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The post Barr says it’s a ‘false narrative’ that there’s an ‘epidemic’ of cops shooting unarmed black men appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Attorney General Bill Barr said Wednesday it’s a “false narrative” to say there is an “epidemic of cops shooting unarmed black men.”
“I think the narrative that the police are on some epidemic of shooting unarmed black men is simply a false narrative,” Barr said in a CNN appearance. “The fact is that it’s very rare for an unarmed African American to be shot by a white police officer.”
Those shot by police officers are majority White, 52 percent, but 32 percent are Black, though African Americans make up 13 percent of the population, according to findings from the National Institutes of Health.
Most victims, 83 percent, were found to be armed. However, Black victims were more likely to be unarmed,14.8 percent, than White, 9.4 percent, or Hispanic, 5.8 percent, victims.
BARR SAYS HE DOESN’T BELIEVE THERE’S SYSTEMIC RACISM IN POLICING
Since 2015, Black Americans have been killed by police at a rate of 32 per million and White Americans have been killed at a rate of 13 per million, according to a Washington Post database.
Neither report divulged details on the race of officers who shoot unarmed citizens.
Barr has repeatedly pushed back on the narrative of systemic racism within police departments, as protesters across the country demand change.
Barr in a House hearing in July said it was “understandable” that African Americans harbored distrust towards the police, and acknowledged perceptions of bias during police encounters.
BARR ACCUSES MEDIA OF ‘PROJECTING A NARRATIVE’ IN COVERAGE OF UNREST
“At the same time, I think it would be an oversimplification to treat the problem as rooted in some deep-seated racism generally infecting our police departments,” he added. “It seems far more likely that the problem stems from a complex mix of factors, which can be addressed with focused attention over time.”
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]]>The post Do Face Coverings Lead to False Sense of Security From COVID-19? Here’s the Latest Research appeared first on Virus Reports.
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Existing limited evidence suggests that wearing face coverings to protect against COVID-19 does not lead to a false sense of security and is unlikely to increase the risk of infection through wearers foregoing other behaviors such as good hand hygiene, say researchers from the University of Cambridge and King’s College London.
Writing in BMJ Analysis, the researchers say that the concept of ‘risk compensation’ is itself the greater threat to public health as it may discourage policymakers from implementing potentially effective measures, such as wearing face coverings.
Wearing face coverings, particularly in shared indoor spaces, is now mandated or recommended in more than 160 countries to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Worn correctly, face coverings can reduce transmission of the virus as part of a set of protective measures, including maintaining physical distance from others and good hand hygiene.
While it is not clear how much of an effect face coverings have, scientists have urged policymakers to encourage the wearing of face coverings because the risks are minimal while the potential impact is important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, early in the pandemic, the World Health Organization warned that wearing face coverings could “create a false sense of security that can lead to neglecting other essential measures such as hand hygiene practices.” This type of behavior is known as “risk compensation.”
A team led by Professor Dame Theresa Marteau at the Behaviour and Health Research Unit, University of Cambridge, has examined the evidence for risk compensation to see whether concerns might be justified in the context of face coverings to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
The idea behind risk compensation is that people have a target level of risk they are comfortable with and they adjust their behavior to maintain that level risk. At an individual level, risk compensation is commonplace: for example, people run for longer to offset an eagerly anticipated indulgent meal and a cyclist may wear a helmet to cycle at speed.
At a population level, evidence for risk compensation is less clear. A commonly-cited example is the mandated wearing of bike helmets purportedly leading to an increase in the number of bike injuries and fatalities. Another often-cited example is the introduction of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and HPV vaccination purportedly leading to an increase in unprotected sex.
Professor Marteau and colleagues say the results of the most recent systematic reviews — a technique that involves examining all available evidence on a topic — do not justify the concerns of risk compensation for either of these examples. In fact, for HPV vaccination, the opposite effect was found: those who were vaccinated were less likely to engage in unprotected sexual behavior as measured by rates of sexually transmitted infection.
At least 22 systematic reviews have assessed the effect of wearing a mask on transmission of respiratory virus infections. These include six experimental studies, involving over 2,000 households in total — conducted in community settings that also measured hand hygiene. While none of the studies was designed to assess risk compensation or looked at social distancing, their results suggest that wearing masks does not reduce the frequency of handwashing or hand sanitizing. In fact, in two studies, self-reported rates of handwashing were higher in the groups allocated to wearing masks.
The team also found three observational studies that showed people tended to move away from those wearing a mask, suggesting that face coverings do not adversely affect physical distancing at least by those surrounding the wearer. However, they say that as none of these studies have been peer-reviewed, they should be treated with caution.
“The concept of risk compensation, rather than risk compensation itself, seems the greater threat to public health through delaying potentially effective interventions that can help prevent the spread of disease,” said Professor Marteau.
“Many public health bodies are coming to the conclusion that wearing a face-covering might help reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, and the limited evidence available suggests their use doesn’t have a negative effect on hand hygiene,” added co-author Dr. James Rubin from the Department of Psychological Medicine, King’s College London.
In their article, the team argue that it is time to lay risk compensation theory to rest. Professor Barry Pless from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, once described it as “a dead horse that no longer needs to be beaten.” The authors go further, saying “this dead horse now needs burying to try to prevent the continued threat it poses to public health, from by slowing the adoption of more effective interventions.”
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Reference: “Is risk compensation threatening public health in the covid-19 pandemic?” by Eleni Mantzari, G James Rubin, Theresa M Marteau, 27 July 2020, BMJ Analysis.
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.m2913
The researchers are supported by the National Institute for Health Research.
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]]>The post Florida fake, false coronavirus positives just another reason to distrust numbers appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>ANALYSIS/OPINION:
This coronavirus is a sneaky devil. So sneaky, in fact, that it can even infiltrate test kits of individuals who’ve not even submitted to being tested and then alert authorities to add these new positives, as they’re then deemed, to COVID-19 case counts.
Sneaky.
Hmm. Or not.
Here’s a different notion: Maybe it’s the testing site administrators who are the sneaky devils.
Either way, in Florida, something strange is happening with the coronavirus counts, that’s for sure.
Local news reports that several individuals have tested positive for the coronavirus — despite never having taken the test.
“For [these] to come back positive, when there was no specimen submitted, is problematic,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis, Fox 13 Tampa Bay reported.
There’s an understatement.
DeSantis has tasked the Department of Health to look into the “mix-up,” as Fox 13’s headline termed it.
America anxiously awaits the answer.
“How does someone test positive for coronavirus if they have never been tested? Reports of this happening have been pouring into Fox 35 News since we began investigating COVID-19 data,” the local news outlet wrote. “People are claiming they went to get tested but for various reasons, had to leave before they were swabbed.”
In other words: They went to a testing site, began the process of filing out forms and inputting their names, addresses, basic personal information, but then left before the actual test took place — only to learn they were then added to the “coronavirus positive” count.
It’s a mystery, all right.
Fox 13 opined through a source that perhaps when the individual left the line, the testing authorities automatically reclassify the next in line as the number of the person who left and “mistakenly” put in the wrong name.
“They probably figure it out after one or two and say we got it wrong,” the source said to Fox 13, “so they catch up [and fix it], but one or two people wind up getting somebody else’s test results.”
OK.
But that doesn’t make the coronavirus positive test counts any more accurate.
Remember this? “CNN and 11 states acknowledge mixing results of viral and antibody tests,” CNN reported in May. “The CDC says it’s planning to separate those numbers in the coming weeks, but experts say the current method is unhelpful and potentially misleading. That’s because antibody tests aren’t used to diagnose current infection or determine whether someone is potentially contagious. Instead, they indicate whether someone has been exposed to the virus in the past.”
Which changes the numbers.
Which skews the counts.
Which makes the numbers untrustworthy.
And that’s the whole issue with this coronavirus chaos that’s shutting down the country, killing the economy, closing schools, keeping church congregations from gathering and singing in worship, and face-masking an entire nation of free citizens: The numbers aren’t accurate. They haven’t been from the get-go. They aren’t now.
The numbers and statistics and percentages just can’t be trusted.
Hospitals report cases one way; governors report cases another way; federal health bureaucrats interpret numbers yet another way; computer models and best-guesses and what-ifs guide the numbers yet even another way.
This Florida story just adds another question mark to the scores of question marks that hover over the entire COVID-19 madness.
And no doubt, like all the other questions, this is one that won’t be answered until well after the coronavirus has moved on — until well after America has been reshaped, repackaged and repurposed into something that’s not very American at all — until well after our individual, civil and God-given rights have been refashioned into a “new normal” of collectivism.
Then we’ll learn: It was all, oops, a simple mistake.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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]]>The post More false positive tests reported in southern Vermont appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>MANCHESTER, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont health officials say more false positive test results are coming in from what initially appeared to be a surge of cases in southern Vermont.
About 63 people tested positive a week ago using antigen testing done at the Manchester Medical Center. That kind of testing is appealing because of the quick results, but officials have said they may not be as accurate at detecting the virus in people who aren’t showing symptoms.
We now know 33 of the 63 people with a positive antigen test have tested negative following a PCR COVID test. Two cases were confirmed positive.
The health department says it has been in contact with all but seven of those 63 people. We’re told most don’t have symptoms.
PCR testing was offered in Manchester and Londonderry last week as well. All 405 tests came back negative.
Copyright 2020 WCAX. All rights reserved.
Latest News
It was a record season for turkey hunting in New Hampshire this spring.
Officials say a hiker had to be assisted down a trail and taken to a hospital after a snow formation collapsed on him in the White Mountains.
Downtown Burlington turned into a canvas Sunday afternoon.
The state of Vermont is going to send ballots to all registered voters to encourage people to encourage mail-in voting in November.
New Hampshire State Police say a Concord woman has died in a car crash off I-93 in the city.
Latest News
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the number of people hospitalized in New York with the coronavirus continued to drop to one of the lowest levels since the pandemic began.
Swanton Police are trying to find a man accused of stealing American flags and taunting an officer.
The Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking public input on the 10-year big game management plan.
The first test teachers will have in the fall to give is one that finds out how behind their students got during remote learning. Both teachers and tutors will have a lot of catching up to do.
Vermont State Police say investigators have finished interviews with the Rutland City Police Department officers who were there at the shooting earlier this month.
FEMA’s fight against COVID. An official joins us to discuss what’s being done to help Vermont and New Hampshire; Also, the legal expert weigh in on forced school mergers after a new Vermont Supreme Court rulings: Plus, a young LGBTQ activist gets national attention from “Teen Vogue” and ‘GLAD,” named atop 20 under 20 honoree; And the Trump administration rescinds rules on foreign students studying online.
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]]>The post ‘Not a false alarm’: Vermont officials release initial findings on potential outbreak appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>MANCHESTER, Vt. —
Vermont health officials have released initial findings from COVID-19 tests being administered in an effort to determine the size of a possible outbreak in the state’s southernmost counties.
Health Commissioner Mark Levine joined other state officials for a private press briefing on Thursday, hesitant to label the group of positive tests as an outbreak two days after health officials’ initial announcement.
“We don’t have enough information yet to connect all the possible cases or to call this an outbreak,” Levine said. “We are working around the clock to learn more about the situation.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, 58 people had tested positive for the disease at Manchester Medical Center through antigen rapid testing — a new, less reliable testing method — but are not yet considered to be lab-confirmed cases.
• Latest on COVID-19 in Vermont
The Department of Health will not recognize those cases as official until positive results are yielded through nasal swab PCR testing. According to Levine, seven people who tested positive with antigen testing have completed the process; two have been returned with a positive result.
Health experts noted the initial pattern as unusual, saying the antigen testing does not typically return false positives.
Regardless of limited results, contact tracing and other public safety measures are being administered for those who initially tested positive. Levine is urging Vermonters to take the potential outbreak seriously.
“This is not a false alarm,” he said. “There are going to be cases in this geographic part of the state. We want people to take seriously the advice we’ve given them on their prior test result.”
More results from PCR testing are expected at the governor’s briefing on COVID-19 Friday morning.
Watch: Pop-up test site established in Londonderry
More than 300 tests were completed at a pop-up site in Londonderry on Wednesday, 13 miles away from the medical center testing location.
Health officials said they will continue to make testing available for anyone who needs it. A new pop-up site has been established by Southwestern Vermont Health Care at Riley Rink, which will operate between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. for as many days as needed.
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]]>The post Scientists find 15%incorrect negatives in quick COVID-19 test being used in RI appeared first on Virus Reports.
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