Wednesday, August 26, 2020
FDA chief apologises for overstating benefits of plasma on Covid-19
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53911565
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn came under fire after his agency on Sunday gave emergency authorisation to use convalescent plasma on Covid patients.
Echoing President Donald Trump, Mr Hahn touted the treatment as life-saving.
Scientists quickly questioned the data provided by Mr Hahn, who suggested plasma could reduce deaths by 35%.
This claim exaggerated preliminary findings from a clinic at the Mayo Clinic.
"I personally could have done a better job and should have done a better job at that press conference explaining what the data show regarding convalescent plasma," Mr Hahn told CBS News on Tuesday.
Fact-checking the second night of the RNC
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/25/politics/rnc-night-two-fact-check/index.html
As we noted in our fact check on Monday, the first night of the Republican National Convention featured more misleading and false claims than all four nights of the Democrats' convention combined.
Ultra-Orthodox publicist sentenced to 17 years in prison for rape
Matti Ben-David, an ultra-Orthodox director of a Jerusalem-based advertising agency, was sentenced on Sunday to 17 years in prison for sexual assault against six ultra-Orthodox women he employed, according to Ynet.
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
More nonsense!Delusional Democrats' lies and misleading claims take center stage on second night of convention
Clinton suggested that had the Trump administration done a better job of controlling the pandemic, unemployment would be lower than it is today.
However, Clinton conveniently left out that Democrats, including Joe Biden, demanded early in the pandemic that governments close economies across the country. The coronavirus did not force businesses to close—government bureaucrats did.
Further, many of the states with the highest COVID-19 death tolls are led by members of the Democratic Party, like Andrew Cuomo in New York, and none of them are controlled directly by President Trump, who can in most instances do nothing more than issue suggested guidelines for states to follow.
Clinton also failed to mention that Democrats are the ones who have insisted the United States pursue policies that discourage people from returning to work, like paying unemployed Americans more money to stay home than they earned when they had jobs. Or a radical plan put forward by Kamala Harris, Biden’s choice for vice president, that would send Americans $2,000 per month until the pandemic ends, plus an additional three months.
These policies, more than any others, are responsible for the unemployment rate remaining higher than it ought to be. If Democrats really want people to go back to work, then they should stop calling for workers to continue being paid to stay home.
In one of the most outrageously dishonest moments of the night, a video promoting Biden alleged that Trump, despite the public health crisis caused by the coronavirus, is “still trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act” and “take … health care away” from Americans at risk.
Although it’s true that President Trump has continued to call for the elimination of the ACA and is fighting in court to have much of the law struck down because, according to the administration, it’s unconstitutional, Trump has repeatedly said ObamaCare should be replaced with something better, not merely eliminated.
The examples of misinformation listed above are just the tip of the iceberg.
In one presentation after another, Democrats showed on Tuesday night that they are not interested in providing voters with a positive vision for the future of the United States—or even just telling the truth.
Their election strategy for 2020 is simple: Say and do anything possible to beat Donald Trump, regardless of how dishonest they must be to accomplish their goal.
Trump still 'humiliated' by brother Fred Jr dumping mashed potatoes on his head when he was 7, says niece Mary
Stephanopoulos asked Mary about an incident that happened when the president was young and which ended in Donald receiving a head full of mashed potatoes. "Yes. Yeah. That's one of our favorite family stories. They were really young kids, and I think Donald was maybe 7. And one of his favorite things to do was torment my Uncle Rob, who was a couple years younger. And it was, you know, my grandmother's cooking dinner, and getting the table ready, and Donald was just being merciless. And Maryanne and my dad could not get him to stop," she said.
She added: "And finally, my dad had no other option but to pick up a bowl of mashed potatoes and just dump it on his little brother's head. And it ended the -- it ended the fight. But I think it also started something, because Donald was humiliated by it, as evidenced by the way he reacts to the story now, is no sense of humor about it whatsoever."
Total nonsense!: At Democratic Convention, lies, conspiracy theories and meanness fill third night
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/democrat-convention-lies-conspiracy-theories-liz-harrington
Former President Barack Obama spoke of sitting in the Oval Office, but he left out the part where he plotted with Biden to get the “right people” from the FBI to investigate his successors.
Through lies and deceit Democrats have weaponized government, criminalized dissent, and launched conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory to wield against anyone who had the audacity to go to work and serve in a duly-elected president’s administration.
Former RNC chairman joins anti-Trump Lincoln Project
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/former-rnc-chairman-joins-anti-trump-group-lincoln-project
The first Black chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, is joining the anti-Trump group Lincoln Project, which endorses Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and is working to oust the president's supporters in Congress.
RNC tries to rewrite pandemic history, casting Trump as decisive leader
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/25/rnc-trump-covid-19-401387
The Republican National Convention put President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic front and center on opening night, depicting him as a decisive leader who marshaled resources, forcefully responded to the deadly threat, and “moved mountains” to save American lives.
What it didn’t say is that the United States, with more than 5 million cases and more than 175,000 dead, with schools and businesses still closed and millions unemployed, has had one of the worst records on the pandemic in the world. Or that Trump repeatedly downplayed the virus threat until it had already spread throughout the country unchecked, and that to this day he inexplicably asserts that it will one day magically disappear.
But numerous public health experts, including top scientists whom Trump has diminished or contradicted, have said that the president failed, tragically, to mount a coordinated national response using the basic building blocks of public health, including a widespread, efficient and accessible national testing program.
FDA chief issues mea culpa for his plasma treatment claims
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/25/fda-chief-plasma-benefits-criticism-401514
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn issued a mea culpa late Monday, conceding that he had overstated the benefits of convalescent plasma as a treatment of coronavirus at a press conference last weekend with President Donald Trump.
“I have been criticized for remarks I made Sunday night about the benefits of convalescent plasma. The criticism is entirely justified,” the commissioner said in a string of tweets. “What I should have said better is that the data show a relative risk reduction not an absolute risk reduction.”
While the therapy is considered safe, plasma has not yet been proven effective against the coronavirus.
In a statement released Sunday, the FDA said plasma “does not yet represent a new standard of care based on the current available evidence.”
The commissioner’s actions Sunday, which came after Trump accused the FDA of slow-walking the therapy to harm his reelection, renewed many public health experts' fears that the administration will rush through a Covid-19 vaccine without proof that it works.