Free Republic

The company's broad definition of "misleading information" and its deference to authority invited censorship by proxy.Twitter's ban on "COVID-19 misinformation," which Elon Musk rescinded after taking over the platform in late October, mirrored the Biden administration's broad definition of that category in two important respects: It disfavored perspectives that dissented from official advice, and it encompassed not just demonstrably false statements but also speech that was deemed "misleading" even when it was arguably or verifiably true. In a recent Free Press article, science writer David Zweig shows what that meant in practice, citing several striking examples of government-encouraged speech suppression...

Officials in Europe said this week that the Omicron coronavirus variant could overtake Delta in becoming the dominant strain of the virus in just a matter of days, and warned of a possible "tsunami" of new infections. "We expect it to overtake Delta within days, not weeks," First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon said Friday, according to the Washington Post. The U.K. Health Security Agency issued a similar warning, noting that Omicron has a "high growth rate," over Delta and that it will likely become the dominant version of the virus in Great Britain by mid-December. Meanwhile, in Denmark, researchers...

Results from a study conducted at Georgia State University suggest that a "fight" between bacteria normally living in the intestines and the immune system, kicked off by another type of bacteria, may be linked to two types of chronic disease. The study suggests that the "fight" continues after the instigator bacteria have been cleared by the body, according to Andrew Gewirtz, professor of biology at the GSU Center for Inflammation, Immunity and Infection. That fight can result in metabolic syndrome, an important factor in obesity, or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The results were published in the journal Cell Host &...

As debate about whether ObamaCare is a good idea continues, rejecting four major misconceptions about healthcare is crucial to any chance of our eventually emerging with a better system. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ObamaCare decision, we must refocus. The Court’s decision was never about whether ObamaCare was a good idea, only about whether it was constitutional. The Court found a convoluted way to uphold the law.That’s done, but the debate on whether ObamaCare’s provisions are good ideas will continue. To date, this debate has been unable to shake off a lot of mythology—things believed about healthcare and...

Shrimp, catfish and other seafood farmed in China will be banned immediately from entering the U.S. because they contain harmful chemicals, the Food and Drug Administration said today. The agency stressed that the contaminated fish are not being viewed as an immediate health risk and said consumers should feel comfortable eating fish currently being served in restaurants, grocery stores or their homes. However, a nationwide industry alert was issued over China's seafood because the FDA continues to find traces of carcinogenic chemicals in fish imported from China. During targeted sampling from October 2006 through May, the FDA repeatedly found that...

The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American). 2007;89:74-81. doi:10.2106/JBJS.E.01396  © 2007 The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc. This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Letters to the Editor: Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when Letters to the Editor are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Google Scholar Articles by Chong, A. K.S. Articles by Lim, B....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Federal drug regulators have ordered that strong warnings be put on the labels of stimulants like Ritalin to caution against their use in adults or children with heart problems and to alert doctors that the drugs cause one child in a thousand to experience hallucinations. The new warnings are not as strong as those approved in February by an advisory committee for the Food and Drug Administration, but they significantly strengthen the risk information already on the drugs. “We’re not trying to scare people out of using these drugs,” said Dr. Robert J. Temple, director of...

Reversing a strategy that had drawn criticism from doctors, Pfizer says that it will apply for approval to sell a promising new heart treatment as a standalone pill — rather than only in combination with Lipitor, Pfizer’s best-selling cholesterol treatment. The new drug, torcetrapib, is still being tested in clinical trials and is at least 18 months from federal approval. But cardiologists say it has the potential to become a significant new treatment for heart disease. Clinical trials show that torcetrapib substantially raises the levels of so-called good cholesterol, a novel approach to preventing heart attacks and strokes. Wall Street...

Pharmaceutical treasure trove may lurk at the bottom of the bottle.In a further boost to its image as a healthy elixir, red wine has been identified as a potential source of new anti-cancer agents. A group of French chemists has found that red wine contains a chemical compound called acutissimin A. The molecule has previously shown promise as an anti-cancer drug. "It would be quite inappropriate to infer that red wine possesses anti-tumour properties," warn Stéphane Quideau, of the European Institute of Chemistry and Biology in Pessac, and his colleagues. But, they point out, it could be worth mining red...

There seems to be a shocking reluctance in the media to investigate and report on the increasing evidence of a link between abortion and the incidence of breast cancer. The link was revealed as long ago as 1970 when the World Health Organization gathered data that "suggest increased risk associated with abortion." In 1981, a University of Southern California study found a 140 percent increased breast cancer risk among young women who had chosen to abort their first pregnancy. This was also reported in the British Journal of Cancer in the same year. In 1989, a New York Department of...

BOSTON - Worse than cholesterol? Hard to believe, perhaps, but the top health concern of millions of Americans is about to be trumped by what doctors say is an even bigger trigger of heart attacks. The condition is low-grade inflammation, which may originate in a variety of unlikely places throughout the body, including even excess fat. New federal recommendations are being written that will urge doctors to test millions of middle-aged Americans for it. The discovery of its surprising ill effects is causing a top-to-bottom rethinking of the origins and prevention of heart trouble. Doctors call it a revolutionary departure...