Daily Archives: March 23, 2021

Extremist Groups Thrive on Facebook Despite Bans

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A new outside report found that Facebook has allowed groups — many tied to QAnon, boogaloo and militia movements — to glorify violence during the 2020 election and in the weeks leading up to the deadly riots on the U.S. Capitol in January. Avaaz, a nonprofit advocacy group that says it seeks to protect democracies from misinformation, identified 267 pages and groups on Facebook that it says spread violence-glorifying material in the heat of the 2020 election to a combined following of 32 million users. More than two-thirds of the …

Global TB Fight Set Back 12 Years by COVID Pandemic, Doctors Warn

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Ahead of World Tuberculosis (TB) Day on March 24, doctors are warning that progress in the global fight against the disease has been set back more than a decade by the coronavirus pandemic.In nine countries with a high prevalence of TB — including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Tajikistan and Ukraine — diagnosis and treatment fell by an average of 23%, according to Health workers screen people for tuberculosis and leprosy in Dharavi, one of Asia’s biggest slums, in Mumbai, India, Dec. 1, 2020.Tuberculosis killed 1.4 million …

Press Freedom Group Sues Facebook Over Misinformation, ‘Hate Speech’

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Press freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is suing Facebook in France, saying the social media platform spreads misinformation. The suit was filed Monday with the Paris public prosecutor.  “Reporters Without Borders accuses Facebook of ‘deceptive commercial practices’ on the grounds that the social media company’s promises to provide a ‘safe’ and ‘error-free’ online environment are contradicted by the large-scale proliferation of hate speech and false information on its networks,” the group said in a press release. Specifically, the group says Facebook allows “hate speech” against the media, as well as …

Troubled Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine Faces New Setback

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Just hours after AstraZeneca said late-stage trials of its COVID-19 vaccine prove it has “100% efficacy against severe or critical disease and hospitalization,” a key U.S. government oversight group expressed concern about the drugmaker’s information.  The Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), an advisory arm of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, issued a statement early Tuesday that the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant “may have included outdated information” from the late-stage clinical trial, “which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data.”AstraZeneca said Monday that its analysis …

More Australia Flood Evacuations Possible as Rains Remain Heavy

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Australian authorities said Tuesday that more evacuation orders may be issued as relentless rains pummeled the country’s east coast, with several regions in Sydney’s west facing the worst floods in half a century. The wild weather system pounding New South Wales (NSW) over the last three days was expected to gather more strength in the next 24 hours thanks to the combination of a tropical low over northern Western Australia and a coastal trough off the east. “Overnight, unfortunately, some weather conditions have worsened, and those weather conditions are likely to worsen during the day so …