China is facing another deadly epidemic of the virus that lead to the SARS panic in the early 2000s.
The new version of the coronavirus, a type of pathogen that causes a range of illness including the common cold and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has claimed its sixth life in the communist nation, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/21/asia/china-china-coronavirus-sars-intl-hnk/index.html">reported</a>. China now has more than 300 confirmed cases of the virus as of Monday, and The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-coronavirus-kills-third-person-spreads-to-more-cities-11579494221">reported</a> that it has “spread quickly around the country and across Asia, infecting 156 new patients in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other densely-populated cities, and reaching South Korea for the first time—a major escalation in the pneumonia-like disease’s transmission.”
On Monday, China’s state-run media outlet Xinhua News Agency reported that China President Xi Jinping called on authorities to “release outbreak information in a timely manner and deepen international cooperation,” in order to stop the spread of the virus. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Geng Shuang, said at a press briefing on Monday that the country has “formulated prevention and control plans, treated patients, monitored their close contacts, conducted epidemiological research and released information in a timely matter,” the Journal reported.
More from the Journal:
<blockquote>Beijing, Shanghai and the southern metropolis of Shenzhen—three of the country’s biggest and most prosperous cities—confirmed a total of 14 patients infected with the pneumonia-causing virus, all of them on Monday, according to state media and local authorities.
South Korean authorities, meantime, said Monday that a 35-year-old Chinese woman who had flown into the country from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak first occurred, had contracted the coronavirus.</blockquote>
Further, the epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan, has seen a massive jump in cases – from 62 on Sunday to 198 on Monday. Authorities in the region said 35 of the cases were severe and nine were critical.
On Tuesday, that number increased again by 77, CNN reported, and the country has confirmed that the virus can spread between humans.
“Tour agencies have been banned from taking groups out of Wuhan and the number of thermal monitors and screening areas in public spaces will be increased. Traffic police will also conduct spot checks on private vehicles coming in and out of the city to look for live poultry or wild animals, after the virus was linked to a seafood and live animal market, according to a report by state media outlet the People&#8217;s Daily, citing Wuhan&#8217;s Municipal Health Commission,” the outlet reported.
CNN reported that many now fear it is too late to contain the virus. “Though infections were first detected in Wuhan in mid-December, infrared temperature screening areas were not installed in the city&#8217;s airports and stations until January 14, according to state media.”
Other provinces, including Zhejiang, Tianjin, and Shanghai have also reported an increase in cases as of Tuesday. More from CNN:
<blockquote>The death toll rose to six Tuesday evening, after the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission confirmed that a 66-year-old male and a 48-year-old female died on January 20.
It added that 60 new cases were confirmed by the end of Monday in Wuhan city, where a 15-year-old is the youngest to be infected.</blockquote>

China virus

Remember SARS? New Virus Spreading In China Kills Sixth Person

China

Health

A convicted sex offender in Michigan is heading to prison for 10–20 years after being caught with child pornography on his computer. What makes this case interesting is the defense that 45-year-old Joseph Gobrick offered in court. Speaking to a judge at his sentencing hearing, <a href="https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/crime/man-sentenced-for-child-sexually-abusive-material/69-7fadc67c-c26e-4a9c-ba51-992caa86caf2">Gobrick claimed</a> that he has a First Amendment right to look at child porn. He also claimed that he identifies as an eight-year-old girl.
“I’ve always been an eight-year-old girl,’’ Gobrick contended. “Even in my drawings and fantasies, I am always an eight-year-old girl. &#8230; There are adults having sex with me in an online forum as an eight-year-old girl.&#8221;
The judge apparently did not find this argument persuasive. No reasonable person would. But an obvious question is raised here. Why exactly can&#8217;t Gobrick identity as a young girl? On what basis can we deny or disqualify his self-identification?
Again, the reasonable among us know the answer. He can&#8217;t identify as one because he isn&#8217;t one. According to all available metrics, he is a 45-year-old pervert, not a third grader. He cannot choose to be a different age. He is the age he is, and that&#8217;s all there is to it. It is either insanity or willful deception that causes him to make this claim about himself. We therefore are perfectly justified in refuting his self-identity and refusing to play along with it. More than merely justified, we are in fact morally obliged to insist on truth over harmful fantasies and delusions.
<iframe title="Worse Than A Slippery Slope | The Matt Walsh Show Ep. 403" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VwxuQaQ-26A?start=126&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
But propagators of left-wing gender theory are not reasonable. Rather, they insist on unreason. They argue that a man can be a woman — not just symbolically or legally, but actually, literally — even in spite of the testimony of his own biological and chromosomal makeup. In the case of a man identifying as a woman, the only thing that matters, they say, is how he feels about himself. The objective facts are irrelevant. Biology is a moot point. He need provide no proof. We are to take him at his word, and that&#8217;s all there is to it.
Well, if biology and physical reality are irrelevant to the question of sex, why should they suddenly be relevant to the question of age? If Gobrick can identify as a female, why can&#8217;t he identify as a female of whatever age he chooses? At least a man who &#8220;feels like a child&#8221; can rightly point out that he was once a child, so he has some frame of reference for judging these feelings. And at least it does make sense, in the case of certain mental disabilities, to say that an adult &#8220;has the brain of a child.&#8221; None of this vindicates Gobrick to any extent at all, but my point is that transageism is actually more credible and makes more sense than transgenderism. It&#8217;s still bogus, but slightly less so. Age does change, after all. I will not be a 33-year-old man forever. But I will be a man forever. If my sex is a fluid characteristic, how much more fluid must my age be?
We have not yet gotten to the point where the Left will openly defend a man like Gobrick and his right to be accepted by society as the child he supposedly believes himself to be. But we will get to that point. We have to. They&#8217;ve already argued his case for him, even if they won&#8217;t admit it and maybe don&#8217;t yet realize it.

Female And Male Symbols

WALSH: Every Sane Person Saw This Coming. Now A Pedophile Claims He Identifies As An 8-Year-Old Girl.

Children

Leftism

Pedophilia

Progressivism

Sexuality

A woman in Sacramento had been using Pond’s Rejuveness cream, which she purchased from Mexico, for the past seven years without incident.
But in July, she began having strange symptoms. At first, the 47-year-old went to a doctor after experiencing what CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/26/health/woman-injured-mercury-skin-cream-trnd/index.html">described</a> as “an odd pricking sensation and arm weakness.” Two weeks later, she went back to the doctor, this time with blurred vision and slurred speech. She was admitted to a hospital at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF). Her condition worsened. Dr. Paul Blanc, part of UCSF’s division of occupational and environmental medicine and the California poison control system, wrote that the woman’s condition declined into “agitated delirium,” according to CNN.
He also wrote that he found “abnormally high” levels of methylmercury in her system. As CNN reported, methylmercury “is highly toxic and can cause permanent nervous system damage.”
The woman is now in a coma, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said her injuries may be permanent.
The woman had purchased the cream through friends. CNN reported it had been tainted after manufacturing, but it is unclear how. The cream is used to lighten skin in order to reduce blemishes and wrinkles.
“Officials tested the cream and found it contained 12,000 parts per million of methylmercury &#8212; a bit over 1.2%. It&#8217;s illegal in the US to sell skin creams that contain more than 1 ppm mercury,” CNN reported.
Dr. Blanc <a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2019/12/416266/buyers-beware-skin-lightening-cream-could-cause-neurological-damage">wrote</a> that &#8220;Most harmful skin-lightening creams are intentionally tainted with inorganic mercury,&#8221; but, “in this case, the patient used a skin-lightening product containing organic mercury, which is far more toxic.&#8221;
More from CNN:
<blockquote>The harm methylmercury inflicts upon the nervous system often worsens after patients stop using or consuming tainted products, he said.
The woman&#8217;s condition continued to deteriorate even after she underwent chelation therapy, a treatment to flush mercury through her urine.
&#8220;Central nervous system toxicity, as in this case, is the hallmark of organic mercury &#8212; it typically comes on after weeks to months of exposure,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Once manifested, it quickly progresses and often worsens, despite removal of any further exposure.&#8221;</blockquote>
The outlet reported that the woman cannot speak on her own or care for herself and is currently relying on a feeding tube.
CNN reported there have been more than 60 poisonings in the past 10 years in California due to tainted skin creams, and that most of the creams are purchased “on the street” in Mexico.
“They&#8217;re often packaged in plastic containers without labels or are handmade, and they&#8217;re advertised to remove spots, wrinkles and blemishes,” the outlet reported. “Some of the confiscated creams contained as much as 21% mercury, health officials said.”

Skin cream

Woman Poisoned After Using Skin-Lightening Cream Tainted With Methylmercury

California

On Thursday, <a href="https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/fitness/fat-loss/a30105892/jillian-michaels-cover-star/">Women’s Health UK</a> released an interview with author and fitness guru Jillian Michaels.
During the interview, Michaels stated that the celebration of obesity is dangerous, and only encouraged by political correctness:
<blockquote>I think we’re politically correct to the point of endangering people. Yes, we want to be inclusive of everyone [and respect that] everyone comes in all different shapes and sizes&#8230;
That nobody should ever be body shamed or fat shamed or excluded and that everyone is equally deserving and should feel equally valuable. But obesity in itself is not something that should be glamourised. But we’ve become so politically correct that no one wants to say it.</blockquote>
She later added that the reason shows like “The Biggest Loser” aren’t promoted to the degree they once were is due to political correctness: “I think the world has shifted to a place where that format and messaging is considered fat shaming. But it isn’t, and it’s not meant to be. Now we’ve gone so far in the opposite direction.”
A new season of “The Biggest Loser” premiers on the USA network in late-January.
Following the release of the interview, Michaels was dragged on social media:
Actress and abortion activist Jameela Jamil tweeted:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
2/2 Just existing, or even DARING to post a nice picture of yourself feeling beautiful and sexy isn’t glamorizing ANYTHING. It’s just existing and loving yourself. Not a crime. Not a threat to anyone. Shame and erasure doesn’t work. If it did, we’d be a *very* thin world by now.
— Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) <a href="https://twitter.com/jameelajamil/status/1203749258047787008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
<blockquote>Elitist ignorance from a renowned long time bully of fat people. Don’t just shame and blame. Cheap food, which most can afford is full of hormones and sugars. Many work too many jobs to have time/money to work out. There’s PCOS, Insulin resistance, Medication side effects, etc&#8230;Just existing, or even DARING to post a nice picture of yourself feeling beautiful and sexy isn’t glamorizing ANYTHING. It’s just existing and loving yourself. Not a crime. Not a threat to anyone. Shame and erasure doesn’t work. If it did, we’d be a *very* thin world by now.</blockquote>
Twitter user @Cyclopticcake wrote a similarly scathing rebuke:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/JillianMichaels?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JillianMichaels</a> your women’s health article was trash. it was hurtful and dehumanizing. it negates the humanity of fat folks. if you want better for fat people than stop shaming them. signed, a glamorous fat who will not put up with you.
— jessie oliver (@cyclopticcake) <a href="https://twitter.com/cyclopticcake/status/1204873396997230592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
<blockquote>You know what’s unhealthy @JillianMichaels – feeding people caffeine pills so they’ll lose weight, negating people’s humanity with words like “obese,” telling people that them feeling good about themselves is “glamorizing obesity.” Do you know the damage that does to fat folks mental health, @JillianMichaels? Are you essentially saying that our only purpose is to be confined into a dehumanizing box that you literally profit off of? Would you speak this way about or to any other marginalized group? &#8230; Your Women’s Health article was trash. It was hurtful and dehumanizing. It negates the humanity of fat folks. If you want better for fat people, then stop shaming them. Signed, a glamorous fat who will not put up with you.</blockquote>
User @Joybur10 wrote: “Body positivity isn’t about ‘glamorizing’ obesity, Jillian Michaels. It’s about fighting the pressure to ‘glamorize’ EATING DISORDERS.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Body positivity isn’t about “glamorizing” obesity, Jillian Michaels. It’s about fighting the pressure to “glamorize” EATING DISORDERS. <a href="https://t.co/h4DuQAJGWb">https://t.co/h4DuQAJGWb</a>
— Joy Burton (@joybur10) <a href="https://twitter.com/joybur10/status/1203136963118800896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
“Health at every size” activist Ragen Chastain criticized Michaels in her “<a href="https://danceswithfat.org/2019/12/12/jillian-michaels-is-still-trying-to-glamorize-bullying/">Dances with Fat</a>” blog:
<blockquote>Jillian Michaels is nothing but a bully who wants a world where she can continue to use fatphobia to <a href="https://danceswithfat.org/2016/05/06/the-biggest-losers-big-surprise/">profit off her weight loss lie. </a>That’s bad enough, but trying to co-opt the language of fat activists to do it is a new level of despicable, even for her.</blockquote>
Michaels did find support:
One Twitter user <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/jimmyfetish/status/1204800270229811205?s=21">wrote</a>: “I fully support your views on obesity and of course you might not read this, but you were honestly a big inspiration for me! At this point, I’ve lost 70lbs from the original 240lbs I was, and I couldn’t be happier :)”
@Makneekuh wrote: “<a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/JillianMichaels">@JillianMichaels</a> is on point. I love to see my students/clients embracing their journey. You can&#8217;t take this journey without living yourself. But be realistic about where you&#8217;re at and where you need to get to to be the BEST,  HEALTHIEST version of YOU!”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/JillianMichaels?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JillianMichaels</a> is on point. I love to see my students/ clients embracing their journey. You can&#8217;t take this journey without living yourself. But be realistic about where you&#8217;re at and where you need to get to to be the BEST, HEALTHIEST version of YOU! <a href="https://t.co/ZPoXpPfXE5">https://t.co/ZPoXpPfXE5</a>
— M. H. (@makneekuh) <a href="https://twitter.com/makneekuh/status/1205219111690588160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
Journalist Emily Miller wrote: “Even though I&#8217;m eating my way through holiday season on carbs/sugar/crap, I totally agree with <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/JillianMichaels">@JillianMichaels</a> saying that ‘obesity in itself is not something that should be glamorized&#8230;. We’ve become so politically correct that no one wants to say it.’”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Even though I&#8217;m eating my way through holiday season on carbs/sugar/crap, I totally agree with <a href="https://twitter.com/JillianMichaels?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JillianMichaels</a> saying that &#8220;obesity in itself is not something that should be glamorized&#8230;. We’ve become so politically correct that no one wants to say it.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/tTZBuae0wg">https://t.co/tTZBuae0wg</a>
— Emily Miller (@emilymiller) <a href="https://twitter.com/emilymiller/status/1205246061478055937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
Michaels hasn’t responded to Jamil’s tweet, nor has she tweeted anything regarding the backlash her comments have generated.
The <a href="https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/weight-management/adult-overweight-obesity/health-risks">National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases</a> (NIDDKD) reports that being overweight or obese can contribute to developing Type II diabetes, heart disease, various cancers, high blood pressure, stroke, sleep apnea, metabolic syndrome, fatty liver diseases, kidney disease, and osteoarthritis, among other things.
According to a <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1614362">study</a> published in The New England Journal of Medicine, “in 2015, high BMI contributed to 4.0 million deaths &#8230; which represented 7.1% &#8230; of the deaths from any cause; it also contributed to 120 million disability-adjusted life-years &#8230; which represented 4.9% &#8230; of disability-adjusted life-years from any cause among adults globally. A total of 39% of the deaths and 37% of the disability-adjusted life-years that were related to high BMI occurred in persons with a BMI of less than 30.”
[Ellipses in the above paragraph indicate where “uncertainty intervals” were removed for clarity. However, as an example, the NEJM article states that “high BMI contributed to 4.0 million deaths (95% uncertainty interval, 2.7 to 5.3).” This means that the authors are 95% confident that the true effect connected to “high BMI” deaths is between 2.7 million and 5.3 million.]

Jillian Michaels.

Fitness Guru Jillian Michaels Gets Blasted For Saying ‘Obesity’ Should Not Be ‘Glamorized’

Jillian Michaels

obesity

Taking contraceptives on a daily basis has harmful effects on the brain, according to at least one study.
According to <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/contraceptive-use-linked-to-shrinking-brain-size-researchers-find">LifeSiteNews</a>, a recent study from the Radiological Society of North America showed that contraceptive pills may have the capacity to shrink a woman&#8217;s brain size.
&#8220;The study looked at MRI scans of 50 healthy women, 21 of whom were taking oral contraceptive pills, and found that &#8216;women taking birth control pills had significantly smaller hypothalamus volume,'&#8221; <a href="https://press.rsna.org/timssnet/media/pressreleases/14_pr_target.cfm?id=2136">reports</a> the outlet. &#8220;The hypothalamus helps to regulate key bodily functions such as the appetite, heart rate, body temperature, and emotions.&#8221;
The study was largely conducted due to the limited availability of &#8220;evidence on the structural and functional effects of hormonal contraceptives on the brain,&#8221; particularly the hypothalamus. In the initial press release, the study found a decreased hypothalamus could have disastrous effects on emotion while diagnosing no effect on overall cognitive performance.
&#8220;Smaller hypothalamic volume was also associated with greater anger and showed a strong correlation with depressive symptoms,&#8221; the study claimed. &#8220;The study found no significant correlation between hypothalamic volume and cognitive performance.”
Dr. Michael Lipton, medical director of MRI services at Montefiore Medical Center, said the differences in brain sizes between women ingesting oral contraceptives versus women who did not were &#8220;dramatic.&#8221;
“We found a dramatic difference in the size of the brain structures between women who were taking oral contraceptives and those who were not,&#8221; said Lipton. &#8220;We validated methods for assessing the volume of the hypothalamus and confirm, for the first time, that current oral contraceptive pill usage is associated with smaller hypothalamic volume. This initial study shows a strong association (between taking oral contraceptive pills and low hypothalamic volume) and should motivate further investigation into the effects of oral contraceptives on brain structure and their potential impact on brain function.&#8221;
As noted by LifeSiteNews, similar scientific studies have found oral contraceptives to have a negative effect on female biology.
&#8220;In 2016, Danish researchers who studied the medical histories of more than a million women over an 18-year period found that women who use hormonal contraceptives are more likely to be depressed,&#8221; <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/contraception-use-makes-women-more-likely-to-be-clinically-depressed-new-st">reported</a> the outlet. &#8220;A study conducted by German researchers in 2016 found that oral contraceptive pills may be damaging women’s sense of emotional connection. In 2017, another Danish study suggested a link between the use of hormonal contraceptives and mood disturbances linked to increased suicide rates.&#8221;
In 2017, <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/new-study-hormonal-contraception-increases-breast-cancer-risk-by-20">another study</a> from The New England Journal of Medicine shows that long-term hormonal contraception ingested for as long as 10 years increases the risk of breast cancer by 38%. Dr. David Agus, a University of Southern California physician, said at the time that the dosage size did not matter.
“This is the first study that had shown intrauterine devices with hormones having association with breast cancer in large numbers,” he said. “With the lower dose of oral contraceptives, we thought there wouldn’t be as much of a risk as the higher dose but it turns out to be the same — about a 20 percent increase in breast cancer overall.”
The risk for breast cancer increases by the year, beginning at 9% in year one and then progressing to 38% by year 10.

Contraceptive pill

STUDY: Oral Contraceptives Linked To Shrinking Brain Sizes

Birth Control

Procedures are put in place for sanitizing equipment to be used in surgeries to avoid contamination and exposure to various viruses. Each step of the procedure, no matter how small, is important to ensure the safety of patients and doctors.
At the Goshen Hospital in Indiana, however, a technician missed a step in this process, thereby potentially exposing more than 1,000 surgical patients to HIV as well as hepatitis C and hepatitis B, <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/11/25/health/indiana-surgical-patients-exposed-virus/index.html">reported CNN</a>.
Liz Fisher, the marketing specialist for Goshen Health, said in a press release that as many as 1,182 patients who had surgery between April and September of 2019 may have been affected. While this seems frightening, the hospital made sure to emphasize that the risk of exposure is “extremely low.” Just to be safe, the hospital is providing potentially impacted patients with free testing for the potential viruses.
&#8220;While our sterile processing and infectious disease experts believe that the potential transmission of blood borne viruses between patients is extremely remote, out of an abundance of caution, we want to verify through lab blood tests that patients have not been harmed,&#8221; the hospital’s president and chief medical officer said in an update last Wednesday.
Fisher said in her own statement that those who may have been affected by the improper sterilization have already been sent notification letters. A call center has been set up to answer patient questions and set up blood testing.
From CNN:
<blockquote><a href="http://redirect.viglink.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fhepatitis%2Fhcv%2Findex.htm&amp;key=15785bf48552a1cdfab425661118986f">Hepatitis C </a>is a liver infection caused by a blood-borne virus and is usually spread by sharing needles or equipment to inject drugs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fhepatitis%2Fhbv%2Findex.htm&amp;key=15785bf48552a1cdfab425661118986f">Hepatitis B</a> is also a liver infection caused by a blood-borne virus but is spread when bodily fluid is passed from an infected person to someone who is not infected, according to the CDC. <a href="http://redirect.viglink.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fhiv%2Fbasics%2Findex.html&amp;key=15785bf48552a1cdfab425661118986f">HIV &#8212; human immunodeficiency virus</a> &#8212; weakens a person&#8217;s immunity system by destroying important cells that fight disease and infection.</blockquote>
Within days of the announced sterilization error, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the hospital, WNDU <a href="https://www.wndu.com/content/news/Class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-Goshen-Health-in-response-to-failure-to-sterilize-565345151.html">reported</a>.
The lawsuit was filed by a woman who had surgery performed on June 24, within the timeframe of those who may have been impacted. She filed the lawsuit on behalf of herself and the nearly 1,200 other patients who were affected by the error.
“When we are at our most vulnerable and in need of surgery, we place both our trust and our life in our hospital and its personnel,&#8221; attorney Walter J. Alvarez said in a statement regarding the lawsuit. &#8220;In light of the shocking revelation that over months of time a northern Indiana hospital exposed or potentially exposed thousands of surgical patients to unsterilized instruments and life altering infectious disease such as HIV and hepatitis &#8212; our office, Alvarez Law and the Pavlack law office of Indianapolis have, today, joined forces to bring justice to those affected and hold those responsible to account.&#8221;
The lawsuit seeks “certification for her and others who were potentially exposed as a plaintiff class and damages for emotional trauma, medical expenses and more,” WNDU reported.

surgical equipment

Sanitizing Error At Indiana Hospital May Have Exposed More Than 1,000 Patients To HIV

Indiana

Lawsuit

Women are just victims of everything these days. Born a woman? You’re automatically a victim by today’s standards.
Now CNN is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/24/health/stds-are-sexist-against-women-wellness/index.html?no-st=1572101315">reporting</a> that even sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are sexist. Let’s be honest, STDs are bad no matter what sex, race, sexuality, creed, or disability one has, but CNN, with the help of doctors, has found a way to make the diseases yet another notch in the women-as-victims bedpost.
&#8220;STDs are biologically and psycho-socially sexist at all levels,&#8221; the outlet quoted Dr. Hunter Handsfield as saying. Handsfield is a professor emeritus of medicine and the University of Washington Center for AIDS and STD.
&#8220;Women bear the largest burden of these diseases,&#8221; another doctor, Edward Hook, told the outlet. Dr. Hook is co-director of the Center for Social Medicine and Sexually Transmitted Diseases at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
&#8220;Chlamydia and gonorrhea, for example, are two of the leading preventable causes of infertility and ectopic pregnancies in the United States, and on Earth,&#8221; Hook added.
In heterosexual couples, as CNN reported, men or more likely to transmit STDs to women than women are to men. That&#8217;s because the lining of the vagina is thinner and more delicate than the skin on a penis, so it&#8217;s easier for bacteria and viruses to penetrate and take hold. Once there, the moist environment of the vagina is perfect for growth,” the outlet reported.
Once contracted, some STDs can be more harmful to women than men. Handsfield offered the example of Herpes.
“Because of the nature of the female genitalia, if you get new herpes, there&#8217;s likely multiple painful blisters,&#8221; Handsfield said. &#8220;For men, typically a few blisters.&#8221;
Multiple vs. a few.
HPV was a better example, as women are far more likely to get cervical cancer from human papillomavirus than men are to get penile cancer.
The outlet also couched STDs as sexist because… women might confuse them for a yeast infection.
&#8220;If a woman has a little burning on urination, maybe it was too much time on the exer-cycle, maybe the underwear was too tight, maybe there were spicy foods for dinner,&#8221; Dr. Hook said.
&#8220;Maybe there&#8217;s a little discharge, a little itch,&#8221; Handsfield added. &#8220;It&#8217;s easy for a woman to think it&#8217;s a yeast infection and self-treat while the chlamydia is climbing up into her fallopian tubes.&#8221;
Naturally, CNN had to include an unproven anecdote about one of the doctor’s daughters whose OB-GYN performed an exam and then allegedly lectured her about sex when she asked for a chlamydia test.
Today, we’re told everything is sexist, from <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/stop-finding-sexism-in-everything">telling someone to smile</a> to political disagreement to air conditioning. If a woman says she is inconvenienced, she’s the victim of sexism.
Diseases hurt some people more than others, but it doesn’t have to become a rallying cry for feminists. The moral of the STD story should be that men and women need to be aware of what STDs can do to their body and how they’re at risk. They should take steps to defend themselves from contracting STDs, not just because of what it will do to them but also because of what it might do to others.
The moral should not be that women have yet another thing to claim victimhood status over.

Couple In Bed

Now Even Sexually Transmitted Diseases Are Sexist

Gender

Imagine being pulled over on suspicion of driving drunk even though you hadn’t had a drop of alcohol. Now imagine a blood alcohol test showing you were at twice the legal limit – again, even though you hadn’t drunk any alcohol.
Such was the case of a North Carolina man, who insisted he hadn’t drunk despite his blood alcohol level being 0.2%, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08%. He was pulled over but refused to take a breathalyzer, so he was taken to a hospital, where his BAC was determined.
He continued to say he hadn’t touched alcohol but, naturally, no one believed him.
It wasn’t until he was studied by researchers at the Richmond University Medical Center in New York that he found out what was causing his alleged drunkenness – a medical condition.
CNN <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/10/25/health/beer-stomach-autobrewery-syndrome-trnd/index.html">reported</a> the man was discovered to have a rare condition known as auto-brewery system (ABS) or gut fermentation syndrome. The condition causes his body to convert carbohydrates into alcohol.
The doctors that studied him published a study in BMJ Open Gastroenterology about his condition and what they did to treat him. The study’s lead author, Fahad Malik, chief internal medicine resident at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, told CNN what happens to a person with the condition.
“These patients have the exact same implications of alcoholism: the smell, the breath, drowsiness, gait changes,&#8221; Malik told the outlet. &#8220;They will present as someone who&#8217;s intoxicated by alcohol, but the only difference here is that these patients can be treated by antifungal medications.&#8221;
The man didn’t have the condition his entire life. It wasn’t like he was falling down “drunk” in grade school. The condition developed after he took antibiotics to treat an injury to his thumb.
“His personality started to change, researchers wrote in the study, and he experienced episodes of depression, &#8216;brain fog,&#8217; memory loss and aggressive behavior that was out of character for him,” CNN reported.
Three years after his drunk driving arrest, doctors in Ohio found two strains of yeast and told him to cut carbs out of his diet and take supplements. He seemed fine at first, but a few weeks later he began acting drunk again.
Nothing seemed to help the condition, and at some point the man fell down due to his blood alcohol level, leading to brain bleeding. Eventually, after finding an online support group, the man was directed to the Richmond University Medical Center. The researchers there found that, possibly due to the antibiotics he had taken for his thumb, his “gut microbiome” had been altered, leading to ABS.
The man was given probiotics and treated with antifungal therapies, which helped his condition. After a year and a half – except for one time when he ate pizza and beer – he appears to be nearly cured.
“Approximately 1.5 years later, he remains asymptomatic and has resumed his previous lifestyle, including eating a normal diet while still checking his breath alcohol levels sporadically,&#8221; the study’s authors wrote, as reported by CNN.
This man is not the only one with this condition. It has been studied since the early part of the century, and researchers hope their method of treating the North Carolina man can help others with the condition.

drunk

Police Thought He Was Drunk. It Turns Out He Had A Rare Medical Condition That Made His Body A Brewery.

Alcohol

Science

Even as Democrats inveigh against President Trump for his alleged norm-shattering and contempt for the rule of law, their health care plans show a growing embrace of authoritarianism. For instance, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) recently <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2019-09-25/schiff-trumps-comments-a-classic-mafia-like-shakedown" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2019-09-25/schiff-trumps-comments-a-classic-mafia-like-shakedown&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572027551149000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGwkxR4Q6ZOFaNqd4M8yJdUm134cA">dubbed</a> the president’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “a classic mafia-like shakedown.” He knows of which he speaks, because the Democratic Party agenda on health care now includes threats to destroy any entities failing to comply with government-dictated price controls.
The latest evidence comes from Colorado, where several government agencies recently submitted a <a href="https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/HB19-1004%20Draft%20Report%20Colorado%20State%20Coverage%20Option%20and%20Appendix.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/HB19-1004%2520Draft%2520Report%2520Colorado%2520State%2520Coverage%2520Option%2520and%2520Appendix.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572027551149000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFDkt31ZlobGZ-HQwefFU-NC7beBQ">draft report</a> regarding the creation of a “state option” for health insurance. The plan would not create a state-run health insurer; instead, it would see agencies dragooning private sector firms to comply with government diktats.
The plan would “require insurance carriers that offer plans in a major market,” whether individual, small group, or large group, “to offer the state option as well.” In these state-mandated plans that insurers must offer, carriers would have to abide by stricter controls on their administrative costs — in the form of medical loss ratio requirements — than those dictated by Obamacare.
For medical providers, the Colorado plan would use “payment benchmarks” to cap reimbursement amounts for doctors and hospitals. And if hospitals decline to accept these government-imposed price controls, the report ominously says that “the state may implement measures to ensure health systems participate.”
In comments to reporters, Colorado officials made clear their intent to coerce providers into this price-controlled system. Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway <a href="https://coloradosun.com/2019/10/09/colorado-health-public-option-hospitals/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://coloradosun.com/2019/10/09/colorado-health-public-option-hospitals/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572027551149000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEdfFeIqjhxySRoTgjO7RycSEOHhA">admitted</a> that “[i]f our hospital systems don’t participate, this won’t work &#8230; [w]e can’t allow that to happen.” The head of Colorado’s Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, Kim Bimestefer, <a href="https://coloradosun.com/2019/10/07/colorado-public-health-insurance-option-proposal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://coloradosun.com/2019/10/07/colorado-public-health-insurance-option-proposal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572027551149000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGvUest7eeWAQmR2Zl20j5M7mzlAw">said</a> that “if we feel that the hospitals are not going to participate, we will require their participation.”
State officials did not elaborate on the mechanisms they would use to compel participation in the state option. But they could attempt to require hospitals and insurers to participate in the new plan to maintain their license to operate in Colorado — a likely unconstitutional condition of licensure.
In threatening this level of coercion — agree to price controls, or we’ll shut down your business — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis imitated his fellow Democrat, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi’s proposed drug pricing bill, up for a vote in the House as soon as next month, would impose excise taxes of up to 95% of a drug’s sale price if companies refuse to “negotiate” with the federal government.
In its <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2019-10/hr3ltr.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2019-10/hr3ltr.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572027551149000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHtCPW1KJ1eddfASQamnbb-cBFA-g">analysis</a> of Pelosi’s legislation, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) noted that, because drug makers could not deduct the 95% excise tax for income tax purposes, “the combination of income taxes and excise taxes on the sales could cause the drug manufacturer to lose money if the drug was sold in the United States.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, CBO concluded that the excise tax would not generate “any significant increase in revenues,” as “manufacturers would either participate in the negotiating process” — because they have no effective alternative — “or pull a particular drug out of the U.S. market entirely.”
CBO also noted, in a classic bit of understatement, that Pelosi’s bill “could result in litigation,” for threatening losses on any company that dares defy the government’s offer of “negotiation.” But the Left seems uninterested in abiding by limits on government power — or the consistency of its own arguments. As I <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/dems-new-plan-would-ban-private-medicine-11557688457" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wsj.com/articles/dems-new-plan-would-ban-private-medicine-11557688457&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572027551149000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFNRhLOlmEwRWTbqkNbJt_yGEVBpw">noted this spring</a>, other proposed legislation in Congress would abolish the private health care market. Less than one decade after forcing all Americans to buy a product for the first time ever, in the form of Obamacare’s insurance mandate, liberals now want to prohibit all Americans from purchasing care directly from their doctors.
These recent proposals continue a virulent strain of authoritarianism that has permeated progressivism’s entire history. Franklin Roosevelt threatened to invoke emergency powers during his first inaugural address, and Rahm Emanuel infamously <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mzcbXi1Tkk" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D_mzcbXi1Tkk&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572027551149000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEqUQZt1ngA3w0MxGoRCLRx9FlQDQ">said</a> during the Great Recession that “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” Make no mistake: The health care system needs patient-centered reform. But the true crisis comes from the progressives who would utilize blunt government force to seize control of one-fifth of the nation’s economy.
&nbsp;
Mr. Jacobs is Founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, and author of the book The Case Against Single Payer. He is on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/chrisjacobsHC" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.twitter.com/chrisjacobsHC&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572027551149000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH6oeMTNLARnFthxB33FurVWA3XYw">@chrisjacobsHC</a>.

Surgeons operating patient for breast implant

JACOBS: The Left’s Health Care Vision Is A Prescription For Brute Government Force

Democratic Party

Health Care

Obamacare

After what appeared to be an almost miraculous turn-around, &#8220;Jeopardy!&#8221; host Alex Trebek unfortunately <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/uncategorized/alex-trebeks-cancer-fight-takes-a-turn-jeopardy-host-to-resume-chemo-my-numbers-went-sky-high/">announced on Tuesday</a> that he will have to resume chemotherapy to treat his pancreatic cancer, which has resulted in a massive weight loss.
&#8220;I was doing so well,&#8221; Trebek told &#8220;Good Morning America&#8221; on Tuesday, as reported by Mediaite. &#8220;And my numbers went down to the equivalent of a normal human being who does not have pancreatic cancer. So we were all very optimistic. And they said, ‘Good, we’re gonna stop chemo, we’ll start you on immunotherapy.’ I lost about 12 pounds in a week. And my numbers went sky high, much higher than they were when I was first diagnosed. So, the doctors have decided that I have to undergo chemo again and that’s what I’m doing.&#8221;
Trebek, however, promised to keep showing up for his hit game show so long as he is able throughout this process of undergoing chemotherapy. Trebek said that doing so will bring him happiness. &#8220;As long as I can walk out and greet the audience and the contestants and run the game, I’m happy,&#8221; he said.
What is most troubling about the reversal of fortune for Trebek is that he appeared to be in &#8220;near remission&#8221; after initially undergoing treatment earlier this year.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve gone through a lot of chemotherapy and thankfully that is over,&#8221; Trebek said in August as &#8220;Jeopardy!&#8221; was gearing up for another season. &#8220;I&#8217;m on the mend and that is all I can say right now.&#8221;
That announcement occurred just five months after the host stunned audiences when he announced his battle with stage four pancreatic cancer — a disease that yields a survivor rate of just 3%.
&#8220;I have some news to share with all of you, and it&#8217;s in keeping with my longtime policy of being open and transparent with our &#8216;Jeopardy!&#8217; fan base,&#8221; he said in the video. &#8220;I also wanted to prevent you from reading or hearing some overblown or inaccurate reports regarding my health. So therefore, I wanted to be the one to pass along this information. Now, just like 50,000 other people in the United States each year, this week I was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m going to fight this, and I&#8217;m going to keep working,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And with the love and support of my family and friends and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease.&#8221;
In what can only be described as a miracle, Trebek <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47982/cbs-nbc-ignore-alex-trebek-crediting-prayer-cancer-paul-bois">revealed</a> several months later that the disease was in near remission. Speaking with PEOPLE, Trebek credited his recovery to the <a href="https://people.com/health/alex-trebek-pancreatic-cancer-near-remission/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">prayers of millions of fans</a>, with doctors admitting they may have played a significant factor in his recovery.
&#8220;I told the doctors, this has to be more than just chemo,&#8221; he told the outlet. &#8220;I&#8217;ve had a couple million people out there who expressed their good thoughts, their positive energy, and their prayers. The doctors said it could very well be an important part of this.&#8221;

trebek.jpg

BAD NEWS: Alex Trebek To Resume Chemotherapy In Fight With Pancreatic Cancer

Cancer

Health professionals are investigating why, suddenly, there&#8217;s a rash of lung illnesses related to the use of e-cigs and vaping devices. It&#8217;s almost assuredly linked to black market devices and juice pods tampered with by the users.
Progressives won&#8217;t let this crisis go to waste, combining concern over the illnesses along with recent data suggesting an uptick in teen vaping, to push for nonsensical bans. These efforts reveal a deep level of hypocrisy, and ultimately, will lead to more deadly habits.
When it comes to &#8220;harm reduction&#8221; strategies, progressive politicians and talking heads promote heroin-injection sites. Some call these illegal spaces &#8220;safe injection sites&#8221; because they&#8217;re monitored by a health professional to treat addicts at risk of overdose, but the fact that they need a nurse or doctor present literally means they&#8217;re not all that safe. This is exactly why the Trump administration has warned cities like Seattle, for example, to stay away from the addiction-enabling programs.
When the Trump administration warned Seattle to stay away from the addiction-enabling programs, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan&#8217;s office decried, to the Seattle Times, the effort &#8220;to block a harm-reduction strategy to the opioid epidemic.&#8221;
Seattle is not alone, of course. Philadelphia is in a legal battle with the feds over the sites, and San Francisco Democrat Sen. Scott Wiener is pushing a bill to bring the heroin dens to California.
Harm reduction is where it&#8217;s at for these progressives!
Yet, when it comes to e-cigarettes and vaping, suddenly, they want bans. San Francisco banned the sale of e-cigarettes. Durkan immediately supported the &#8220;bold&#8221; move, saying <a href="https://mynorthwest.com/1434986/rantz-jenny-durkan-e-cigarettes-injection-sites/?">it&#8217;s time to consider banning them</a> in Seattle. Philadelphia has long sought regulations on the devices, too.
What happened to the Left&#8217;s love affair with harm reduction strategies? E-cigarettes and vaping nicotine is a popular tool used for smoking cessation. Cigarette consumption is <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/electronic-cigarettes-good-news-bad-news-2016072510010">considerably more dangerous</a> than e-cigarettes. No one is saying they’re categorically safe; they&#8217;re saying it&#8217;s safer. It&#8217;s a similar argument progressives use when talking about heroin injection sites – only, in this case, we&#8217;re talking about a lawful-for-now device.
But what about the children? King County Executive Dow Constatine in Washington state <a href="https://www.kingcounty.gov/elected/executive/constantine/news/release/2019/September/11-vaping-regulations.aspx">declared</a> &#8220;urgent action&#8221; needed to save the children! Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer <a href="https://apnews.com/642945b75fad4b64b651fb229db8eaf1">accused</a> e-flavor makers of purposefully trying to &#8220;hook children on nicotine.&#8221; Democrats aren&#8217;t alone. President Trump, along with the First Lady, used kids&#8217; health as an argument to ban e-cig flavors – except if, inexplicably, they&#8217;re tobacco flavored. Kids are often used as props in these debates. These bans are ludicrous.
Children are already banned from purchasing e-cig and vaping products. If you want to get them to stop using them, increase enforcement on shops that are illegally selling devices and increase funding to education programs – mimicking the very same ones that caused a decrease in smoking. And there&#8217;s even reason to believe that a ban like this will drive child-vapers back to cigarettes. If they&#8217;re going to consume one of these products, wouldn&#8217;t we rather have it be an e-cigarette, where they cut their exposure to toxic chemicals associated with burning tobacco?
The bigger unintended consequence of this kind of ban is that it likely brings smokers back to cigarettes. Adults overwhelmingly prefer the &#8220;kid-friendly&#8221; flavors than the tobacco one. Couldn&#8217;t this just push adults back to cigarettes? I thought this was about health.
Jason Rantz is a Seattle-based talk show host heard weekday afternoons from 3-6 p.m.on KTTH 770 AM (subscribe to the podcast <a href="http://mynorthwest.com/category/podcasts/#AM770KTTH">here</a>). He’s a frequent guest on FOX News and occasional fill-in host for the Ben Shapiro Show. Follow Jason on Twitter @JasonRantz.

Vaping.jpeg

RANTZ: Progressives Ditch ‘Harm Reduction’ Support So They Can Ban Vaping Products

Donald Trump

Trump Administration

Late-night host James Corden of CBS publicly rebuked Bill Maher on Thursday night for saying that society needs to bring back &#8220;fat-shaming.&#8221;
Last week, HBO host Bill Maher set off sparks when he publicly called for fat-shaming to return to society in some way or another to combat the obesity crisis. His comments came in response to the Democratic Party&#8217;s push for free healthcare while neglecting the fact Americans are increasingly unhealthy.
Maher stated:
<blockquote>At next Thursday’s [Democrat presidential] debate, one of the candidates has to say, &#8220;The problem with our healthcare system is Americans eat s**t… and too much of it.&#8221; All the candidates will talk about their health plans, but no one will mention the key factor: the citizens don’t lift a finger to help [obesity]. … We scream at Congress to find a way to pay for our medical bills, but it wouldn’t be nearly the issue it is if people just didn’t eat like a**holes. … What’s Elizabeth Warren’s plan for that?
Fat-shaming has to make a comeback. Some amount of shame is good. We shamed people out of smoking and into wearing seatbelts. We shamed them out of littering and most of them out of racism. Shame is the first step in reform.</blockquote>
In the same monologue, Maher did not say that only fat people should be shamed, but noted that society has come to a point where smokers are hectored regularly while obese people are coddled.
On Thursday night, James Corden, who admitted to having struggled with weight throughout his life, publicly called out Bill Maher for not understanding the obesity problem and even argued that &#8220;fat-shaming&#8221; would make the situation worse by making people feel helpless and depressed.
&#8220;There&#8217;s a common and insulting misconception that fat people are stupid and lazy, and we&#8217;re not,&#8221; Corden said, according to <a href="https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/james-corden-responds-to-bill-mahers-fat-shaming-comments-1203335512/">Variety</a>. &#8220;We get it, we know. We know that being overweight isn&#8217;t good for us, and I&#8217;ve struggled my entire life trying to manage my weight and I suck at it. I&#8217;ve had good days and bad months.&#8221;
&#8220;Fat-shaming is just bullying,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And bullying only makes the problem worse.&#8221;
Corden later noted that the American obesity epidemic is a complex issue, stemming from poverty and even genetics.
&#8220;Now Billy is right about one thing. This really is a health problem,&#8221; Corden said. &#8220;It&#8217;s an issue that needs to be discussed clearly and honestly. It&#8217;s an epidemic, and when you look at the numbers it&#8217;s terrifying. There are numerous reasons why people live their lives at an unhealthy weight. Junk food. Portion control. A lack of exercise. These are all major contributing factors. But poverty is also an issue.&#8221;
Corden concluded by accusing Maher of having a &#8220;sense of superiority&#8221; while advising him to think about his choice of words.
&#8220;We&#8217;re not all as lucky as <a href="https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/bill-maher-real-time-hbo-trump-politically-incorrect-1203249574/" data-tag="bill-maher">Bill Maher</a>. We don’t all have a sense of superiority that burns 35,000 calories a day,&#8221; he said. &#8220;In the meantime, Bill, while you&#8217;re encouraging people to think about what goes into their mouths, just think a little harder about what comes out of yours.&#8221;
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ax1U04c4gaw" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>

jamescorden.jpg

WATCH: James Corden Rebukes Bill Maher’s Call To Resurrect Fat-Shaming

Bill Maher

james Corden

The media and politicians tell us there is a &#8220;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/everyone-should-be-alarmed-by-the-vaping-crisis/2019/09/09/1f2413f8-d329-11e9-9343-40db57cf6abd_story.html">crisis</a>,&#8221; an &#8220;<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/dr-siegel-vaping-related-deaths-epidemic">epidemic</a>,&#8221; an &#8220;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/11/trump-to-consider-e-cigarette-policy-amid-outbreak-of-lung-disease.html">outbreak</a>,&#8221; even a &#8220;<a href="https://khn.org/morning-breakout/viewpoints-gops-unpopular-efforts-to-repeal-health-law-are-backfiring-with-voters-teen-vaping-is-a-looming-public-health-catastrophe/">catastrophe</a>&#8221; gripping our country. Worse yet, our children — think of the children! — are caught in the middle of it. The disaster is so very disastrous that the White House is leaping into action.
President Trump has announced that his administration will move for a ban on flavored e-cigarettes. Yes, vaping. Vaping is the crisis. Vaping is what threatens to bring about armageddon if we do not act.
Leaving aside the not-insignificant question of whether the president has the constitutional authority to unilaterally ban a consumer product (he doesn&#8217;t), is this apocalyptic fervor justified? Is there really anything that might reasonably be described as a &#8220;vaping epidemic&#8221; occurring? The answer, of course, is no. Not even close.
There have been six <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/11/kansas-reports-6th-death-related-vaping-lung-illness/2283959001/">deaths</a> in America possibly linked to vaping — six deaths out of the more than 11 million people who report using e-cigarettes. If you&#8217;re keeping track at home, that&#8217;s a fatality rate of .0005%. By comparison, <a href="https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-facts-and-statistics">88,000</a> people die from alcohol-related causes every year. An estimated <a href="https://health.usnews.com/health-news/patient-advice/articles/2016-09-27/the-danger-in-taking-prescribed-medications">128,000</a> people die from prescription pills annually. The death toll in both cases also represents a very small percentage, but the percentage is probably quite a bit higher than vaping&#8217;s meager .0005%. No matter how you look at it, the numbers just don&#8217;t come close to justifying words like &#8220;outbreak&#8221; and &#8220;catastrophe.&#8221; And they certainly don&#8217;t justify unconstitutional action from the president (not that anything ever could).
But the panic is even more absurd and counterproductive than it first appears. Keep in mind that the <a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/american-society/vaping-a-moral-panic/">majority</a> of the people who&#8217;ve gotten sick or died from vaping were using unlicensed, black market products. By outlawing most e-cigarettes, we are only driving more people towards precisely the kind of vaping that&#8217;s causing the problem in the first place. This is a solution to a fake problem that will inevitably cause the fake problem to become a real problem. In other words, it is exactly the kind of solution our government specializes in.
Personally, I don&#8217;t vape. It&#8217;s not my thing. I find it kind of weird, to be honest. But &#8220;kind of weird&#8221; and &#8220;not my thing&#8221; can&#8217;t in themselves justify sweeping prohibitions. My toxin of choice is alcohol. Though I drink in moderation, it would probably be healthier if I didn&#8217;t drink at all. Still, that&#8217;s my decision and my concern. I don&#8217;t need any bureaucrat to hold my hand in the liquor store and guide me towards the booze varieties that he finds most acceptable. That&#8217;s not how it&#8217;s supposed to work in a free country.
But if we are going to start banning unhealthy substances, we have a lot of banning to do before we get to comparatively mild and safe e-cigarettes. We shouldn&#8217;t start with alcohol, either: The government tried that once already and it didn&#8217;t turn out very well. The leading cause of death in America is <a href="https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/obesity-leading-cause-death-america-shame">obesity</a>. Here we have an actual public health emergency. People are fat and only getting fatter. Yet soda and fast food — two staples of Trump&#8217;s diet, as it happens — remain not only legal, but are often marketed specifically to children. So let us confiscate all the Happy Meals and send government agents to locate and destroy all vending machines. Maybe then we can start worrying about vaping.

Man Smoking E-Cigarette

WALSH: The Media Claim There’s A Vaping ‘Crisis’ And President Trump Wants To Ban It. Here’s Why The Hysteria Is Absurd.

Media

According to an internist at the New York University School of Medicine, the burgeoning number of homeless people in the cities of America, particularly Los Angeles, could see a surge in a disease thought uncommon since the Middle Ages: leprosy.
Dr. Marc Siegel, of New York University&#8217;s Langone Health, writing in <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/460442-is-a-dark-ages-disease-the-new-american-plague-threat">The Hill</a>, notes that the CDC reports that between 100 and 200 new cases of leprosy are annually reported in the U.S. He adds that a USC study found that of the 187 leprosy patients treated at its clinic between 1973 to 2018, most came from Mexico, where leprosy is more common. Siegel points out, &#8220;Leprosy is still <a href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Leprosy-Remains-Prevalent-in-24-Latin-America-Countries-20180204-0031.html">more prevalent in Central America and South America</a>, with more than 20,000 new cases per year. Given that, there is certainly the possibility of sporadic cases of leprosy continuing to be brought across our southern border undetected.&#8221;
Then Siegel addresses Los Angeles:
<blockquote>And it seems only a matter of time before leprosy could take hold among the homeless population in an area such as Los Angeles County, with <a href="https://la.curbed.com/2019/6/4/18652755/2019-homeless-count-los-angeles-numbers">close to 60,000 homeless people</a> and 75 percent of those lacking even temporary shelter or adequate hygiene and medical treatment. All of those factors make a perfect cauldron for a contagious disease that is <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/leprosy/transmission/index.html">transmitted</a> by nasal droplets and respiratory secretions with close repeated contact.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7442947/Homeless-people-risk-LEPROSY.html">The Daily Mail</a> notes, &#8220;Leprosy, or Hansen&#8217;s disease, affects 250,000 people worldwide every year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention … The bacteria behind the infection, Mycobacterium leprae, attacks nerves in the body, which can lead to the characteristic &#8216;peeling&#8217; skin. Untreated, this can cause paralysis of the hands and feet.&#8221;
Los Angeles soaring homeless problem has also triggered an outbreak of typhus. The Los Angeles Times reported in June:
<blockquote>CatsUSA Pest Control, brought in to assess areas outside City Hall and nearby buildings, warned that homeless people create &#8220;harborage for rodents&#8221; … The company said it found &#8220;poor sanitary conditions&#8221; — including leftover food, human waste and hypodermic needles — and recommended that the city clear away the homeless population living in the Civic Center.</blockquote>
David Costa, building construction and maintenance superintendent, stated, &#8220;The homeless are using the grated areas above the pits as their bathroom and relieving themselves, This is also attracting the rats. Custodial will need to do some hazmat cleaning of the grates and the pits. There are even hypodermic needles being tossed in the pits along with human waste and other garbage.&#8221;
The Times added, &#8220;County health officials also declared a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-typhus-20181004-story.html">typhus outbreak last year</a> in downtown L.A. and one Los Angeles city employee, Deputy City Atty. Elizabeth Greenwood, has filed a $5-million legal claim against the city, saying she contracted typhus while working in her office at City Hall East.&#8221;
Siegel said <a href="v">last February</a>, &#8220;Simply cleaning up the garbage in so-called ‘typhus zones’ will not solve the problem, as people who have nowhere to go and nowhere to dispose of their waste will simply make more. And more garbage means more rats which means more fleas which means more typhus.&#8221;

NYU Doctor Warns Los Angeles: You May Be Hit With This Medieval Disease

Los Angeles

Trying desperately to take the mantle of Most Insufferable Corporate Panderer from Gillette, Calvin Klein recently unveiled a <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/08/31/calvin-klein-is-using-plus-size-models-to-reinvent-its-brand/?utm_medium=SocialFlow&amp;utm_campaign=SocialFlow&amp;utm_source=NYPTwitter">new ad campaign</a> featuring obese people in their underpants. A massive, 4,000-square foot billboard erected in Manhattan shows one such model with the message: &#8220;I speak my truth #InMyCalvins.&#8221;
This is just the latest and largest iteration of the &#8220;speak my truth&#8221; slogan, which is repeated incessantly in our culture — especially since Oprah <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z84UtPAWqNM">identified</a> &#8220;speaking your truth&#8221; as &#8220;the most powerful tool we have.&#8221; And we can do more than just speak our truth. According to Tomi Lahren, we can also <a href="https://twitter.com/tomilahren/status/843115966477164544?lang=en">stand</a> in our truth.
Of course, the problem with this mantra is the possessive pronoun sandwiched conspicuously in-between &#8220;speak&#8221; and &#8220;truth.&#8221; Truth is great and speaking it is admirable. It might even be good to stand in it, on occasion, if you&#8217;re wearing the proper foot attire. But you cannot speak or stand in or do anything at all with &#8220;your&#8221; truth because there is no such thing. There is only truth and untruth. There is reality and unreality. There is correct and incorrect. Every statement or assertion will fall into one category or the other — or a combination of the two.
The &#8220;speak your truth&#8221; idiom tries to create a third category in addition to truth and untruth: My truth. But if my truth is the same as the truth, then it isn&#8217;t mine at all. It isn&#8217;t my truth that sharks have dorsal fins, even if I assert the truth and express my agreement with it. It isn&#8217;t even the shark&#8217;s truth. It is, rather, a universal truth that stands apart from and beyond and over myself, and the shark, and everyone else. It just is, and all a rational person can do is accept it.
However, if my truth contradicts the truth, then it is indeed mine but it isn&#8217;t actually truth. If I say that my truth is that I have a dorsal fin, I am simply mistaken or lying or hallucinating. It may be my impression or my belief or my conviction or my desire that I have a dorsal fin, but it isn&#8217;t my truth. It isn&#8217;t any kind of truth at all. In this case, &#8220;my truth&#8221; is just another way of saying &#8220;falsehood.&#8221;
It might be argued that &#8220;speak your truth&#8221; really means something closer to &#8220;speak your mind&#8221; or &#8220;share your story.&#8221; If that&#8217;s what&#8217;s meant, then that&#8217;s what should be said instead. It&#8217;s clear, however, that many people who use the phrase do actually mean it literally. We are raising an entire generation to believe that they can invent their own truths, which will be just as legitimate as, if not more legitimate than, the truth. The rash of creative new &#8220;gender identities&#8221; is just one example of this. If a man says he is a woman, or if a woman says she isn&#8217;t a woman but she&#8217;s <a href="https://twitter.com/pinknews/status/1028914292291190785?lang=en">still a lesbian</a>, or if a dude in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/may/25/secret-life-of-the-human-pups-the-men-who-live-as-dogs">terrifying Dalmatian costume</a> says he is a dog, then we are supposed to accept and affirm these claims as the unique and valid &#8220;truths&#8221; of these individuals.
This is all nonsense, of course, and a symptom of our collective madness. The truth cannot be changed according to our whims and desires. And it cannot be owned by anyone. All we can do with the truth is acknowledge it, deny it, assert it, or allege it. Though I suppose &#8220;speak your assertion of alleged truth&#8221; doesn&#8217;t quite have the same ring to it.

Obesity is a major cause of diabetes

WALSH: Stop Speaking Your Truth

Famed gameshow host Alex Trebek may no longer be in jeopardy after finishing chemotherapy treatment for pancreatic cancer. According to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/alex-trebek-jeopardy-chemo">Fox News</a>, Trebek is now on the mend and &#8220;back in action&#8221; for another season of the iconic trivia show.
On Thursday, Trebek announced via the official &#8220;Jeopardy&#8221; Twitter page he completed his chemotherapy and will be returning for season 36 on September 9th.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve gone through a lot of chemotherapy and thankfully that is over,&#8221; Trebek shared. &#8220;I&#8217;m on the mend and that is all I can say right now.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Alex is back in action! Join him on September 9 for the premiere of Season 36. <a href="https://t.co/Vdv9t9vxDE">pic.twitter.com/Vdv9t9vxDE</a>
— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jeopardy/status/1167142434653868032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Back in March, Trebek stunned audiences when he announced his battle with stage four pancreatic cancer — a disease that yields a survivor rate of just 3%.
&#8220;I have some news to share with all of you, and it&#8217;s in keeping with my longtime policy of being open and transparent with our Jeopardy! fan base,&#8221; he said in the video. &#8220;I also wanted to prevent you from reading or hearing some overblown or inaccurate reports regarding my health. So therefore, I wanted to be the one to pass along this information. Now, just like 50,000 other people in the United States each year, this week I was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m going to fight this, and I&#8217;m going to keep working,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And with the love and support of my family and friends and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease.&#8221;
In what can only be described as a miracle, Trebek <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47982/cbs-nbc-ignore-alex-trebek-crediting-prayer-cancer-paul-bois">revealed</a> several months later that the disease was in near-remission. Speaking with PEOPLE, Trebek credited his recovery to the <a href="https://people.com/health/alex-trebek-pancreatic-cancer-near-remission/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">prayers of millions of fans</a>, with doctors admitting they may have played a significant factor in his recovery.
&#8220;I told the doctors, this has to be more than just chemo,&#8221; he told the outlet. &#8220;I&#8217;ve had a couple million people out there who expressed their good thoughts, their positive energy and their prayers. The doctors said it could very well be an important part of this.&#8221;
However, at the time, his statements were a subject of some light controversy when <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2019/05/29/nbc-edits-out-alex-trebek-crediting-prayers-helping-his">Newsbusters</a> revealed that both &#8220;NBC Nightly News&#8221; and &#8220;CBS Evening News&#8221; edited those parts about prayer out of their broadcasts while ABC&#8217;s &#8220;World News Tonight&#8221; included them. Over at NBC, Trebek&#8217;s quotes were specifically edited to eliminate the word prayers by including an ellipsis in its place. So rather than the full quote, NBC reported it as follows: &#8220;I’ve got a couple million people out there who have expressed good thoughts … I told the doctors this has to be more than just the chemo.&#8221;
Over at CBS, anchor Margaret Brennan included only a brief segment from People magazine about his &#8220;mindboggling&#8221; recovery:
&#8220;There was some encouraging news today from Alex Trebek,&#8221; reported Brennan. &#8220;The host of Jeopardy! says his doctors tell him that his stage-four pancreatic cancer is in, quote, &#8216;near remission.&#8217; In an interview with People magazine, Trebek calls the prognosis &#8216;mind-boggling&#8217; but says he has several more rounds of chemotherapy to go before he&#8217;s declared to be in full remission.&#8221;

Alex Trebek

Alex Trebek ‘Back In Action’ After Latest Cancer Update: ‘I’m On The Mend’

A rare disease typically associated with horses has so far infected four people in Massachusetts this month, one of whom has died.
Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) is spread by mosquitos and can affect horses, humans, and birds. While the disease has “equine” in the name, birds are actually the most likely to contract the disease from a particular classification of mosquito. A different species of mosquito, however, is able to transmit the disease from birds to humans and several other mammal species. Horses do not appear able to spread the disease to humans, as their blood would not contain enough of the virus to infect mosquitos, which could then infect humans.
The first Massachusetts case of EEE in six years was discovered earlier this month, <a href="https://www.wcvb.com/article/massachusetts-has-first-human-eee-case-in-6-years-state-health-officials-say-9-communities-at-critical-risk/28666278">according to WCVB5</a>. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) issued a warning to nine southeastern Massachusetts communities about their risk of contracting the virus.
“Today’s news is evidence of the significant risk from EEE and we are asking residents to take this risk very seriously,” Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel, MD said in a statement to the outlet. “We will continue to monitor this situation and the impacted communities.”
The first case was reported in a male patient over 60, but the disease is not limited to the elderly or infirm. The second case was discovered in a patient between the ages of 19 and 30, WCVB5 reported. The third case also involved a man over 60, while the fourth case affected a woman over the age of 50.
The woman, Laurie Sylvia, died due to the illness. Sylvia’s husband was Robert Sylvia Jr., president of the Teamsters Local 59 union. The union <a href="https://www.facebook.com/teamsterslocal59/photos/a.923357174489477/1254035108088347/?type=3&amp;theater">wrote on Facebook</a> that it appeared Laurie would not recover after contracting EEE.
“It pains us to inform you that Laurie Sylvia, the wife of Teamsters Local 59 President Robert Sylvia, Jr has been stricken with the EEE Virus,” the union wrote. “For the last several days we were hopeful that with the best possible care from the Doctors and Staff at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, she would be able to recover. We have just learned that this will not be the case. Laurie’s condition has deteriorated and regrettably the Family is now preparing for the worst. Please keep Laurie, Bob and the rest of the family in your thoughts and prayers at this very difficult time.”
On Sunday, two of Laurie’s family members confirmed to the media that she had died. Her daughter, Jen, announced her death on Facebook.
“Today, I had to say goodbye to my best friend. My mum was my favorite person in the world,&#8221; Jen wrote. &#8220;She brought light and joy to everyone she came across.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know where to go from here,&#8221; she added. &#8220;I just don&#8217;t understand how such a beautiful person could be taken from me so soon.&#8221;
The MDPH identified 37 communities in the Bay State as being high to critical risk for EEE. This week, the state will start spraying for mosquitos to try and quash the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/easternequineencephalitis/tech/symptoms.html">states</a> that there is no vaccine against EEE and that about “a third of all people with EEE die from the disease.” Those who do recover are often “left with disabling and progressive mental and physical sequelae, which can range from minimal brain dysfunction to severe intellectual impairment, personality disorders, seizures, paralysis, and cranial nerve dysfunction.”

Aedes aegypti biting human skin

4 People In Massachusetts Have Contracted Eastern Equine Encephalitis, One Has Died

Massachusetts

An Australian couple who fed their toddler a strict vegan diet that resulted in the child becoming so malnourished that she had no teeth will avoid jail time after a judge ruled that imprisoning them would deprive their children of an &#8220;important bond.&#8221;
The Sydney Morning Herald <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/vegan-parents-avoid-jail-over-malnourished-daughter-20190822-p52jlr.html">reported</a> that New South Wales District Court Judge Sarah Huggett sentenced the couple to 18 months of &#8220;intensive corrections orders&#8221; rather than send them to jail. The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46987/parents-who-fed-infant-vegan-diet-arrested-after-ashe-schow">reported</a> that the child had not been vaccinated or even taken to a doctor since her birth and suffered from rickets.
&#8220;The reckless failure of these offenders to provide their daughter with the necessities of life in fact caused serious harm,&#8221; Huggett said during sentencing, according to the Herald.
The couple was arrested in April 2018 and earlier pleaded guilty to failing to provide for their child. The father is 35 years old and the mother is 33. Australian press can&#8217;t name them for legal reasons.
The child &#8220;was fed oats, potatoes, rice, tofu, bread, peanut butter and rice milk,&#8221; according to court documents reviewed by the Herald. For a snack, she was given a &#8220;mouthful of fruit or two sultanas.&#8221;
The mother told a forensic psychiatrist that she didn&#8217;t think her child was ill until the girl suffered a seizure in March 2018. The mother called paramedics who found the child &#8220;floppy,&#8221; with blue lips and eyes rolling back into her head.
&#8220;The child was severely malnourished, underweight and undersized, and delayed as far as age-appropriate milestones were concerned,&#8221; Huggett said in court.
The parents faced five years in jail, but will not serve such a sentence because of Huggett&#8217;s ruling.
The mother had previously claimed she was severely depressed after her daughter’s birth, but a psychologist disputed the claims. That psychologist told the court that the mother’s medical records showed no evidence of her depression, and an interview with the mother revealed the same.
Huggett said during sentencing that &#8220;it is the responsibility of every parent to ensure the diet they chose to provide to their children &#8230; is one that is balanced and contains sufficient essential nutrients and vitamins for optimum growth and development.&#8221; She also said that the mother’s alleged depression made it difficult for her to care for her child &#8220;to an extent.&#8221;
&#8220;I say &#8216;to an extent&#8217; because this offence was committed over a substantial period of time,&#8221; Huggett said.
The father claimed he was not to blame because the mother &#8220;dictated&#8221; the child&#8217;s care. Huggett in May dismissed the father’s claims, saying he was an &#8220;educated man&#8221; who &#8220;could have picked her up and taken her to a doctor.&#8221;
During sentencing, Huggett further criticized the father, saying his &#8220;abandonment of his parental responsibility cannot be justified or excused on the basis that he was busy or preoccupied.&#8221;
It should have been obvious, Huggett said, to anyone that the child was unhealthy. At 20 months old, the girl couldn&#8217;t walk or talk and was the size of a 3-month old. Once medical staff determined the child was malnourished, she spent a month in the hospital and was then taken care of by a foster parent. Six months after her seizure, the little girl could crawl and had put on 13 pounds.
The little girl and her two older brothers are now being cared for by their maternal grandmother in Queensland.

Directly Above Shot Of Oat Flakes In Bowl On Marble Table

Vegan Parents Whose Daughter Was Malnourished Due To Vegan Diet Won’t Go To Jail

Australia

The media may have fallen in love with plant-based fake meat like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods (who produce the Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger, respectively), but one high-profile super vegan doesn&#8217;t think the &#8220;meat&#8221; is good for anyone&#8217;s health.
John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/08/21/whole-foods-ceo-john-mackey-plant-based-meat-not-good-for-your-health.html">recently told</a> CNBC that while the plant-based meat is better for the environment, and is more ethical than eating animals, it is made from processed ingredients that aren&#8217;t healthier than actual meat.
&#8220;The [brands] who are capturing the imagination of people — and I&#8217;m not going to name these brands because I&#8217;m afraid I will be associated with the critique of it,&#8221; Mackey, who has been a vegan for more than 20 years, told the outlet, &#8220;but some of these that are extremely popular now that are taking the world by storm, if you look at the ingredients, they are super, highly processed foods.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t think eating highly processed foods is healthy. I think people thrive on eating whole foods,&#8221; he added. &#8220;As for health, I will not endorse that, and that is about as big of criticism that I will do in public.&#8221;
CNBC listed the ingredients for Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods burgers:
<blockquote>According to Beyond Meat&#8217;s <a href="https://www.beyondmeat.com/products/the-beyond-burger/">website</a>, ingredients for its plant-based patties include water, pea protein isolate, expeller-pressed canola oil, refined coconut oil, rice protein and other natural flavors, including apple extract and beet juice extract (for color). Ingredients for Impossible Foods burger include water, soy protein concentrate, coconut oil, sunflower oil, potato protein, soy leghemoglobin (a group of protein found in animals and plants) and other natural flavors, according to its <a href="https://faq.impossiblefoods.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018937494-What-are-the-ingredients-">website.</a></blockquote>
CNBC also spoke to registered dietitian Alissa Rumsey, who told the outlet that the plant-based burgers &#8220;are not necessarily healthier than beef burgers.&#8221;
&#8220;They&#8217;re totally fine to eat, but there&#8217;s no need to replace your beef burger if you don&#8217;t enjoy these,&#8221; she added.
Mackey said that even if plant-based meat isn&#8217;t necessarily healthier than actual meat, it could serve as a &#8220;transition food&#8221; to move people away from meat.
&#8220;A lot of people say &#8230; that [plant-based] meat is a transition food, meaning it&#8217;s a way for [people] to begin to reeducate [their] palates,&#8221; he told CNBC.
He added that Americans need to readjust their palates in order to get away from eating meat, which takes time.
&#8220;So the reason why these plant-based meats have taken the world by storm is that they taste very similar to regular meats, whereas if you get a [healthy] black bean burger with flax seeds and sweet potatoes in it, that&#8217;s going to taste great to me,&#8221; but not to most other people, he said.
He said people can retrain their taste buds by continuously eating things they don&#8217;t typically like, and said he now loves fruits and vegetables because he trained himself to love them.

World Health Care Congress

Whole Foods CEO Says Plant-Based Fake Meat Is Bad For Your Health (But Good For Environment)

Vegetarian

A graphic suicide scene from the season finale of Netflix&#8217;s &#8220;13 Reasons Why&#8221; has now been edited in response to accusations that the show glorifies suicide.
According to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/netflix-alters-graphic-13-reasons-why-suicide-scene-controversy-1224489">The Hollywood Reporter</a> (THR), Netflix released a statement on Tuesday that tacitly defended the company&#8217;s original decision to keep the scene while acknowledging it may have contributed to unhealthy ideas about suicide among teens.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve heard from many young people that &#8217;13 Reasons Why&#8217; encouraged them to start conversations about difficult issues like depression and suicide and get help — often for the first time,&#8221; Netflix said on Tuesday. &#8220;As we prepare to launch season three later this summer, we&#8217;ve been mindful about the ongoing debate around the show. So on the advice of medical experts, including Dr. Christine Moutier, chief medical officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, we&#8217;ve decided with creator Brian Yorkey and the producers to edit the scene in which Hannah takes her own life from season one.&#8221;
The original three-minute scene featured the character Hannah (actress Katherine Langford) taking a razor blade to her left wrist while sitting in the bathtub as blood gushes from a cut extending all the way up to her elbow. It didn&#8217;t stop there.
&#8220;Hannah is then seen gasping for air as her breathing ultimately slows and bloodstained water tips out of the tub,&#8221; reports THR. &#8220;Not long after, Hannah&#8217;s mother (Kate Walsh) discovers her daughter&#8217;s lifeless body in the blood-filled tub. Male lead Dylan Minnette provides voiceover during the entire scene as he tells the school&#8217;s guidance counselor (played by Derek Luke) precisely what happened to Hannah.&#8221;
The new scene will simply feature Hannah assessing her life in the mirror and then cutting to her mother&#8217;s reaction to the suicide. Netflix insiders told THR that the streaming platform will be working to monitor any pirated clips that feature the original scene.
Brian Yorkey, the show&#8217;s creator, said in a statement on Tuesday that he initially intended &#8220;13 Reasons Why&#8221; to spark empathy in those who viewed it.
&#8220;It was our hope, in making &#8217;13 Reasons Why&#8217; into a television show, to tell a story that would help young viewers feel seen and heard and encourage empathy in all who viewed it, much as the best-selling book did before us,&#8221; Yorkey said. &#8220;Our creative intent in portraying the ugly, painful reality of suicide in such graphic detail in season one was to tell the truth about the horror of such an act and make sure no one would ever wish to emulate it.&#8221;
&#8220;But as we ready to launch season three, we have heard concerns about the scene from Dr. Christine Moutier at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and others, and have agreed with Netflix to re-edit it,&#8221; Yorkey continued. &#8220;No one scene is more important than the life of the show and its message that we must take better care of each other. We believe this edit will help the show do the most good for the most people while mitigating any risk for especially vulnerable young viewers.&#8221;
The move to edit the scene comes upon the heels of Netflix recently announcing it would be limiting depictions of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49233/netflix-diminish-depictions-onscreen-smoking-teen-paul-bois">on-screen smoking</a> in its original shows and movies. This past April, NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/30/718529255/teen-suicide-spiked-after-debut-of-netflixs-13-reasons-why-report-says">reported</a> on a study that showed &#8220;13 Reasons Why&#8221; correlated with a spike in teen suicide rates.
&#8220;In the month following the show&#8217;s debut in March 2017, there was a 28.9% increase in suicide among Americans ages 10-17, said the <a href="https://www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567(19)30288-6/fulltext">study</a>, published Monday in the &#8216;Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,'&#8221; <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/30/718529255/teen-suicide-spiked-after-debut-of-netflixs-13-reasons-why-report-says">reported</a> NPR. &#8220;The number of suicides was greater than that seen in any single month over the five-year period researchers examined. Over the rest of the year, there were 195 more youth suicides than expected given historical trends.&#8221;
In June of last year, as Netflix renewed &#8220;13 Reasons Why&#8221; for its third season, company CEO Reed Hastings <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31592/netflix-ceo-defends-13-reasons-why-nobody-has-paul-bois">dismissed critics</a> by saying &#8220;nobody has to watch it.&#8221;
&#8220;&#8217;13 Reasons Why&#8217; has been enormously popular and successful. It’s engaging content,&#8221; Hastings said during the company’s annual shareholder meeting. &#8220;It is controversial. But nobody has to watch it.&#8221;

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