. Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) shortage causing concern. Arthritis.org (2020).19. Oke, J. & Heneghan, C. Global COVID-19 case fatality rates. The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (2020).20. Bendavid, E. & Bhattacharya, J. Is the coronavirus as deadly as they say? The Wall Street Journal (2020).21. Ionnidis, J.P.A. Coronavirus disease 2019: The harms of exaggerated information and non-evidence-based measures. European Journal of Clinical Investigation 50, e13222 (2020).Read More… Full Article
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