Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Lori Klausutis death: Twitter will not remove Trump's 'horrifying lies'

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52810661

At a Rose Garden news conference on healthcare on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Trump was asked if he had seen the widower's letter.
"Yeah, I have," he said. "I'm sure that ultimately they want to get to the bottom of it and it's a very serious situation."
He added: "It's a very suspicious thing and I hope somebody gets to the bottom of it. It would be a very good thing.
"As you know there's no statute of limitations."
White House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany said earlier on Tuesday when asked about Mr Klausutis' appeal: "I don't know if [Mr Trump] has seen the letter, but I do know that our hearts are with Lori's family at this time."

 

Buenos Aires: Jewish bride, groom and rabbi arrested at wedding

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/280931

Eight people, including the bride, groom, and officiating rabbi, arrested at Jewish wedding in Argentina.

Twitter labeled Trump tweets with a fact check for the first time

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/26/tech/twitter-trump-fact-check/index.html

For the first time, Twitter called tweets from Donald Trump "potentially misleading" — a decision that prompted the president to accuse the social media platform of election meddling.

On Tuesday, Twitter highlighted two of Trump's tweets that falsely claimed mail-in ballots would lead to widespread voter fraud, appending a message the company has introduced to combat misinformation and disputed or unverified claims.
"Get the facts about mail-in ballots," read the message beneath each tweet. It linked to a curated fact-check page the platform had created filled with further links and summaries of news articles debunking the assertion.

Twitter said the move was aimed at providing "context" around Trump's remarks. But Twitter's unprecedented decision is likely to raise further questions about its willingness to consistently apply the label to other Trump tweets that have been deemed misleading by third parties, particularly as the president has lobbed baseless allegations against former Rep. Joe Scarborough regarding the death of a congressional staffer years ago. 

Shortly after the labels were applied, Trump took to Twitter to claim the company "is interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election" and "stifling FREE SPEECH." He added that he "will not allow it to happen!"

Twitter's actions quickly led to criticism from some of its users, however, who said the measures did not go far enough. Some faulted Twitter for not explicitly saying in the label that Trump's tweets contained false information; other users said the company should have used a larger font size.

Rolling out mass hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis for covid-19 in India’s slums risks eroding public trust

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/05/01/rolling-out-mass-hydroxychloroquine-prophylaxis-for-covid-19-in-indias-slums-risks-public-trust/

 
The municipal corporation of Greater Mumbai (BMC) has decided to roll out a seven-week-long course of chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) mass community prophylaxis for the people living in slums [7]. The decision is apparently backed by the announcement of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) dated 22nd of March, for the prophylaxis of asymptomatic healthcare workers involved in the care of suspected or confirmed cases of covid-19 and asymptomatic household contacts of confirmed cases [8].


This is a baffling decision for while some of the studies suggest these antimalarial drugs may be effective [9–12] as well as safe [13,14], there are also concerns [15,16] that the evidence is not robust and adverse effects will be likely if the drugs are rolled out indiscriminately for mass prophylaxis, without rigorous monitoring [17]. Contradictory statements have been issued about ongoing studies and trials for CQ and HCQ prophylaxis in India [15] and concern expressed about promoting its use as a prophylactic therapy on the basis of insufficient evidence [17]. Muddled and contradictory messages about the benefits and risk of using antimalarials for mass prophylaxis to the marginalised communities in the slums are fuelling confusion and mistrust.

Hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis for high-risk COVID-19 contacts in India: a prudent approach

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30430-8/fulltext

We read with interest the Correspondence from Sahaj Rathi and colleagues on hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis for COVID-19 contacts in India. The authors see the decision by the Indian Council of Medical Research, under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to recommend chemoprophylaxis with hydroxychloroquine in select groups of contacts at high risk as an abandonment of scientific reasoning in desperate times. We present our counterview on this issue.

The criticisms made by Rathi and colleagues overlook the fact that prophylactic hydroxychloroquine would be targeted to individuals at high risk rather than the general population. Projection of adverse events to the population level causes unjustified alarm. The advisory from the Indian Council of Medical Research includes a section of key considerations that address all such concerns, which have been ignored by Rathi and colleagues. In addition, the argument that there will be a shortage of the drug is not tenable. Production has been ramped up and the Government of India is supplying hydroxychloroquine to more than 50 countries, which has received widespread appreciation.

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Trump pushes conspiracy theory about MSNBC host


המכתב נגד הרב ברלנד; הגר"מ שפרן מצטרף: "הנני לחזק דבריהם"

https://www.bhol.co.il/news/1103980

 המאבק וההוקעה של הרב ברלנד נמשך. הערב מצרף הדיין המפורסם הגר"מ שפרן את חתימת ידו למכתב הדיינים משלושה בתי דין נגד הרב ברלנד ומוסיף כי הוא בא לחזק את דבריהם | לצד זאת, מערכת 'קול הלשון' הסירה את כל שיעוריו של הרב ברלנד ותלמידיו משחר ההיסטוריה


Widower Asks Twitter to Delete Trump's Tweets Suggesting Joe Scarborough Murdered Late Wife

https://time.com/5842529/joe-scarborough-donald-trump-tweet/


In general, Twitter has taken a hands-off approach to political leaders, contending that publishing controversial tweets from politicians helps hold them accountable and encourages discussion. It modified those rules last year to say that world leaders “aren’t entirely” above the rules and some tweets violating its policy could be slapped with warning labels.
 

Widower asks Twitter to delete Trump's 'horrifying' lies about wife's death

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/may/26/lori-klausutis-husband-asks-twitter-delete-trump-joe-scarborough-smears-death
The husband of a woman whose 2001 death Donald Trump has repeatedly used for a political smear has demanded that Twitter take down tweets in which the president spreads the “horrifying” lie that the woman was murdered.
 
In a letter to Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey published on Tuesday by the New York Times, Timothy Klausutis made a heartfelt plea: “Please delete those tweets … My wife deserves better.”
Twitter said it would not delete the tweets.
Trump has spread the pernicious lie about the death of Lori Klausutis as a means of attacking a television host, Joe Scarborough of MSNBC. With his wife, Mika Brzezinski, Scarborough frequently criticizes Trump on the Morning Joe program. Trump has also attacked Brzezinski in brutally personal terms.
But in a statement on Tuesday morning, a spokesperson said the company would not remove the president’s tweets.
“We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family,” the spokesperson said.
“We’ve been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly.”

Twitter ‘deeply sorry’ as widower asks that Trump’s Scarborough tweets be deleted — but won’t remove them

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/twitter-deeply-sorry-as-widower-asks-that-trumps-scarborough-tweets-be-deleted-but-wont-remove-them-2020-05-26

 
Twitter says it’s “deeply sorry” about President Donald Trump’s tweets suggesting that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough murdered a former staffer — but is not removing the president’s messages.
The husband of the woman who died accidentally in a district office of then–Republican Rep. Scarborough two decades ago is demanding that Twitter remove Trump’s tweets.
“My request is simple: Please delete these tweets,” wrote Timothy Klausutis to Twitter TWTR, +4.73% CEO Jack Dorsey.

Trump tweets on Mika Brzezinski were ‘fantastic,’ says Anne Coulter


Kennedy reacts to Mika Brzezinski demanding to speak to Twitter CEO about Trump


Twitter refuses to delete Trump’s baseless claims about Joe Scarborough

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/26/twitters-world-leaders-policy-gets-a-new-test-with-trump-tweets.html


Twitter’s policy carve-out for world leaders is facing another test with President Donald Trump’s latest tweets resurrecting baseless claims that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough should be investigated for the death of his former staffer.
Earlier this month, Trump tweeted questions about when an investigation would be opened into the “Cold Case” of “Psycho Joe Scarborough.” The unfounded accusation refers to the death in 2001 of Lori Klausutis, who was working for Scarborough when he was a Republican congressman for Florida. At the time, the medical examiner concluded Klausutis, 28, had fainted due to an undiagnosed heart condition and hit her head on the way down, finding no evidence of foul play. Scarborough was in Washington, D.C., when Klausutis died in his district office in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Trump’s tweets revived a baseless theory that Scarborough was allegedly involved in Klausutis’ death. On Thursday, her widower, Timothy Klausutis, wrote to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey requesting the company delete Trump’s tweets referencing those claims.
 

Twitter Doesn’t Remove Donald Trump’s Conspiracy Tweets After Widower Of Joe Scarborough Aide Asked For Them To Be Deleted

https://deadline.com/2020/05/donald-trump-joe-scarborough-lori-klausutis-1202943081/


 Twitter is not immediately removing President Donald Trump’s tweets about the 2001 death of an aide to Joe Scarborough, even though her widower asked the platform’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, to remove them.
Timothy Klausutis, the husband of Lori Klausutis, wrote in a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey last week, “My request is simple: Please delete these tweets.”